Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky

15 reviews

mlewis's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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kellyofcali's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I started out quite liking this, but as it went on, I sort of fell out of interest - it became a bit too twisty and I had a harder time following the writing over time. The authors seems to purposely obfuscate exactly "what is going on," which I did't mind always - they left space for imagining things which I think are too mysterious to really write - but also sometimes led to sort of boring confusion. Still, an interesting stylistic read in the sci-fi genre, for sure.
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ashleymg99's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Before I read this book, I had watched Andrei Tarkovsky’s STALKER (which was intriguing, visually delightful, but too slow for me) and my boyfriend is a fan of the games.

This is the cosmic horror novel of the 20th century - Lovecraft stans can fight me. There’s something so sinister about our extreme lack of knowledge about the Zone, and the nightmarish effects it has on the environment and the people in it.

My favorite part of the novel was in the chapter from Noonan’s perspective. 
Valentine’s Theory of the Roadside Picnic, and the ensuing discussion about the measure of intelligent life was fascinating to me. As I said, there’s something so intriguing and yet disturbing at the idea that these aliens are so far beyond our comprehension, that we are essentially bugs and birds that are examining the mess left by beings we can never hope to understand.

Valentine sees humanity for all its flaws, and in a world where aliens have visited us, he sees the insignificance of us - we are not worth testing, or training or observing. We are simply primitive animals, “using sledgehammers to crack nuts” - picking up alien space junk that we can never hope to understand the true use of, and adapting it for a more primitive purposes.


This is a short read, and overall I was pretty engaged, but there were some slower parts (particularly the beginning of Noonan’s chapter) that struggled to capture my attention.

This is a must read for any sci-fi, cosmic horror, or dystopian fans. Also, watch Tarkovsky’s STALKER - it’s written by the same authors and tells a similar story in the same universe, but is by no means an adaptation. 
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saraaaa's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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gilnean's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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