Roadside Picnic

Extraordinary SF noir. The novel that inspired Tartovsky’s classic 1979 film Stalker and the recent S.T.A.L.K.E.R videogame series from GSC Game World.

In a twist on the more usual First Contact trope, aliens have visited Earth then departed after a short stopover, deeming us irrelevant, too insignificant to bother with. In their wake they have left a mysterious wasteland known as the Zone. Perilous, largely toxic, off-limits to humans - among other anomalies, natural laws have been weirdly distorted and human DNA may be altered, with disturbing consequences. Here, it seems, the Visitors have dumped their trash – alien artefacts… show more.

What is it? A first contact story. Sort of. They were aliens? Yeah, Russians. What are they like? Don’t know. They’re gone now. Did you find anything good? Lots and lots. What’s that? The God hypothesis. It allows you to have an unparalleled understanding of absolutely everything while knowing absolutely nothing. Can you show me something else? No. You gotta go yourself. Can I really go into the Zone? If you’re old enough. And brave enough. Is it dangerous? People don’t come back. Is it legal? No, but you can sneak in.

This is a terrifically inventive novel first published in 1972, written by two Russian brothers, and translated into many languages since then. I love the premise: One day, alien visitors swing by Earth just long enough to dump a bunch of garbage in different locations around the globe. A kind of weirdo economy crops up in the wastelands they leave behind, where people prospect among the strange and sometimes lethal alien objects, searching for treasures, looking for tiny miracles, and hoping to make their dreams come true. The book is clever, high on satire, and a commentary equally as much… show more.

Imagine that an alien vehicle crash landed in your rural area, leaving behind a strange, mysterious, probably dangerous Zone that you accidentally entered? In this 1975 novel by two of Russia’s best SF writers, the Zone has taken over Red Schubart’s life. He leads unsanctioned tours through it, never knowing what to expect at any moment, but also earning his living that way- and by black market sales of “objects” with unpredictable qualities recovered from the Zone. Andrei Tarkovsky’s film, Stalker, conveys some but by no means all of the steadily growing utter weirdness, dread, and excitement of the… show more.