Roadside Picnic Paperback – International Edition, 11 October 2012

3.5/5 • I have mixed feelings about this novel. Perhaps because I’ve played the video games and seen the film my judgment is a little clouded. I hope not – I’ve done my best to judge the book purely on its own merit.The bizarre nature of the Zones is fascinating and I came to the book wanting to know more. In this regard the novel delivers to some extent, but its rambling, episodic narrative mostly goes nowhere, and we never really learn much about the visitors or what they left behind. No doubt this enigmatic approach is intentional, and I can live with that. The characters, although often less than convincing, are sometimes fascinating, sometimes banal. But again, we never really learn that much about them. As already mentioned the structure is fractured and lacks cohesion. It’s almost as if the Strugatsky brothers had a bunch of loosely-fitting ideas which they’ve woven together into a patchy tapestry: it never quite works and yet manages to be strangely mesmerizing. I enjoyed reading this book although I’m not entirely sure why, given its erratic, uneven nature. Maybe its appeal comes more from the mythology around it than from the material itself. Hell, I don’t know. Read it, see what you think.

Aliens have visited Earth! But only in the nature of the roadside picnic of the title - they stopped, briefly, ignored the local wildlife i.e. us, and departed leaving a lot of litter strewn about. Litter that is beyond our comprehension, sometimes useful, and often dangerous, even lethally so.There are 6 Zones, access to which is controlled by an international agency, both because the polluted sites are highly dangerous & because the alien leavings are potentially valuable. The book focuses on one site, Harmont. Le Guin, who wrote the foreword, and other reviewers seem to think this is set in the US. Beyond the resemblance in name between Harmont & Vermont, I can't see why, especially when the opening pages speak of the "doomed yet heroic defence by units of the Royal Armoured Corps" of Harmont. That alone would seem to place Harmont very definitely outside of the US!Not that where in the English-speaking world the setting is matters, for it's a fully enclosed little world - we never go anywhere else. The hero, such as he is, is Redrick Schuhart, sometimes an agency employee, sometimes a stalker - one who risks the dangers of the Zone to bring back what artefacts he can, cynical & hard-bitten. And of the rest of the plot, I shall say no more.This is a peculiar little novel; released in the 70's, it's only some 200 pages long, but excellent nonetheless. It's an odd, bleak world, sometimes oppressively so, sometimes darkly humorous. A good deal of what is happening is either only hinted at or, occasionally, not really explained at all, which makes it a trifle confusing at times. But it's an excellent read, just the same!

Finally bought the book that the classic Russian sci-fi film Stalker is based upon and have to say that it surpassed my expectations. Despite being written in Russia in the days of Communist rule, the story is actually based in the USA, but could really have been based anywhere. The basic premise of the story is that aliens visited the Earth at a few worldwide differing locations, not staying long, but the zones they stayed at for the short period of time are deemed unsafe to the public and out of bounds. Stalkers will take you there, for a price. If you enjoy thoughtful sci-fi you will not be disappointed.Ray Smillie

The premise and narrative its self were okay (the book almost lost me at the half way point, I believe chapter 3, the story went pretty flat and I was really struggling to stick to the book). However due to a poor translation there are more than 15+ sentences were you have to fill in the correct word or correct grammar. Some were just minor mistakes however others were seriously misleading and I had read the page more than once to make sense of the translation.Overall a 5/10, wasn't bad, wasn't great however I can appreciate at the time when the book was released it would of been fantastic as there wasn't much like it at the time now the market for Si-Fi is heavily saturated. I think by today's standards this book would be fairly nondescript compared to other Si-Fi counterparts.

Long-story-short: the plot of this novel is barely anything like the STALKER games. It's 100% more intriguing & (in my opinion) FRIGHTENING. The plot moves forward in such a way that you can't really imagine what's going to happen next... and that uncertainty itself is downright chilling and alien.Also the authors explain the reason why STALKERS are called STALKERS and it's definitely something I would have never imagined!!!I read this with no expectations and finished it within a day. I'm still thinking about it... a permanent in my collection...