This allows the Strugatsky’s extraordinary creative leeway in describing the effects of these objects without burdening them with the need to explain the science behind them. The central conceit, or perhaps one of several conceits, of the novel is the notion that humanity has absolutely no idea how any of the artifacts found in the Zone work. While Stalker definitely stays closer to the core of Roadside Picnic neither game nor film equals the scope of the Strugatsky’s novel. Particularly worth noting as that both the movie and video game choose to focus on different aspects of the novel, accentuating those things to create something almost entirely new. My experience with the novel is colored by my experiences with both the video game and film.
The novel is vaguely centered on a “stalker” named Red Schuhart who makes the bulk of his living by venturing into the dangerous “zone” littered with the leftovers of the alien’s visitation (hence the title). How would the ripples of this visitation effect society and how might we approach acquiring and studying these artifacts.
Roadside Picnic is a novel centered on a simple concept: what if aliens (or some other super advanced beings) visited our planet and left behind things. Both game and film offer wildly different interpretations of the Strugatsky’s world and are there own unique entities. My interest in this novel while fueled by a desire to read more “classic” science fiction is of course tied to my enjoyment of the video game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and the film adaptation Stalker (the book even uses one of the films many striking images for its cover). Oddly neither Amazon or Goodreads lists translator prominently on their site, a serious omission, but the most recent translation of Roadside Picnic by Olena Bormashenko, released by Chicago Review Press, is a serious improvement over the Gollancz edition and well worth a look by science fiction fans. I had previously tried to read the Gollancz SF Masterworks edition of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s classic novel Roadside Picnic but could never manage to get into it. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, trans by Olena Bormashenko
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