Roadside Picnic - Stalker's grandpa

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Skitarii

Skitarii

Hacker on Steroids
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
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Apr 19, 2022
Anyone else read this Strugatsky work? It's not a masterpiece, by any sense, but, nonetheless, it is still very insightful and thought-provoking. It had a noticable influence on the culture of several post-Soviet states, and a tremendous influence on modern sci fi (warhammer, neuromancer, the synapse, etc)
 
Yes. As a kind of precursor to the Stalker / Metro/ Chornobyl horror / mytharcs, it is very much a worthwhile text to read. I read it alongside Lem's Solaris, which is more thoughtful but less grimy. Soviet science fiction is a strange bubble but like reading sci fo through a glass, darkly.
 
Begemot said:
Soviet science fiction is a strange bubble but like reading sci fo through a glass, darkly.
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Because a lot of it was dissident literature, and the culture really reflects in the style of writing. Soviet sci fi authors were subverting the accepted writing conventions of the day as much as they were subverting the dominant Soviet way of thinking. It's like reading punk literature but far less gay
 
I listen to audio books while biking for an hour a day and when I started doing this like 5 years back Roadside Picnic was the very first audio book I chose. I really love the theme of items that are so beyond our comprehension that there is no chance in understanding them, which is why I am glad the scope of the book never goes into that territory. The implicit danger of the lack of understanding is also the kind of low-key horror I love... just briefly touching a near invisible web killing you a few hours later, stuff like that. I really need to get around to playing the STALKER games someday...

I liked the book so much my next 3 books where the Metro series, another sci-fi Russian-authored set which also included "stalker" as a title, almost certainly in reference. Those books are also really good.

Begemot said:
I read it alongside Lem's Solaris, which is more thoughtful but less grimy.
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I'm always look for new books, and this is going to be the next one I go with based on being grouped with others I liked. Thanks!
 
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Good read, but I'm someone who views the book more as a tale about the town and the effects of the Visitation than about Schuhart.
 
It's probably one of the most original takes on first contact that I've ever read. It's really well written too, just the right amount of exposition.

I love Lem, and especially Solaris but he has a tendency to go on these long tangents of dry exposition.
 
TurdFondler said:
It's probably one of the most original takes on first contact that I've ever read. It's really well written too, just the right amount of exposition.

I love Lem, and especially Solaris but he has a tendency to go on these long tangents of dry exposition.
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Yeah, Lem is very different. I guess I just was recommended that book by kindle because the average pickings of soviet fiction can be slim for Anglophones.
 
Fair enough. If you haven't read the Futurological Congress I'd recommend that next. It's definitely more political than Solaris and personally it feels like an absurdist critique of the soviet system more than a sci fi novel.
 
I'd recommend watching a movie called "Kin-Dza-Dza!" It's more a dystopian comedy than first contact type film, but in terms of weird Soviet-era art, it's definitely interesting.
 
If you enjoyed Roadside Picnic, I can recommend their other novels, Beetle in the Anthill and The Time Wanderers (I think that's how they're translated in English, anyway; the second title is an impardonable spoiler if so). The setting is more futuristic, but they have the same theme of humanity trying, and largely failing, to come to grips with something it really has no chance of understanding. But really, most of their work is excellent and well worth the read.

Also on the same theme from Soviet sci-fi there's Vladimir Savchenko's Position in the Galaxy, which is a bit more lighthearted and has a more optimistic conclusion to the major questions.
 
I really liked it and it's short and to the point. It's also an interesting change from the usual discussion on aliens.

One of the parts that don't come up alot is the mutant children. It's simply heart wrenching when you see the protagonist's daughter and discover that later she becomes more feral rather than more human. The zone takes everything from a man, even his future. The ending is interesting in that the final wish wasn't something selfish like the protagonist wanted, but a wish of happiness for everyone, it's pretty uplifting despite the cynicism in the book and its characters.
 
I bought it a few years back without knowing what it was. Very enjoyable if you like the Stalkerverse.
 
Professor G. Raff said:
I listen to audio books while biking for an hour a day and when I started doing this like 5 years back Roadside Picnic was the very first audio book I chose. I really love the theme of items that are so beyond our comprehension that there is no chance in understanding them, which is why I am glad the scope of the book never goes into that territory. The implicit danger of the lack of understanding is also the kind of low-key horror I love... just briefly touching a near invisible web killing you a few hours later, stuff like that. I really need to get around to playing the STALKER games someday...

I liked the book so much my next 3 books where the Metro series, another sci-fi Russian-authored set which also included "stalker" as a title, almost certainly in reference. Those books are also really good.


I'm always look for new books, and this is going to be the next one I go with based on being grouped with others I liked. Thanks!
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A bit late, but in discussions about Metro and in all of its adaptations, no one ever brings up the whole supernatural angle or the Cult of the Worm. I distinctly remember liking the book at first, then over time growing annoyed and hating it because of the supernatural stuff. I almost put down the book for good when it went on a huge diatribe about wizards, demons, and Rasputin cursing the stars of St Basils Cathedral. Then, IIRC, the next chapter basically goes “lol nope” and does a complete 180 calling all of the mysticism bullshit, and systematically explains each and every weird event.

It’s been years since I’ve read it, and while the main twist is great, I feel too many people missed that part of the story. It’s not a masterpiece by any means, but it’s a fun novel. That twist also paints Khans entire character in a new light, where him just ditching the MC in a (I think) nazi metro for another kid means he’s really just an opportunistic leech and not a wizened warrior.
 
I fell in love with it after listening to the audiobook read by Robert Foster. He made the whole damn thing a great listen and I almost finished it in one sitting. I love how natural A New Translation was written. It proudly sits in my bookshelf now.

I should check out the older versions sometime later (if only my To-Read list wasn't as long as it is already).
 
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