Roadside Picnic - Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky & Olena Bormashenko

Roadside Picnic

By Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky & Olena Bormashenko

  • Release Date: 2012-05-01
  • Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 165 Ratings

Description

Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of 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.

First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years. This authoritative new translation corrects many errors and omissions and has been supplemented with a foreword by Ursula K. Le Guin and a new afterword by Boris Strugatsky explaining the strange history of the novel's publication in Russia.

Reviews

  • Must read

    5
    By Lemon Legrange
    It’s an excellent story that I genuinely wish went on longer, but it doesn’t need that. The ending is perfect. The plot to get there felt genuine and lived. The characters are not thoughtless iterations of stereotypes, they’re developed efficiently. This isn’t something to make you question ideologies, I think it’s more to show perspective and genuine experience. It allows you to make your own moral/political judgements. 10/10
  • A Mesmerizing Trip Into the Zone

    5
    By QuitStalinAround
    Fantastically translated and enthralling to read, each page evokes a grim fantasy that is as much a critique on capitalism and the human condition, as it is about describing fantastical, and often subtly terrifying environments and concepts. The book roughly follows a singular character though he probably wouldn’t be called a protagonist, who has taken the occupation of a STALKER, that is, an explorer of the Zone, one of six areas across the globe where alien life touched down for the briefest time, and left just as quickly, leaving behind all sorts of artifacts and dangerous anomalies behind. It doesn’t really follow a standard plot arc, but it doesn’t really need to; the story itself is more or less a snapshot into this world, exciting and grim all at the same time.
  • Great read

    5
    By HourlyB
    If anyone is interested in science fiction,or are a fan of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R game series, I highly recommend this book. The world it creates is fascinating, and the story is original. Definitely a good purchase.
  • An Outstanding Book

    5
    By Pax Valor
    An excellent story that I would recommend to anyone who asked for something good to read.

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