I wanted to try a book by the Strugatskys, who I keep hearing good things about. Unfortunately, they were novelists. I bet this book was pretty good for a novel, but I'm mostly into non-fiction these days. I didn't finish this one. I don't need a novel to tell me that war is hell and mostly pointless. Maybe if I'd kept going, there would have been some startling new insight on this theme? Maybe? Maybe. Anyhow, I stopped.