This novel is part of the Science Fiction Book Club`s 2017 season. Where we will explore our greatest hope, and fear. Contact.
This Contact novel is one of the strangest and most celebrated you`ll ever read. ROADSIDE PICNIC. Even after reading it you`ll be asking, did we really make contact?
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.
First published in 1972, Roadside Picnicis still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years. This authoritative new translation by Olena Bormashenko (https://www.ma.utexas.edu/users/olenab/) corrects many errors and omissions and has been supplemented with a foreword by Ursula K. Le Guin and a new afterword by Boris Strugatsky explaining the strange history of the novels publication in Russia.
“Lively, racy, and likable . . . complex in event, imaginative in detail, ethically and intellectually sophisticated.”–Ursula K. Le Guin
“Amazing. . . . The Strugatskys` deft and supple handling of loyalty and greed, of friendship and love, of despair and frustration and loneliness [produces] a truly superb tale. . . . You won`t forget it.”–Theodore Sturgeon
Go read Roadside Picnic. It s a phenomenal book.–SF Signal
“The story is carried out with a controlled fierceness that doesn`t waver for a minute.”– Kirkus Reviews
“[a] vivid new translation… it has survived triumphantly as a classic.”–Publishers Weekly
“[T]his is a fantastic book. One of my favorite recommendations of the year.”–Boing Boing
“[A] vivid new translation… it has survived triumphantly as a classic.” Publishers Weekly “[Roadside Picnic] reminds us how well science fiction explores humanity” Sacramento News & Review “A new translation of Roadside Picnic is a major event. The novel is routinely included in lists of the 100 greatest science fiction novels, and its influence of popular culture is immense….Besides [Ursula] Le Guin`s foreword, the Chicago Review Press edition contains a witty afterword by Boris Strugatsky.”– The Oregonian
“Brilliantly and beautifully written . . . a truly superb work of science fiction.”– Infinity Plus
“No doubt: a powerful, classic work of science fiction. Certainly recommended.”–The Complete Review
“If you`re going to read just one Soviet-era Russian science fiction novel, it should be Arkady and Boris Strugatsky`s dark, ambiguous Roadside Picnic.”–io9
“The Strugatskys` worldview remains both uniquely cutting and replete with humanity . . . The characters` conflicted views of their troubled world make for a read that still feels fresh today. It`s also a book that`s bound to make you feel a little less sure of humanity`s place in the universe.”–Discover
