Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

“A picnic. Picture a forest, a country road, a meadow. Cars drive off the country road into the meadow, a group of young people get out carrying bottles, baskets of food, transistor radios, and cameras. They light fires, pitch tents, turn on the music. In the morning they leave. The animals, birds, and insects that watched in horror through the long night creep out from their hiding places. And what do they see? Old spark plugs and old filters strewn around... Rags, burnt-out bulbs, and a monkey wrench left behind... And of course, the usual mess—apple cores, candy wrappers, charred remains of the campfire, cans, bottles, somebody’s handkerchief, somebody’s penknife, torn newspapers, coins, faded flowers picked in another meadow.” 

I first learned about Roadside Picnic from my husband. When he described the book to me, I was definitely intrigued, not only for the interesting plot, but also because it was written by two brothers from Russia during the Soviet era. They had to fight through a lot of rounds of censorship to get it published at all during the 70s.. The version I read was their original, non-censored version, released in the 90s. It is considered a science fiction classic, although definitely one of the lesser known ones (at least the the United States). 

The novel is set in a post-alien visitation earth. Thirty years prior the the novel's opening, aliens visited six locations on the earth's surface. Their visit was not witnessed by any humans; they left after a few days and never returned. The debris they left behind, however, had wide ranging effects on the planet. The mysterious artifacts scattered across these visitation "zones" attracted scientists, tourists, and profiteers to the areas and everyone is looking to make a new discovery or some cash.

The Zones, however, are full of unexplainable horrors. Strange gravitational irregularities, deadly plant growth, and invisible traps litter the area. Venturing inside to search for alien objects is incredibly dangerous, which is why people are willing to pay high prices for anything found there. Accordingly, a thriving black market has sprung up around items from the Zones. The main protagonist of the story, Red Schuhart, is a stalker- one of those men who sneak into the Zones to procure items to sell. Most of the novel follows him as he explores the Zones, locates artifacts, and attempts to deal with the extraordinary phenomena he witnesses.

Roadside Picnic was a great novel, but it didn't really have a single driving storyline. It was more of an exploration of what the discovery of other intelligent life in the universe does to our world. The fact that aliens came, went, and took no notice of us was enough to offend people and birth hundreds of conspiracy theories. However, having to deal with the fallout of all their scattered trash is what causes the most damage to the world. Science can make no sense of the objects they find. They are able to modify some of them to be useful to humanity, but most of them remain a complete mystery. The dangerous plant life that springs up in the aliens' wake is deadly, and the other odd phenomena that occurs there means that the areas have to be cordoned off and constantly guarded. There is a constant battle going on between government authorities and the stalkers who attempt to steal from the Zones.

Anyone who spends a long time in the Zones changes as well. Stalkers who regularly enter the areas end up having children with strange birth defects. They also have to deal with horrifying injuries and incomprehensible sights. It is not only physically dangerous there, but mentally dangerous as well, and one of the main conflicts in the novel is Red's struggle to understand and make sense of the world he lives in now. The human mind just isn't equipped to witness what happens in the Zones.

I really enjoyed reading this novel, because it posed such interesting questions. I found myself imagining how we might really react if these visitations happened to us. The discovery of alien life and alien objects would certainly be a world-changing discovery, and I thought the whole idea of humanity being completely beneath the aliens' notice was clever and funny. The idea of picking through alien trash and being fundamentally changed by it while our alien visitors weren't giving the people of Earth a second thought was genius.

Roadside Picnic reminded me of a Philip K. Dick novel. The plot isn't exactly a complete story, certain details are left unexplained, you get a bit confused from time to time as you read. However, the topics it explores are intriguing and intelligent. It is well-paced and doesn't ever feel boring. This short novel was very unique and definitely worth the read for any science fiction fan.


Challenge Tally
Classics Club: 11/100 (on track to end 12/31/21)
TBR Challenge: (previously owned) 27/60

Total Books Read in 2017: 34