As with a lot of readers of this book I’m sure, I came to be aware of Roadside Picnic after watching Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film, Stalker. I knew the book formed a very loose basis for the film, so the expectations going in were fair in that I’m not really interested in comparing how the two works differ.

In short, Roadside Picnic is excellent. An absolute breeze to read while reaping the benefits of the genre to craft compelling and thought-provoking ideas as it pertains to our place within the grand scheme of the universe, our cosmic insignificance. The book’s title comes from an exchange between two characters, in which one of them refers to the alien visitation (the book’s catalytic event) as a “Roadside Picnic”— the detritus they left on earth from their landings purely mark the event as nothing more than a break/stop on some longer “trip”. In other words, nothing of significance to them. Their aims weren’t ever to make contact with us.

Reading the translation by Olena Bormashenko, the Strugatskys have a wonderful sense of dialogue and pacing, which, in my experience with the genre, is something rarer than I’d like. Beyond its exploration of sci-fi concepts, there’s a well-placed sense of humor and satire to be found within its pages regarding government and the scientific community, and it contains characters with clear motivation and personalities, all to the backdrop of a wonderfully-done disorienting atmosphere.