Roadside Picnic

Tale of the Troika

by , , ,

245 pages

English language

Published Jan. 1, 1977 by Macmillan.

ISBN:
978-0-02-615170-2
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OCLC Number:
2910972
Goodreads:
3885738

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(3 reviews)

Roadside Picnic is set in the aftermath of an extraterrestrial event called the Visitation that took place in several locations around the Earth, simultaneously, over a two-day period. Neither the Visitors themselves nor their means of arrival or departure were ever seen by the local populations who lived inside the relatively small areas, each a few square kilometers, of the six Visitation Zones. The zones exhibit strange and dangerous phenomena not understood by humans, and contain artifacts with inexplicable properties. The title of the novel derives from an analogy proposed by the character Dr. Valentine Pilman, who compares the Visitation to a picnic.

2 editions

reviewed Roadside Picnic by Борис Стругацкий

Fun concept, translation is tricky

The idea behind the title is fantastic. The creativity is amazing, but the story itself seemed a little clunky, maybe due to the translation/cultural differences. It's a very 70's Russian science fiction story. Recommended if you like that era.

reviewed Roadside Picnic by Борис Стругацкий

Taking the crumbs from the table

Aliens visit earth and leave again, as if they were just stopping for a picnic along the way to somewhere more interesting. The people living near the visited sites (Zones) find all sorts of mysterious and often dangerous things left behind that shatter our concepts of physics and the possibilities of life. Scientists are no better off than anyone else tring to understand them. And that's the crux of it - when humans are so insignificant, so far away from understanding reality, there is really very little separating us. I've typed and deleted a few more things but felt like it cheapened the book's themes because ultimately I think they are affective rather than ideological. So I'll just keep them to myself.

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Subjects

  • Science fiction