Publication
Gollancz (2001), Edition: paperback / softback
Original publication date
1972
Collections
Subjects
Awards
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Nominee — Shortlist — 1978)
Description
"Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of the extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a "full empty," something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he'll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems."--
User reviews
LibraryThing member fredbacon
In the pantheon of Soviet era science fiction writers, the Strugatsky brothers are widely acknowledged to be at the top, and Roadside Picnic is one of their best works. The concept is simple. Aliens briefly visit the earth and leave again with no interest in meeting or interacting with the human
The site of the Visitation has become an internationally controlled research institute, but the locals enter the site illegally to collect the alien artifacts for a thriving black market. Everyone, every company, every nation wants access to the discarded technology and are willing to pay dearly for what the stalkers (those who risk their lives to enter The Zone and retrieve artifacts) can provide. Redrick Schuhart is such a stalker. A mere boy at the time of the Visitation, he has grown up to become one of the best stalkers working the area. He is skilled and cautious, able to infer the nearby presence of a region of enhanced gravity by its effects on the air currents. Suspicious of everything, his sharp eyes can detect the subtle dangers in a cob web.
In a western science fiction novel, we would be treated to a panoply of technological marvels and adventures explained in detail and carefully defined. The Strugatskys don't work that way. The mystery always remains. Terminology flashes by and the reader is left to work out the meaning for themselves. The technique can be disconcerting and frustrating, but it is effective at maintaining the sense of ever present danger. Everything can be deadly no matter how innocuous it may appear.
Another hallmark of the Strugatskys' work is the bureaucracy of the research institute. Red Schuhart struggles not just with the dangers of The Zone, but with the corrupt and petty bureaucrats and soldiers who administer the area. The novel is a thinly veiled commentary on the corruption of power in the Soviet Union and the struggle of a common man against that bureaucracy. The government and the institute supposedly exists to exploit The Zone for the betterment of all. Instead it creates a gritty, cruel world of criminals within the populace as well as the government where everyone is competing for the lucrative benefits to be had from The Zone. It's Red's desire to wipe away this dystopic society which results in his final act of the novel. His final wish is to create the better world that was promised, but never created, by the government.
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race. Earth was simply a brief stopover in a journey who's purpose and destination is unknowable. The landing site is now an abandoned section of a town in Canada uninhabitable due to the contamination and dangerous debris left behind by the aliens. Space still bears the scars of whatever means of transportation they used to reach Earth. Scattered throughout the area are regions of super strong gravitational fields and regions of fierce electromagnetic discharges. The site is polluted with dangerous (to humans) contaminants and littered with technological marvels that defy understanding but were discarded with no more concern than an empty oil can or a soda bottle.The site of the Visitation has become an internationally controlled research institute, but the locals enter the site illegally to collect the alien artifacts for a thriving black market. Everyone, every company, every nation wants access to the discarded technology and are willing to pay dearly for what the stalkers (those who risk their lives to enter The Zone and retrieve artifacts) can provide. Redrick Schuhart is such a stalker. A mere boy at the time of the Visitation, he has grown up to become one of the best stalkers working the area. He is skilled and cautious, able to infer the nearby presence of a region of enhanced gravity by its effects on the air currents. Suspicious of everything, his sharp eyes can detect the subtle dangers in a cob web.
In a western science fiction novel, we would be treated to a panoply of technological marvels and adventures explained in detail and carefully defined. The Strugatskys don't work that way. The mystery always remains. Terminology flashes by and the reader is left to work out the meaning for themselves. The technique can be disconcerting and frustrating, but it is effective at maintaining the sense of ever present danger. Everything can be deadly no matter how innocuous it may appear.
Another hallmark of the Strugatskys' work is the bureaucracy of the research institute. Red Schuhart struggles not just with the dangers of The Zone, but with the corrupt and petty bureaucrats and soldiers who administer the area. The novel is a thinly veiled commentary on the corruption of power in the Soviet Union and the struggle of a common man against that bureaucracy. The government and the institute supposedly exists to exploit The Zone for the betterment of all. Instead it creates a gritty, cruel world of criminals within the populace as well as the government where everyone is competing for the lucrative benefits to be had from The Zone. It's Red's desire to wipe away this dystopic society which results in his final act of the novel. His final wish is to create the better world that was promised, but never created, by the government.
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LibraryThing member gbill
A fantastic concept for a science fiction story, that advanced alien visitors stopped off on earth for a rest, leaving behind various bits of junk and technology while being completely oblivious of humankind, kind of how a family on a road trip might litter and enjoy themselves carelessly,
There are many aspects of the story that made me think of life in the Soviet Union (the story was written in the 1970s) - the suppression of information, beauracracy, spies/informants, an industrial wasteland (almost a premonition of Cherynobyl), indeterminate/random danger, and the black market... it all seems to come from the conditions the story was written under. You can read more into it, e.g. the idealism of technology benefiting man as maybe an echo of the dream of communism, which may be a stretch, or see what seems to be spelled out directly, which is the heart’s innermost desire for liberty and happiness. I interpreted the story as a veiled reference to navigating one’s life in the absurd, dangerous environment of communism, maybe fueled in this view by Tarkovsky’s Stalker which seems to amplify it, but in the afterword Boris Strugatsky, writing years later, said it really wasn’t criticism of the existing order, and his only headache was getting the work past censors over 8(!) years, as they objected to “immoral behavior”, physical violence, and vulgar expressions, not unlike the Catholic League of Decency’s power over film in the days of the Hays Code in America. It’s kind of hard to believe, particularly with the ending, which is so spine tingling and pure, but that’s what he said - and which others far brighter than me have reinforced. It’s not an anti-Soviet book, and the authors were not dissidents - that’s just a projection of mine.
Regardless, it’s absolutely brilliant, tightly told, and works on a literal level just fine. There is action, a gritty antihero (“Red”), and mind-bending effects of the technology, including mutation and the dead risen from their graves. The idea of dangerous technology in the hands of flawed humanity resonates, as does putting man’s intelligence and importance in perspective - perhaps completely unable to even communicate to aliens, ala the situation in Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris, and picking up bits of their technology with no more understanding of it than an ape might understand a computer.
There’s lots to love here, and it would be interesting to see another film adaptation that remained more true to the plot in the book.
Just this quote, on religion:
“The issue is that man, at least the average man, can easily overcome this need [for knowledge]. In my opinion, the need doesn’t exist at all. There’s a need to understand, but that doesn’t require knowledge. The God hypothesis, for example, allows you to have an unparalleled understanding of absolutely everything while knowing absolutely nothing...Give a man a highly simplified model of the world and interpret every event on the basis of this simple model. This approach requires no knowledge.”
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oblivious to animals and insects. The resulting items left in various zones on the planet have strange properties, sometimes highly valuable, sometimes lethal, and a black market quickly forms, fed by expert scavengers called stalkers who lead dangerous expeditions to retrieve them. It’s a great tale and very well told by the Strugatsky Brothers, my favorite I’ve read from them.There are many aspects of the story that made me think of life in the Soviet Union (the story was written in the 1970s) - the suppression of information, beauracracy, spies/informants, an industrial wasteland (almost a premonition of Cherynobyl), indeterminate/random danger, and the black market... it all seems to come from the conditions the story was written under. You can read more into it, e.g. the idealism of technology benefiting man as maybe an echo of the dream of communism, which may be a stretch, or see what seems to be spelled out directly, which is the heart’s innermost desire for liberty and happiness. I interpreted the story as a veiled reference to navigating one’s life in the absurd, dangerous environment of communism, maybe fueled in this view by Tarkovsky’s Stalker which seems to amplify it, but in the afterword Boris Strugatsky, writing years later, said it really wasn’t criticism of the existing order, and his only headache was getting the work past censors over 8(!) years, as they objected to “immoral behavior”, physical violence, and vulgar expressions, not unlike the Catholic League of Decency’s power over film in the days of the Hays Code in America. It’s kind of hard to believe, particularly with the ending, which is so spine tingling and pure, but that’s what he said - and which others far brighter than me have reinforced. It’s not an anti-Soviet book, and the authors were not dissidents - that’s just a projection of mine.
Regardless, it’s absolutely brilliant, tightly told, and works on a literal level just fine. There is action, a gritty antihero (“Red”), and mind-bending effects of the technology, including mutation and the dead risen from their graves. The idea of dangerous technology in the hands of flawed humanity resonates, as does putting man’s intelligence and importance in perspective - perhaps completely unable to even communicate to aliens, ala the situation in Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris, and picking up bits of their technology with no more understanding of it than an ape might understand a computer.
There’s lots to love here, and it would be interesting to see another film adaptation that remained more true to the plot in the book.
Just this quote, on religion:
“The issue is that man, at least the average man, can easily overcome this need [for knowledge]. In my opinion, the need doesn’t exist at all. There’s a need to understand, but that doesn’t require knowledge. The God hypothesis, for example, allows you to have an unparalleled understanding of absolutely everything while knowing absolutely nothing...Give a man a highly simplified model of the world and interpret every event on the basis of this simple model. This approach requires no knowledge.”
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LibraryThing member antao
(original review, 2000)
Just started re-reading this yesterday and am already gripped. It's truly unsettling in the most understated of ways. It reminds me a little of John Wyndham's work; it has a similar quality of matter-of-factness about it that somehow makes it all the more chilling.
Pure
SF is a genre, comic books are a medium. There are SF comic books, and there are comic books in just about any other genre under the sun. If you're referring specifically to the Superhero genre of comic books, well it's debatable as to whether that's Science Fiction or not, but it's certainly an allied genre within the whole Speculative Fiction umbrella. Star Wars is SF, specifically the subgenre called Space Opera which is a soft SF genre, light on science, heavy on futuristic action and adventure elements.
As for SF in general, I really feel I need to do more to venture outside my Anglo-American comfort zone. I've read a couple of works in translation which have been somewhat lackluster and that's put me off a bit. Having said that, I read Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers this week, and enjoyed it so much that I didn't put it down until I was finished. Also, I tend to buy books on impulse but have never found myself buying a translated book this way - there just doesn't seem to be that many, particularly for recent works. Consequently, although I could name a few old SF writers from around the world, I really have no idea who the Taiwanese equivalent of Adam Roberts is, for instance.
NB: If only someone could write a book where one would feel afraid to turn the page.
Just started re-reading this yesterday and am already gripped. It's truly unsettling in the most understated of ways. It reminds me a little of John Wyndham's work; it has a similar quality of matter-of-factness about it that somehow makes it all the more chilling.
Pure
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literary gold...strangely put me in mind of "Stoner". You read and there is no way you can stop. Unless you need to go pee or drink a cup of coffee. Or you're really tired and go to bed. Or you've arrived at work and, seriously, you can't stand in front of class reading a random book; especially not on your smartphone. Other than that it's unputdownable.SF is a genre, comic books are a medium. There are SF comic books, and there are comic books in just about any other genre under the sun. If you're referring specifically to the Superhero genre of comic books, well it's debatable as to whether that's Science Fiction or not, but it's certainly an allied genre within the whole Speculative Fiction umbrella. Star Wars is SF, specifically the subgenre called Space Opera which is a soft SF genre, light on science, heavy on futuristic action and adventure elements.
As for SF in general, I really feel I need to do more to venture outside my Anglo-American comfort zone. I've read a couple of works in translation which have been somewhat lackluster and that's put me off a bit. Having said that, I read Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers this week, and enjoyed it so much that I didn't put it down until I was finished. Also, I tend to buy books on impulse but have never found myself buying a translated book this way - there just doesn't seem to be that many, particularly for recent works. Consequently, although I could name a few old SF writers from around the world, I really have no idea who the Taiwanese equivalent of Adam Roberts is, for instance.
NB: If only someone could write a book where one would feel afraid to turn the page.
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LibraryThing member Me-chan
A sf novel from the USSR era. An inspiration for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R movie and game. On a banned books list. Very much an enjoyable read.
LibraryThing member Paul_Samael
As others have observed, the central idea is a strong one - that aliens have visited earth but have completely ignored us, the way we pay very little attention to most other species on Earth most of the time. Like careless humans after a roadside picnic, the aliens have left behind a whole load of
In that respect, I would compare it unfavourably with Lem's "His Master's Voice", which explores somewhat similar territory in that it's about a message from outer space which has sufficient structure that people think it must be from other intelligent life forms - but it proves to be so alien that no one can work out what it means. That,in a nutshell, is the central idea - but it's more of a jumping off point, allowing Lem to take us through various different theories about the meaning of the message (none of which are conclusive) and showing how it leads to various scientific discoveries as a kind of (unhappy) byproduct of the attempts to decipher it. That, for me, made it a much more interesting and satisfying read, even though you end up in a similar place - in the sense that (as in Roadside Picnic) humans' reaction to the alien artifact tells us more about humanity than it does about the aliens who may have created it.
Anyway, maybe I am just missing something - and I'm clearly going against the grain of the majority of reviews here with my 2 star rating - but this just didn't do it for me.
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dangerous junk, which no one is able to understand (just as human artifacts are meaningless to most other species on Earth). But it felt like a short story padded out to novel length - with insufficient development of that central idea or the characters. In that respect, I would compare it unfavourably with Lem's "His Master's Voice", which explores somewhat similar territory in that it's about a message from outer space which has sufficient structure that people think it must be from other intelligent life forms - but it proves to be so alien that no one can work out what it means. That,in a nutshell, is the central idea - but it's more of a jumping off point, allowing Lem to take us through various different theories about the meaning of the message (none of which are conclusive) and showing how it leads to various scientific discoveries as a kind of (unhappy) byproduct of the attempts to decipher it. That, for me, made it a much more interesting and satisfying read, even though you end up in a similar place - in the sense that (as in Roadside Picnic) humans' reaction to the alien artifact tells us more about humanity than it does about the aliens who may have created it.
Anyway, maybe I am just missing something - and I'm clearly going against the grain of the majority of reviews here with my 2 star rating - but this just didn't do it for me.
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LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
I had encountered enough references to Roadside Picnic for it to have been on my wishlist for years. It was clearly an influence on some of my favorite 21st-century sf, notably VanderMeer's Annihilation and Harrison's Nova Swing.
The version I read was the 2012 "new translation" which freed the
On the whole, I read the book's philosophy to be one of cosmic indifferentism verging on existentialism. The "stalker" protagonist Red isn't really an anti-hero, although he is a criminal without revolutionary aspirations. A "stalker" in this book is a freelance looter of artifacts resulting from a Visit by some inscrutable extraterrestrial power.
The book is short and reads quickly, with a prologue for some background and four longish chapters set over a twelve-year span in the town of Harmont, which has been partly absorbed by one of the Zones of alien effects and residues.
I haven't seen the Tartovsky film Stalker (1979) based on this book, but I am now curious to do so. To no small degree, the story strikes me as what you'd get if Eugene O'Neill wrote a science fiction novel.
The version I read was the 2012 "new translation" which freed the
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original Russian text from hostile Soviet publisher's edits. An afterword by Boris Strugatsky provides a partial account of the authors' struggle with publishing authorities. It wasn't Soviet political ideology they ran afoul of. LeGuin in her 2012 foreword (drawing on a 1977 review) calls the story "indifferent to ideology" (vi), and it is in fact rather hostile to liberal economics and bourgeois morality. Surprisingly, it was a blinkered escapist editorial aesthetic that interfered with the Strugatskys' work in the publishing environment of 1970s Soviet sf.On the whole, I read the book's philosophy to be one of cosmic indifferentism verging on existentialism. The "stalker" protagonist Red isn't really an anti-hero, although he is a criminal without revolutionary aspirations. A "stalker" in this book is a freelance looter of artifacts resulting from a Visit by some inscrutable extraterrestrial power.
The book is short and reads quickly, with a prologue for some background and four longish chapters set over a twelve-year span in the town of Harmont, which has been partly absorbed by one of the Zones of alien effects and residues.
I haven't seen the Tartovsky film Stalker (1979) based on this book, but I am now curious to do so. To no small degree, the story strikes me as what you'd get if Eugene O'Neill wrote a science fiction novel.
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LibraryThing member jculkin
Interesting and enticing for the whole missing-information approach - but just didn't deliver the punch I was expecting.
LibraryThing member apc251
It was 1981 or 82 when I read a review in the New York Times movie section about this Russian film that was made a couple of years before and was then showing in Manhattan (probably the Carnigie Cinema). It was made by Tarkovsky and the film critic almost panned the film, "Stalker". She described
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it as an overly long 'walking' movie whereby the characters do little else but walk from one place and one scene to the next.The reviewer did present some of the story-line and it sounded pretty interesting to me. I had already seen Solaris and Andrei Rubelev and found both films to be quite memorable.If STALKER was made by Tarkovsky how bad could it possibly be. I never got to see the film until years later but that review stuck inside my head. Then, a couple of years later I was in a bookstore and happened upon Roadside Picnic. After reading the description on the back cover and then about twenty or so pages in I realized this was the movie I had read about. I really love this book; such a subtle "first contact" tale that retains its mystery. I eventually saw the film as well and include it in my favorites of all time. Then again, if a really good filmmaker wanted to make a closer rendition of the book I'd be all for that as well. Show Less
LibraryThing member sockatume
This is a book which is known for its big central idea - how does human society respond to the arrival of technology far beyond its understanding? - but which is best appreciated for its central human drama. Redrick Schuhart searches for lost alien technology in the Zone, the ordinary town where it
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simply landed one day, while trying to provide for his young family and shake off his bad reputation. Aside from a brief aside that sketches in some of bigger philosophical social problems we never leave his perspective. It’s a story with strange alien technology, but it’s about trying to be a good person in the steady churn of capitalist life. Show Less
LibraryThing member mahsdad
Cold War Era Soviet Science Fiction about alien visitations to Earth. Color me intrigued. This book was written in the early 70's by the Strugastsky Brothers. It was initially published as serials in magazines and the first English translation was published in the US in 1977. The book was censored
Before the book starts, aliens have visited Earth and left 6 Zones around the world where they left detritus and artifacts and changed the landscape that makes it dangerous to humans. Red is one of a shady group of Stalkers who illegally go into the Zones to harvest and collect these artifacts, such as perpetual batteries and other technologies that now drive modern society. But the Zones also have traps and pitfalls that Red and other Stalkers have to confront. The scenes in the Zone were very exciting and trippy, but there was an expositional section in the middle that was a little slow for me.
Overall, a very weird and interesting story. Somewhat reminded me of Jeff Vandermer's Southern Reach Trilogy with the forbidden lands and the mystery that surrounds them. Its been out of print in the US for many years, but a new translation was recently published with a forward by Ursula K Leguin
8/10
S: 7/10/17 - 7/19/17 (10 Days)
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and then highly edited in Soviet Russia, and an author approved version wasn't published in Russia until after 1990.Before the book starts, aliens have visited Earth and left 6 Zones around the world where they left detritus and artifacts and changed the landscape that makes it dangerous to humans. Red is one of a shady group of Stalkers who illegally go into the Zones to harvest and collect these artifacts, such as perpetual batteries and other technologies that now drive modern society. But the Zones also have traps and pitfalls that Red and other Stalkers have to confront. The scenes in the Zone were very exciting and trippy, but there was an expositional section in the middle that was a little slow for me.
Overall, a very weird and interesting story. Somewhat reminded me of Jeff Vandermer's Southern Reach Trilogy with the forbidden lands and the mystery that surrounds them. Its been out of print in the US for many years, but a new translation was recently published with a forward by Ursula K Leguin
8/10
S: 7/10/17 - 7/19/17 (10 Days)
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LibraryThing member Bridgey
I really liked the idea of this book, and when you think it was written in the 60's under communist rule in Russia, it makes it all the more special. The plot is fairly simple, an alien race has visited Earth at several locations, they made no contact and didn't stay very long. However, the places
I struggled with parts of this book, occasionally I found the plot a little confusing and it also seemed to jump from 1st person to 3rd for no apparent reason. I wanted the zones to be more fleshed out and the ending left me a little cold (never been a fan of open ended), I guess I needed more of the alien world to be built around me to really get into the story. Having said that it was still a page turner and often went for almost a noir type of feel by keeping speech fairly short and snappy, I enjoyed the book but it didn't make me want to go out and read either more scifi or more by the author. So I think a rounded 3 out of 5.
Coincidentally, the Author included notes at the end which detail how the communist censoring of books worked at that time and was quite interesting. It was also made into a film called Stalker which I may look up.
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they did stay are littered with devices and reminders of their time here have becoming dangerous places known as 'Zones'. Scientists are still trying to figure out the meaning of the visit and any potential benefit from the discarded technology. As with all situations there will be those that try to exploit the situation for personal gain, and Red is no exception, known as a 'Stalker' he sneaks in the Zone to bring back trinkets to sell on the black market. However, this isn't as easy as it sounds and many of his profession never make it back out alive or unharmed. Roadside Picnic follows ten years in the life of Red and details how the Zone impacts on not just his life, but those around him as well.I struggled with parts of this book, occasionally I found the plot a little confusing and it also seemed to jump from 1st person to 3rd for no apparent reason. I wanted the zones to be more fleshed out and the ending left me a little cold (never been a fan of open ended), I guess I needed more of the alien world to be built around me to really get into the story. Having said that it was still a page turner and often went for almost a noir type of feel by keeping speech fairly short and snappy, I enjoyed the book but it didn't make me want to go out and read either more scifi or more by the author. So I think a rounded 3 out of 5.
Coincidentally, the Author included notes at the end which detail how the communist censoring of books worked at that time and was quite interesting. It was also made into a film called Stalker which I may look up.
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LibraryThing member bragan
This 1970s Russian SF novel is considered something of a classic of the field, and I can definitely see why. It's based on a fantastic idea, one that really gets under your skin: Thirteen years ago, aliens briefly visited Earth. Everywhere they landed, bizarre, destructive, inexplicable things
The story itself, which focuses mainly on one of these scavengers (or "stalkers") isn't very substantially plotty or anything, but it pulled me along nicely, anyway. The setting is a little odd, because it's not quite anywhere in particular, under not quite any political system in particular (an artifact, perhaps, of the restrictions the authors were under while writing in Soviet Russia). But while I found that a little distracting, it mostly works OK in the end. The one really sour note is the book's treatment of women, which is abysmal, even for the 70s: every woman in the story is either a sex object, or is ordered about like a servant, or both, and none of them have the faintest shred of a personality. Still, as annoyed as I was by that, I'm still very glad to have finally filled this gap in my reading of the genre.
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happened. Then they took off again, giving no indication of why they'd come in the first place, but leaving the places they touched forever changed into something weird and dangerous, scattered with unfathomable alien technologies and equally unfathomable hazards. People go into these zones to scavenge for these technologies, but often they don't come out again. Or they come out changed. And creepy, impossible things continue to happen around them. What does all this mean? Nobody knows for sure, but one character speculates that perhaps the visitors' stop on Earth was no more than a roadside picnic, and these altered landscapes and abandoned miracles are nothing more than their discarded garbage and forgotten tools, and the careless tracks of their passing. Like I said, it's a fantastic concept.The story itself, which focuses mainly on one of these scavengers (or "stalkers") isn't very substantially plotty or anything, but it pulled me along nicely, anyway. The setting is a little odd, because it's not quite anywhere in particular, under not quite any political system in particular (an artifact, perhaps, of the restrictions the authors were under while writing in Soviet Russia). But while I found that a little distracting, it mostly works OK in the end. The one really sour note is the book's treatment of women, which is abysmal, even for the 70s: every woman in the story is either a sex object, or is ordered about like a servant, or both, and none of them have the faintest shred of a personality. Still, as annoyed as I was by that, I'm still very glad to have finally filled this gap in my reading of the genre.
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LibraryThing member fojxl1
Very good, thought it might have lost something in the translation. It hasn't.
LibraryThing member Lavinient
Aliens have come and gone. They landed, ignored us humans, and soon left. But where they landed, these Zones, they left artifacts behind, dangerous artifacts. Dangerous, because humans really have no idea what they actually do. But the humans, always curious, need these artifacts, to study and use.
I thought the majority of this book would take place within the Zone - Red making his way, avoiding danger, and picking up left over alien artifacts. But the majority of this book takes place outside of the Zone between Red's ventures into the Zone. We get to see how the Zone affects Red, his family, and those in town around him. It's amazing and depressing to see how much this zone affects the environment and people around it - mentally and physically.
We mostly see this world by way of Red, though we get another character's point of view half way through for a bit before going back to Red. Red's a hard man, which is understandable. Stalkers have to have a certain mind set. Red has what seems like a magical ability to know exactly how to navigate within the Zone. He has this fabulous Zone intuition - step there, crawl here, don't, for the love of god, touch that. It's how he survives.
The ending is abrupt and may be unsatisfying for some. I have mixed feelings. There's a build up that really pulled me in, so for it to suddenly end, it was a bit unsettling. But the more I think about it, the more it seems like the perfect place for the story to end. What Red is about to do, it fits that we would not get to see that.
ARC provided through NetGalley.
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In the beginning of this book, Red is trying to work honestly, with the government, collecting these items. He has his past as a stalker, a person who illegally enters the Zone in search of artifacts to sell on the black market. He's trying honest work. But after a tragic run into the Zone and a family to feed, Red returns to his old ways. I thought the majority of this book would take place within the Zone - Red making his way, avoiding danger, and picking up left over alien artifacts. But the majority of this book takes place outside of the Zone between Red's ventures into the Zone. We get to see how the Zone affects Red, his family, and those in town around him. It's amazing and depressing to see how much this zone affects the environment and people around it - mentally and physically.
We mostly see this world by way of Red, though we get another character's point of view half way through for a bit before going back to Red. Red's a hard man, which is understandable. Stalkers have to have a certain mind set. Red has what seems like a magical ability to know exactly how to navigate within the Zone. He has this fabulous Zone intuition - step there, crawl here, don't, for the love of god, touch that. It's how he survives.
The ending is abrupt and may be unsatisfying for some. I have mixed feelings. There's a build up that really pulled me in, so for it to suddenly end, it was a bit unsettling. But the more I think about it, the more it seems like the perfect place for the story to end. What Red is about to do, it fits that we would not get to see that.
ARC provided through NetGalley.
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LibraryThing member JanaRose1
Sometime in the future, aliens have left scattered artifacts around. The Zones, or alien areas, are full of strange phenomena and mysterious objects. Stalkers illegally venture into the zone area and collect, and sell, these mysterious artifacts.
This is a republication of a science fiction novel
This is a republication of a science fiction novel
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published in 1972. I am not a huge sci-fi fan, but I found this book hard to put down. It has an interesting plot line, moves swiftly and the characters are fascinating. Overall, I highly recommend this classic. Show Less
LibraryThing member aethercowboy
Russian literature is an interesting thing for an American like me to read. There are some things that are universal no matter where you live, but at the same time, there are certain things you take for granted which are fundamentally different in other countries, including Russia. It’s not to
It is with great curiosity that I started reading Roadside Picnic, a classic Russian sci-fi book I had never even heard of until it was sitting in my inbox. Within this brand new English translation, the Brothers Strugatsky have concocted an unusual not-too-distant future. Aliens visited Earth some time ago, and the places where they had their eponymous diversions exhibit all manner of unusual properties, most of which are completely fatal to the humans who are brave, or stupid, enough to venture in to collect some highly demanded alien artifacts.
This world is my world, but fundamentally different than any world I’ve ever know. And while the prose is sparse, providing more action than description, this kinetic painting makes a particularly vivid visual image.
After having read this book, I still am not sure what had fully happened, and what’s going to happen next, but what did happen within the book was a story worth reading.
To risk generalization, Russian literature, especially the kind from the same era as this book, has struck me as bleak, almost without hope, but not quite fully. Stoic and straight-faced, but with the tiniest hint of a smirk when nobody’s looking. It’s prose like this that both render the story completely familiar and simultaneously completely alien to a reader like me, a mixture that is ideal for any science fiction story.
I recommend this book for all fans of Soviet science fiction, as well as fans of post-apocalyptic sci-fi.
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say that we as Americans are greater or more privileged or anything, but rather that people from different countries can see things is a completely different way than in America (or between any two countries or cultures, for that matter). This is why I find it particularly interesting to read Russian literature. I get a view of a world that is the same, but totally different than my own.It is with great curiosity that I started reading Roadside Picnic, a classic Russian sci-fi book I had never even heard of until it was sitting in my inbox. Within this brand new English translation, the Brothers Strugatsky have concocted an unusual not-too-distant future. Aliens visited Earth some time ago, and the places where they had their eponymous diversions exhibit all manner of unusual properties, most of which are completely fatal to the humans who are brave, or stupid, enough to venture in to collect some highly demanded alien artifacts.
This world is my world, but fundamentally different than any world I’ve ever know. And while the prose is sparse, providing more action than description, this kinetic painting makes a particularly vivid visual image.
After having read this book, I still am not sure what had fully happened, and what’s going to happen next, but what did happen within the book was a story worth reading.
To risk generalization, Russian literature, especially the kind from the same era as this book, has struck me as bleak, almost without hope, but not quite fully. Stoic and straight-faced, but with the tiniest hint of a smirk when nobody’s looking. It’s prose like this that both render the story completely familiar and simultaneously completely alien to a reader like me, a mixture that is ideal for any science fiction story.
I recommend this book for all fans of Soviet science fiction, as well as fans of post-apocalyptic sci-fi.
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LibraryThing member patrickgarson
A classic with a new translation, forward and afterword, easily accessible after many years. Roadside Picnic may have difficulty living up to its reputation, however the book remains compelling, and it's not a demanding read.
Aliens stopped over on Earth and left just as suddenly. They left "zones"
Roadside Picnic is not a big book, and - though a lot are retrofitted onto it - it's not a novel of big ideas and themes. Compared to other authors writing at the same time, it's more minor Philip K. Dick than Ursula K. LeGuin, but this is not to say it's a bad book.
Much like Dick's work, un-knowing forms a large part of the book. Not only the alien tech, but what the other humans are feeling, thinking, why they act the way they do. Red's quest is a quest for meaning, really, and the book traces his - and humanity's - progress over more than a decade.
Knowing its fraught publication history in the Soviet Union, it's tempting - and easy - to see cold war metaphors, totalitarian metaphors, capitalism/communism metaphors, and more on every page. And perhaps they were put there subliminally - though the remaining living Strugatsky denies it in the afterword. This gave me a somewhat weird feeling reading it - it's a rich text, but I was aware that I was projecting a lot onto it, and just try to appreciate it for what it is.
The translation certainly felt unobtrusive to me - I cannot comment on its accuracy, but the prose was utilitarian and seemed surprisingly similar to other, Western scifi from the age to me.
This review may sound a bit deflated. I suppose it is, in that the book has the reputation of a titan, and simply: it is not a titan. But what it actually is, is a fine enough book with a great setting that's rendered creatively, moves along quickly, and is not overlong. That was enough for me in the end.
Aliens stopped over on Earth and left just as suddenly. They left "zones"
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behind, filled with odd technology humans are trying to puzzle out. Red is a "stalker", someone who illegally sneaks into the zone and smuggles tech out - if they don't die in the process. Roadside Picnic is not a big book, and - though a lot are retrofitted onto it - it's not a novel of big ideas and themes. Compared to other authors writing at the same time, it's more minor Philip K. Dick than Ursula K. LeGuin, but this is not to say it's a bad book.
Much like Dick's work, un-knowing forms a large part of the book. Not only the alien tech, but what the other humans are feeling, thinking, why they act the way they do. Red's quest is a quest for meaning, really, and the book traces his - and humanity's - progress over more than a decade.
Knowing its fraught publication history in the Soviet Union, it's tempting - and easy - to see cold war metaphors, totalitarian metaphors, capitalism/communism metaphors, and more on every page. And perhaps they were put there subliminally - though the remaining living Strugatsky denies it in the afterword. This gave me a somewhat weird feeling reading it - it's a rich text, but I was aware that I was projecting a lot onto it, and just try to appreciate it for what it is.
The translation certainly felt unobtrusive to me - I cannot comment on its accuracy, but the prose was utilitarian and seemed surprisingly similar to other, Western scifi from the age to me.
This review may sound a bit deflated. I suppose it is, in that the book has the reputation of a titan, and simply: it is not a titan. But what it actually is, is a fine enough book with a great setting that's rendered creatively, moves along quickly, and is not overlong. That was enough for me in the end.
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LibraryThing member psutto
Brilliant
I’ve been aware of this book for a long time, it spawned both a celebrated film (Stalker) and computer game (Stalker) and is a classic of soviet era SF. The world has a number of sites that are part of “The Visit” where aliens have been to Earth and have left behind mysterious
Overall – Highly recommended for lovers of SF and the weird
I’ve been aware of this book for a long time, it spawned both a celebrated film (Stalker) and computer game (Stalker) and is a classic of soviet era SF. The world has a number of sites that are part of “The Visit” where aliens have been to Earth and have left behind mysterious
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artefacts in “The Zone”. The book opens with a scientific explanation of the distribution of these Znes and then follows Red who is a “Stalker”, a treasure hunter who goes into the Zone to retrieve artefacts. This is a first contact story but one that is utterly strange and wonderful. There are lots of theories, expounded by various characters in the novel, but no hard telling of “this is what’s happening” and the mystery and utter alien-ness of the Visit is what is brilliantly portrayed here as well as following some of the characters over more than 10 years as the Zone is explored. The ending (which I won’t spoil) is also very memorable and stunning. This edition has an introduction by Ursula Le Guin (don’t read this before reading the book!! – why can’t people write introductions with the assumption that you’ve not read the book and don’t want spoilers, luckily once it started talking about the plot I skipped and came back after I read the book) and a brilliant afterword by Boris Strugatsky about the difficulties they had getting it published and Soviet censorship.Overall – Highly recommended for lovers of SF and the weird
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LibraryThing member Traveller1
Top Story
A New Translation of The One Russian Science Fiction Novel You Absolutely Must Read
By Annalee Newitz
If you're going to read just one Soviet-era Russian science fiction novel, it should be Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's dark, ambiguous Roadside Picnic. Originally written in the early 1970s,
Red is a "stalker," a man who is one of the most successful players in the black market for alien technologies. He trades in the inexplicable objects left behind by mysterious visitors in now-contaminated Zones all over the Earth, where even the laws of physics have been warped by whatever the aliens were doing. The life of a stalker is almost always deadly, because the Zones are full of toxic gunk, gravitational anomalies, and other dangers. Plus, exposure to the Zones causes the stalkers' children to be born as inhuman mutants, and corpses buried in the Zones come back to life and shuffle aimlessly around their old homes. Still, Red thinks the whole deal is worth it — the artifacts fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars, mostly because they've allowed scientists to invent everything from infinite, self-replicating batteries to a perpetual motion machine.
Nobody has any idea why the aliens came, nor why they left. At one point, a Nobel prize winning physicist who works on the Zone technologies admits that the items may have been left behind as garbage. The aliens might have been the equivalent of humans on a picnic leaving behind foil wrap, batteries, motor oil, and other bizarre bits of junk that confuse the local animals.
The brilliance of this novel is that it doesn't matter whether you believe the Zones are garbage we animals are picking over, or a message the aliens want us to decode. The point is that you are forced to guess at the aliens' intentions, and deal with the discomfort of not ever getting a pat answer. It's the same discomfort that is wrecking Red's life, and warping everyone around him as they try to create value and meaning from what might, after all, be nothing but (literal) alien shit. Things only get worse when some of the stalkers decide to hunt down the "sphere," an artifact that supposedly grants wishes.
Fast-paced and exciting, Roadside Picnic is also a compelling character study of Red and his family as the stalker's life changes them. It's a novel of disturbing ideas about both extraterrestrial life and our own pathetically puny place in the universe. Gritty and realistic but also fantastical, this is a novel you won't easily put down — or forget.
It's also one of the Strugatskys' most popular books outside Russia, partly because it inspired Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker (as well as a series of videogames). But its publishing history, according to Boris, nearly drove the brothers insane. Apparently, it took eight years to get the book past the censors, and not for the reasons you'd think. Russian authorities had no problem with the ideology of the book, which can be interpreted as anti-capitalist and depicts Western life as a horror show. Instead, they were angered by the idea that kids might be harmed by reading a book that was so dark, full of violence, drinking, crime, and cursing. They gave the brothers a list of hundreds of scenes and phrases that had to be changed before the book would be published — including turning the zombies to cyborgs (less disturbing) and making the novel's ending decidedly unambiguous in a really cheesy way.
In the afterword, Boris Strugatsky explains that there are worse things than ideological censors — there are the literary gatekeepers who want every work of fiction to be banal and reassuring, never forcing the reader to go outside his or her comfort zone. But Roadside Picnic, now restored to the authors' original version, is all about going into the Zones that are far beyond the reaches of your safe little life. To venture into the Zone is to confront who we really are, and what our place is in the universe. And the answers will disturb the hell out of you. Which is as it should be.
You can pick up a copy of the new translation of Roadside Picnic via IPG, from Chicago Review Press.
A New Translation of The One Russian Science Fiction Novel You Absolutely Must Read
By Annalee Newitz
If you're going to read just one Soviet-era Russian science fiction novel, it should be Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's dark, ambiguous Roadside Picnic. Originally written in the early 1970s,
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it's back in print in English after 30 years, with a brand-new translation by Olena Bormashenko and a riveting afterword by Boris Strugatsky about how the book was butchered by Soviet censors. It's a seriously intense tale of a man who risks his life and freedom to smuggle artifacts out of mysterious "Zones" where aliens landed.Red is a "stalker," a man who is one of the most successful players in the black market for alien technologies. He trades in the inexplicable objects left behind by mysterious visitors in now-contaminated Zones all over the Earth, where even the laws of physics have been warped by whatever the aliens were doing. The life of a stalker is almost always deadly, because the Zones are full of toxic gunk, gravitational anomalies, and other dangers. Plus, exposure to the Zones causes the stalkers' children to be born as inhuman mutants, and corpses buried in the Zones come back to life and shuffle aimlessly around their old homes. Still, Red thinks the whole deal is worth it — the artifacts fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars, mostly because they've allowed scientists to invent everything from infinite, self-replicating batteries to a perpetual motion machine.
Nobody has any idea why the aliens came, nor why they left. At one point, a Nobel prize winning physicist who works on the Zone technologies admits that the items may have been left behind as garbage. The aliens might have been the equivalent of humans on a picnic leaving behind foil wrap, batteries, motor oil, and other bizarre bits of junk that confuse the local animals.
The brilliance of this novel is that it doesn't matter whether you believe the Zones are garbage we animals are picking over, or a message the aliens want us to decode. The point is that you are forced to guess at the aliens' intentions, and deal with the discomfort of not ever getting a pat answer. It's the same discomfort that is wrecking Red's life, and warping everyone around him as they try to create value and meaning from what might, after all, be nothing but (literal) alien shit. Things only get worse when some of the stalkers decide to hunt down the "sphere," an artifact that supposedly grants wishes.
Fast-paced and exciting, Roadside Picnic is also a compelling character study of Red and his family as the stalker's life changes them. It's a novel of disturbing ideas about both extraterrestrial life and our own pathetically puny place in the universe. Gritty and realistic but also fantastical, this is a novel you won't easily put down — or forget.
It's also one of the Strugatskys' most popular books outside Russia, partly because it inspired Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker (as well as a series of videogames). But its publishing history, according to Boris, nearly drove the brothers insane. Apparently, it took eight years to get the book past the censors, and not for the reasons you'd think. Russian authorities had no problem with the ideology of the book, which can be interpreted as anti-capitalist and depicts Western life as a horror show. Instead, they were angered by the idea that kids might be harmed by reading a book that was so dark, full of violence, drinking, crime, and cursing. They gave the brothers a list of hundreds of scenes and phrases that had to be changed before the book would be published — including turning the zombies to cyborgs (less disturbing) and making the novel's ending decidedly unambiguous in a really cheesy way.
In the afterword, Boris Strugatsky explains that there are worse things than ideological censors — there are the literary gatekeepers who want every work of fiction to be banal and reassuring, never forcing the reader to go outside his or her comfort zone. But Roadside Picnic, now restored to the authors' original version, is all about going into the Zones that are far beyond the reaches of your safe little life. To venture into the Zone is to confront who we really are, and what our place is in the universe. And the answers will disturb the hell out of you. Which is as it should be.
You can pick up a copy of the new translation of Roadside Picnic via IPG, from Chicago Review Press.
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LibraryThing member dalai-lt
For me, this book is not about who the visitors where, what they wanted and what they left behind. It is about human nature as seen by the response of people to this unique event and its consequences. It is about a small city where everyone is trying to get at everyone. Stealing, lying,
I read Stanislav Lem's review about the book and I frankly believe his criticisms were unfair. I don't see a problem with the possibility that the visitors were benevolent and the whole thing was an accident. The point is that we, just like the people in the book, don't know, can't know and in the end it doesn't matter. The possibility that they didn't even notice us is enough. I also don't see the turn to fairy tale towards the end of the book.The Golden Globe had become a legend for the people in the book, but there is no reason to think that there is something special about it. In fact, the person that first found it doesn't seem to have any of his wishes fulfilled and when Red finally sees it he notices that it looks quite ordinary, another piece of visitor junk.
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double-crossing, killing for money and for survival. Even the most honest or innocent end up entangled in this mess.I read Stanislav Lem's review about the book and I frankly believe his criticisms were unfair. I don't see a problem with the possibility that the visitors were benevolent and the whole thing was an accident. The point is that we, just like the people in the book, don't know, can't know and in the end it doesn't matter. The possibility that they didn't even notice us is enough. I also don't see the turn to fairy tale towards the end of the book.
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LibraryThing member wwwwolf
Aliens came to visit. Aliens have gone. And what's left on Earth is basically a couple of piles of trash from these picnics. Wait, that isn't quite as rosy as it sounds - they're disaster zones, and the "trash" is dangerous as hell. Some think that meticulously retrieving and probing the mysterious
"Roadside Picnic" is a bit disjointed book - a series of episodes in and out of the visitation zone. Compared to the film "Stalker" that was loosely based on the novel, the story focuses a little bit more on the milieu and lifes and situations and feelings of individual characters, and doesn't really have as much direction. On the other hand, "Stalker" is a slow and meditative film, while "Roadside Picnic" is positively action-packed at times. The protagonist, Red Schuhart, also isn't one upholding all that solemn and contemplative narrative, and goes for a bit more of relaxation.
Reading this book was part of my "oh damn, now that I have a tablet, I'll read all the ebooks I've wanted to read" challenge. Most of those books were from Project Gutenberg, but while Roadside Picnic isn't public domain, the book and its first English translation has been available on the web for a long time through official Strugatsky websites. Years ago, I even tried feeding the novel through text-to-speech. Never quite completed it, but now I did. Of course, I had to deal with the fact that the reader app didn't really like the *fascinating* HTML conversion, so reading experience wasn't optimal. It went okay, though.
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artefacts and items would yield interesting scientific results. Some think that the zones should be left alone. Some think there's a black market out there for all the weird stuff. So in come the stalkers - people skilled in traversing the dangers of the visitation zones, some using their skills with permissions and proper gear, some taking the harder way and just going there on their own."Roadside Picnic" is a bit disjointed book - a series of episodes in and out of the visitation zone. Compared to the film "Stalker" that was loosely based on the novel, the story focuses a little bit more on the milieu and lifes and situations and feelings of individual characters, and doesn't really have as much direction. On the other hand, "Stalker" is a slow and meditative film, while "Roadside Picnic" is positively action-packed at times. The protagonist, Red Schuhart, also isn't one upholding all that solemn and contemplative narrative, and goes for a bit more of relaxation.
Reading this book was part of my "oh damn, now that I have a tablet, I'll read all the ebooks I've wanted to read" challenge. Most of those books were from Project Gutenberg, but while Roadside Picnic isn't public domain, the book and its first English translation has been available on the web for a long time through official Strugatsky websites. Years ago, I even tried feeding the novel through text-to-speech. Never quite completed it, but now I did. Of course, I had to deal with the fact that the reader app didn't really like the *fascinating* HTML conversion, so reading experience wasn't optimal. It went okay, though.
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LibraryThing member pussreboots
It's good an a fascinating first contact story but I prefer the visuals of Stalker, the film inspired by the novel.
LibraryThing member behemothing
More of a 4.5, but I gave it The Bump. Such a great premise.
LibraryThing member ocgreg34
13 years ago, something happened near the city of Harmont. Known as The Visit, no one is quite sure exactly what happened, but something changed in a five-kilometer are. People died. Large gravitational traps appeared pulling anything to the ground, from a tiny bird to a large helicopter. Shadows
Redrick Schuhart is a Stalker, one of those daring individuals who venture into the area known as the Zone, and one of the best at his craft. The prospect of bringing in a full "empty" -- two of those saucer discs but with a blue substance between them -- spurs Red into making another trek into the Zone -- that, along with a hefty sum of money. But his comrade Kirill innocently brings something back from this trip, something that convinces Red that these trips are too dangerous. But the Zone won't let him go that easily, not when the effects of living so close to and venturing into the Zone too often take their toll on his daughter.
Convinced by his old comrade the Vulture that an ultimate object exists in the Zone -- a Golden Sphere that will grant your innermost wish -- Red makes one last voyage into the damaged area to hopefully find a way to protect his daughter.
A remarkable trip into science fiction, "Roadside Picnic" creates a fantastical landscape, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. Simple, forgotten objects take on new life, new meaning, and it's amazing watching Red and his traveling companions carefully pick their way through the Zone. The world inside the Zone doesn't look changed, but nothing is as it once was. Red uses remembrances of past trips, unintentional landmarks left by former stalkers, and even something as simple as tossing a nut or bolt on the path ahead to determine the correct path. Red and others constantly try to understand what created the Zone -- was it simply a change in nature, portending what the future may hold? Or was it an alien visitation? Did they stop by Earth for a few moments and leave their garbage, what Red and others now treasure as the mysterious objects, behind? And throughout, Red tries to hold on to some kind of hope, that something exists in the Zone that will answer all his questions and bring about the miraculous change that his life needs. It's a great book that should be a part of any science fiction library.
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became alive and dangerous. The air exploded like flame in an instant. And ordinary object suddenly transmuted into valuable items: spacells that provide electricity indefinitely; pins that sing if one pinched long enough; two saucer-sized discs of copper with nothing between them yet inseparable and weighing almost fourteen pounds (an "empty"). Good money was to be found in retrieving such objects and bringing them back for scientific study (or even private collections).Redrick Schuhart is a Stalker, one of those daring individuals who venture into the area known as the Zone, and one of the best at his craft. The prospect of bringing in a full "empty" -- two of those saucer discs but with a blue substance between them -- spurs Red into making another trek into the Zone -- that, along with a hefty sum of money. But his comrade Kirill innocently brings something back from this trip, something that convinces Red that these trips are too dangerous. But the Zone won't let him go that easily, not when the effects of living so close to and venturing into the Zone too often take their toll on his daughter.
Convinced by his old comrade the Vulture that an ultimate object exists in the Zone -- a Golden Sphere that will grant your innermost wish -- Red makes one last voyage into the damaged area to hopefully find a way to protect his daughter.
A remarkable trip into science fiction, "Roadside Picnic" creates a fantastical landscape, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. Simple, forgotten objects take on new life, new meaning, and it's amazing watching Red and his traveling companions carefully pick their way through the Zone. The world inside the Zone doesn't look changed, but nothing is as it once was. Red uses remembrances of past trips, unintentional landmarks left by former stalkers, and even something as simple as tossing a nut or bolt on the path ahead to determine the correct path. Red and others constantly try to understand what created the Zone -- was it simply a change in nature, portending what the future may hold? Or was it an alien visitation? Did they stop by Earth for a few moments and leave their garbage, what Red and others now treasure as the mysterious objects, behind? And throughout, Red tries to hold on to some kind of hope, that something exists in the Zone that will answer all his questions and bring about the miraculous change that his life needs. It's a great book that should be a part of any science fiction library.
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LibraryThing member IAmAndyPieters
Beautiful, yet unfulfilling, I am left with a hunger for more
Media reviews
Language
Original language
Russian
ISBN
0575093137 / 9780575093133
UPC
787721968696
Physical description
5.2 inches