Roadside Picnic

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

Narrated by: Robert Forster

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

really an amazing book and a fantastic reader

this is got to be one of my favorite science fiction novels I've ever picked up. I bought it on a sale at Audible and have been incredibly impressed with what I interesting gripping story and characters the authors have put together.

Amazingly vivid performance to enjoy again & again

My problem with sci-fi classics like Solaris and Roadside Picnic is that they're too damn implicit for me. I struggle with interpreting things like character motivation, mood or subtle hints explaining plot development. This was very much the case the first time I read Roadside Picnic – my fascination with the Stalker videogames or the Chernobyl Zone didn't help one bit, the book is obviously a completely different beast.

The audiobook narrated by Robert Forster changed that totally. This was, hands down, the best audiobook experience I've ever heard. Robert's deep, gravelly voice helps a ton on its own but his mesmerizing performance takes it all to another level. The whole book comes alive with vivid colors. Or at least vivid shades of gray and black. Guaranteed repeat listen.

Sadly this amazing story Ended on a cliff hanger

More more more. That’s all I ask. And to think that I was not even a thought in my parents eyes when this came out

Horrors by the side of the road

This work does what what the most memorable pieces of science fiction always do, places worldly people into otherworldly scenarios to engage with odd ideas in the new world and to isolate the problems in our normal world. Schuhart resembles most any type of downtrodden person attempting to make their way in the world. His engagement with the abnormalities of the Zone admirable on the physical level and shockingly relatable on the mental and psychological level. Escaping and tricking the Zone is just a part of life as a Stalker. Coping and assessing what it means is how they end up able to go back again.
Continue through the afterword by Boris Strugatsky. His record of the process of publishing Roadside Picnic is well with the time.

Fascinating

Bleak, stark, disgusting, vulgar, and utterly quintessentially human. This Russian novel will grab your imagination and run it through the ringer.

Great twist on "Aliens Have Arrived"!

Took me a couple of chapters to get into the characters, but once there, I was hooked. A rather odd little story, in it's own way, but even two years after reading it, I have flashes of scenes from this book. Rather humbling concept that Earth may not be the center of the universe, nor the pinnacle of importance we think it is. Will definitely look for more from these two. The afterword is pretty good too, an insight into pre-glastnost Russia and the science-fiction literary world there. Very entertaining.

Great narration

great narration, but the narrative was hard to follow. Many small details you shouldn't miss

It's OK but not great

I enjoyed the story but it was a story I have heard before and every sci fi fan has. The narration was good but it annoyed me that it was so American. It would have been nice to have a Russian narrator to give it more authenticity.

Fantastic

Absolutely, fantastic, amazing, excellent, one of the best stories I've had the pleasure of reading!!!

Not as thrilling as the video games.

After beating the first & third Stalker games, figured I'd listen to the story that inspired them. Never read or heard a book that flowed like this. Suppose that's how Russian is translated. The end was good. Suspenseful & open ended. Like any thriller/horror sci-fi should be. Not as thrilling as the games though. But I still haven't figured out how to play video games & operate a semi truck at the same time. I'll get back to ya when I figure that out.

Also, didn't care much for the narrators accent. Don't like American city accents. They sound like speech impediments. Too much lead in the water or something.