Roadside Picnic

By: Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Olena Bormashenko - translator

Narrated by: Robert Forster

Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a "full empty", something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he'll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems.

©1972 Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (P)2012 Random House

“Happiness, free, for everyone!”

Roadside Picnic (1972) by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky is a reverse image of Solaris (1961). Whereas in Stanislaw Lem’s classic novel humans go to an alien world, study the alien life form there for years but only learn more about themselves, in the Strugatskys’ book aliens have seemingly visited earth for, presumably, a brief stop enroute to somewhere else, leaving behind artifacts, which human beings have been researching (and illicitly stealing and selling) but only learning about themselves and human nature. In both Solaris and Roadside Picnic, then, despite the most rigorous human science the alien is unknowable. Both works expose the limits of human knowledge.

The Strugatsky novel begins with an interview with Dr. Valentine Pillman, the scientist whose name has been (undeservedly he says) given to the pattern in which the six alien “Visit Zones” were scattered across earth thirteen years ago. He works for an organization dedicated to preventing the alien artifacts from falling into the wrong hands.

The plot begins in the first-person voice of Red Schuhart, a hardboiled 23-year-old lab tech at the Harmont Branch of the International Institute of Extraterrestrial Cultures. Red moonlights as a “stalker,” illegally entering the Harmont zone at night to purloin and later sell alien artifacts. For over a year now, Red has seen his scientist “egghead” friend Kirill fruitlessly obsessing over “empties,” alien artifacts in the form of pairs of rings held in suspension, such that each disc stays just so far apart from the other, without any discernable force keeping them so. Carrying an empty is like carrying 20 pounds of water without a bucket--one of the vivid similes used by the Strugatskys to convey what dealing with the alien is like. Concerned for Kirill, Red guides him on a daylight journey into the zone to bring out a rare “full empty,” an empty with a blue syrup-like liquid between the rings.

The zone is full of traps like gravity wells, grinders, and hot spots. Time passes differently inside than outside. Thus, to get out of the zone alive, anyone who enters must follow “rules,” like avoiding straight routes, tossing nuts and bolts ahead to suss out traps, keeping quiet, walking around certain things, not feeling relief when starting the return trip, and being decontaminated after an excursion. There is no moral logic behind who survives the zone: “The zone didn't give a damn who the good guys or the bad guys are.”

The alien artifacts are sometimes beneficial, often dangerous, and their true purposes and the science behind them remain incomprehensible. The abandoned houses adjacent to the Harmont zone look normal and well-preserved, apart from the TV antennae being covered with what looks like hair. Are the zones a treasure trove of advanced technology that will, when sufficiently studied by our scientists, usher humanity into a utopian era of peace and plenty? Or are they an open sore, attracting the fly-like criminal and military dregs of humanity to “Satan’s baubles” and hastening our progress to self-destruction? What causes the children of stalkers to mutate after birth, decades-old corpses to reanimate, and emigrants from zone adjacent communities to cause a spike in fatal events wherever they relocate? What was the alien intention in visiting earth and then departing, leaving the artifacts? Are the aliens still here, observing what we do with the artifacts before deciding our fate? What must we do (or not do) to pass such a test? Or were the aliens just having a “roadside picnic” on earth and thoughtlessly left behind their garbage?

The Strugatskys don’t answer such questions (“People imagine all sorts of things, and what they imagine has nothing to do with reality”), but they do extrapolate from the presence of alien artifacts to show how human culture would be affected by them. The Harmont zone attracts young men who want to make their fortunes but become disillusioned and leave or become stalkers or Institute technicians. The authorities are setting up a military style perimeter around the zone, in theory to better control who takes what alien artifacts out. Some of the artifacts can be adapted for human use, like “eternal batteries.” Some are better left unexamined, like “hell slime.” Some become legendary, like a large golden ball that becomes a holy grail by supposedly granting any human wish.

One of the core themes of the book concerns the nature of intelligence, as foregrounded by a conversation between an amoral businessman and a cynical physicist. The scientist offers definitions that don’t reflect well on human beings, e.g., intelligence is the ability to alter one’s environment without destroying it. Another key theme of the book concerns the alien, and the book says it’s either impossible to understand the alien or a matter of faith (which makes you think you understand everything while knowing nothing).

In that context, as the story moves forward several years for each new chapter, it movingly depicts redeeming human qualities, like the love of Red and his wife Guta for their child, whom they call “Monkey” because she’s clever, cute, and covered with silken, golden fur. And like Red’s self-reliant insistence on doing things the right way: breaking stupid rules, staying loyal, and finally sitting in the middle of the unknowable, appalling zone and shouting to whatever (if any) alien (or divine) power might be listening, “I never sold my soul!” Personal victories in the context of human insignificance. In such small victories by overwhelmed people, the novel has a Philip K. Dick vibe. The zone becomes a metaphor for the world, a stalker’s trip to wrest swag from the zone a metaphor for our own run through life, which is also fraught with dangers and opaque to knowing.

After the novel comes a bleakly humorous Afterword from 2012, written by the surviving Strugatsky brother, Boris, who explains how he and Arkady came up with the idea for the novel (including what inspired the word “stalker”) and then details their 1970s struggle to publish it, which lasted for over eight years and hundreds of letters to and from editors, publishers, and communist party committee members, including lists of all the things the editors wanted changed, like slang, violence, and drinking. Boris says that the resistance to publishing the novel wasn’t due to it being ideologically off for Soviet readers (its main ideology is anti-capitalist), but rather due to it failing to elevate the nation, being too colorful in its language, and having too much brutal reality in it. Of course, those features help make it great sf.

Robert Forster reads the audiobook with throaty energy and a very American accent.

Good for STALKER lore, great narration by Forster

good piece to understanding the STALKER lore encountered in many of today's popular games. Narration by Robert Foster was excellent, I much prefer his narration over one performed by a professional voice actor.

Good narration, the bastards!

Red's world might've been covered in shit, but the story wasn't! The dialogue about intelligence was excellent, and the conversation about the effects of the visit beyond the superficially visible phenomenon was thought provoking.

A SF classuc

This belongs in any SF canon as one of the premiere examples of Soviet science fiction. The presentation is masterful and really adds to the experience.

a perfect performance

I've read this book numerous times and it's never come alive like it did on this performance. especially Red. A perfect audiobook.

An exceptional Russian story

unfortunately the performer makes the main character sound like a Mafioso from New York, which detracted from the excellent writing and story.

A must-read for SF fans!

Any additional comments?

Excellent concept for a novel. Superbly written. Mysterious. Suspenseful. What more can you ask for?

Positively Inventive and Original

this book was an interesting thing to listen to. especially considering I have listened to other similar books.

due to the nature of the main character it overall improves the plot points at witch he faces allowing me to get very and truly invested throughout the surprisingly short time I was listening to it.

the way the author builds the story is yet another interesting bit about it. he tends to have a strong buildup of imminent danger when outside of the cities. but yet again not even the cities seem safe the way he sets them up. leaving constant room for bad things to happen and allowing for this world to seem as if life will just cast you aside without the slightest glance.

overall the book was an interesting read with a very compelling plot and a character that feels deep, emotionally and physically invested in this world. in the end having no proper resolution but I think this just adds to the ruthless world it sets up.

Excellent listen

Fascinating and highly entertaining, too bad there isn't more to this work as I find the characters and world very interesting.

Amazing

This is a Russian sci-fi classic, like Solaris. The story revolves around the aftermath of an alien visit, but is not what you typically get from Hollywood. Very inventive and original.