[1] The novel, which depicts the Society of Entertainment, belongs to the early period of Strugatsky's activities while they were faithful followers of communist ideology.

However, for the Predatory Things of the Century, most of this book's predictions are just plain "direct hits" since most of them came to reality within 40-50 years, especially in rich Western countries and also to some degree in Russia.

The book predicted life-threatening extreme entertainment under the name of "fisherists" (Russian: rybar, an intentionally incorrect version of rybak, which means "fisherman").

The Final Circle of Paradise takes place a little less than ten years after Space Apprentice, in a large seaside resort city somewhere in Europe with an abandoned subway.

A few years earlier, Zhilin fought as part of an international brigade to put down a fascist uprising in the same city in which the story is set, which is reminiscent of the 1930s Spanish Civil War except that the communists won unlike in Spain.

Zhilin refers to it as "the age of abundance" in which the highest priority is placed on orgiastic pleasure and staving off boredom to the neglect of culture, education, and scientific progress.

Zhilin progressively finds clues that lead him to Peck Xenai, his former classmate and the last surviving member of his international unit that fought the fascists some years before.

At the end of Space Apprentice, Zhilin began to devote his life to making the Solar System a better place for young people struggling to find purpose in the world.

At the end of this story, he leaves his work with the World Council to fight "the last war – the most bloodless and most difficult for its soldiers" making life worth living for the millions caught unprepared in an age of affluence so that they will never need anything like "sleg".