Noon: 22nd Century  Noon: 22nd Century () is a 1961 science fiction book by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, expanded in 1962 and further in 1967, translated into English in 1978. It is sometimes considered an episodic novel, collection of linked short stories or a fix-up as some parts had been published previously as independent short stories. It relates several stories of the 22nd century, while providing the background "feel" for the style of life which gave birth to the Noon Universe. The title was chosen by the authors as a polemic of the postapocalyptic "" by Andre Norton. The "Noon Universe" has been given its name by the fans after this book. The book is a collection of short stories describing various aspects of human life on Earth in the 22nd century. The plots of the stories are not closely connected, but they feature a shared set of characters. The most commonly recurring characters are Evgeny Slavin and Sergei Kondratev, who, as a result of a lengthy journey through interstellar space at near the speed of light, are thrown over a century into the future and must re-integrate into the society of their great-grandchildren. The book includes the following stories:   "Noon: 22nd Century" has been published several times, with different contents.