BOOK REVIEW: Roadside Picnic By Strugatsky Brothers

 Roadside Picnic 

By Strugatsky Brothers 

Released Year:  1972

Page Count : 210 Pages

Medium Used: Kindle PW 

Genre : Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller, Adventure,2024-read. 

Rating : 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Mind blowing. I got this as a next book recommendation because I had read the book Solaris by Stanislaw Lem on MeetNewBooks.com; I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Gave me a lot of food for thought. I got immediately hooked. The prose and story telling is very cinematic. All the characters are likeable and feels like even the bad ones are just playing their parts. The inner dialogue, stream of consciousness of Red is funny, hilarious and witty as hell. I laughed my head off. I laughed till my belly ached. But as the story progressed, the voice turned more serious and gloomy. I think I have never read, how a man slowly descending into madness, would sound like as well as I did here.

Loved the script. Aliens visit earth, do whatever they must have, and left (speculation) leaving behind six “Zones” around the world. In a small town Harmont, the main character, Red, is working as a lab assistant for IIEC. His job description includes that he makes trips to one of these zones in Harmont and obtain the debris items left there for research. Overtime, the military industry complex IIEC has used these items for revolutionary applications. On one such trip with a colleague, Red encounters a life threatening situation and the colleague dies. Res quits his less paying job and starts husling for the black market. He gets paid much more than he would have working as a lab assistant. 

Going into the zone is a life challenging risk. Having read all the consequences, I dont think the aliens who visited were benefactors to Earth. There is no knowledge on why they came and why they have left but the zones are what everyone is highly interested in. They could have come, had their Roadside picnic and left at leisure leaving behind the debris from their celebration. 

Do read this for the fun and the novel script. 🙂