Roadside Picnic
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4.5 • 155 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Since its 1972 appearance in Russia, the Strugatsky brothers' novel has been published worldwide, inspired Andrei Tarkovsky's memorable film Stalker, and been the basis for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video games. As this vivid new translation demonstrates, it also remains a powerful study of human behavior in the presence of superhuman power. The action takes place in and near a Visit Zone, one of six areas suddenly scattered with incomprehensible artifacts and disturbing phenomena; one baffled scientist ruefully suggests that aliens visited Earth like careless tourists and dumped their trash here. While cautious people keep their distance, furtive explorers called "stalkers" enter the Zones to retrieve objects that are wonderful but unpredictably deadly. Over-lapping narratives show stalker Red Schuhart's struggle to master the Zone's inexplicable treasures and terrors. Boris Strugatsky's afterword describes how uneasy the manuscript made myopic Soviet bureaucrats; it has survived triumphantly as a classic because it expresses humanity's inarticulate rage and wonder at life's frustrations and promises.
Customer Reviews
Must read
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
Roadside Picnic
Second rate bordering on third rate sci-fi and literature. Soviet/Russian authors never fail to disappoint.
A Mesmerizing Trip Into the Zone
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.