7.8 /10 1 Votes
Publication date 1927 | 3.9/5 Goodreads Originally published 1927 Genres Novel, Science Fiction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Original title Гиперболоид инженера Гарина Translator Bernard Guilbert Guerney (1st edition)George Hanna (revised ed.) Published in English 1936 (1st edition) and 1955 (revised edition) Similar Works by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Science Fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The garin death ray 19 06 2016
The Garin Death Ray also known as The Death Box and The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (Russian: Гиперболоид инженера Гарина) is a science fiction novel by the noted Russian author Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy written in 1926–1927. Vladimir Nabokov considered it Tolstoy's finest fictional work.
The "hyperboloid" in its title is not a geometrical surface but a "death ray"-laser-like device (thought up by the author many decades before lasers were invented) that the protagonist, engineer Garin, used to fight his enemies and try to become a world dictator. "Hyperboloids" of different power capability differ in their effect. The device uses two hyperbolic mirrors to concentrate light rays in a parallel beam. Larger "hyperboloids" can destroy military ships on the horizon, and those of less power can only injure people and cut electric cables on walls of rooms.
Charles H. Townes, the inventor of laser, said that his invention had been inspired by this novel.
The film adaptations of the novel were released in the Soviet Union in 1965 (The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin) and 1973 (Failure of Engineer Garin).
Estonian band Vennaskond has a song "Insener Garini hüperboloid" (1993) (the hyperboloid of engineer Garin in Estonian).
Russian band Пикник (Piknik) has a song "Гиперболоид" (Hyperboloid) (2008)