One of the most ambitious and wildly inventive novels to have come out of Russia in years, this short novel embraces the Brehznev years, the USSR's disintegration, and capitalist shock therapy in the post-Soviet bloc The eponymous hero, part of a brood of bored science students, helps concoct a strategy game set in different eras where each "ruler" of his territory competes in Orwellian permanent war.