A review by manuphoto
Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Certainly the most original take I’ve read on a first contact story. Instead of the classic meeting with aliens, with possible conflict, State and scientists running along with some outsider playing the wild card, we have a down to earth story. Pun intended.

If Alien is “truckers in space” this is “gangsters in the Zone”, with the Zone in question being an alien contaminated space. We follow Red and his acolytes in their tribulations around a town that was visited by aliens for some reason… at some point.

Everything is deliberately unclear, not perfectly defined. It’s clearly by design, as the characters themselves often have no clue as to what is going on. It’s quite compelling to read and really funny at times.

It’s also dated in some ways. Everybody smokes and drinks, a lot, and there are brawls here and there. And the women are… well the female characters are usually defined by the size of their breasts and are only in the story to serve food or drinks, literally. Don’t expect anything else there. It does fit in the storyline, as the male characters are often brutes, but it can be rough. That being said, it doesn’t feel like the authors are presenting this lifestyle as good, mostly the opposite in fact. It’s violent, risky, criminal and sexist. 

But that violence is part of this world, and it does make for a compelling tale. It’s not perfect, some passages are actually redundant, but it is a pleasant read and an entertaining one. It’s also quite short, so definitely worth the time investment