Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

 

Reviewed by Ben

The latest book I finished was Roadside Picnic, written by Soviet authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky in 1972. The book is set in a remote town in Canada. Alien visitors have touched down and left at several locations on Earth, leaving behind them hazardous zones filled with unexplained anomalies, deadly traps, and advanced technology. Sealed off from the rest of the world by government authorities, people flocked to the towns surrounding the forbidden zones in order to traffic in technology and artifacts smuggled out of the zones by thieves--known as "stalkers." Roadside Picnic follows one of the best stalkers of them all: Red Schuhart. I enjoyed this book for its relative lack of exposition and eerie tension.

Exposition is something that really bothers me in movies and books. While Roadside Picnic had a few expository scenes, the book largely neglected to explain a lot of details and concepts. While this sounds aggravating, this lack of explanation actually lent a sense of mystery to the setting. It truly made me feel like I was observing an alien time and place. Seasoned stalker Red talks about "hell slime," "empties" and "traps" with a familiarity the reader cannot grasp. Other characters plug "spacells" into their cars and benefit from seemingly infinite fuel. Whether this was a writing strategy of the original authors or the result of gaps in translation from the original language, the effect is a trip into the unknown for the reader.

In addition, the book gave off an eerie tension throughout that kept me reading. This feeling was enhanced by Red's apprehensive moves through the forbidden zone, slowed by unseen threats that the reader does not fully understand or expect. Other anomalies add a feeling of mystery that enhances the experience, like the transparent entities that roam the zone, the dead rising from their graves and returning to their former homes, and the inherent suspicion and distrust between characters operating in an illicit trade.

Roadside Picnic is a compelling and intriguing adventure into a world both strange and familiar. The concepts in the novel work so well that various media have drawn from it. The book's influence can be seen in movies, video games and other books. First, the book inspired the classic 1979 film Stalker, which bases its plot on that of Roadside Picnic--the Strugatsky brothers were credited with writing the screenplay. Second, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. PC game series borrows foundational concepts from the book, namely the concept of stalkers, forbidden zones, and dangerous anomalies. Finally, Jeff VanDerMeer's novel Annihilation—also a movie of the same title--draws on concepts that appear similar to some found in Roadside Picnic, such as mysterious forbidden zones filled with unexplained anomalies. These are only some examples of the classic Russian book's influence. This is not a complete list!