Welcome to Litsy!

SciFi • 1972 • 4 Stars

Roadside Picnic is set on Earth after alien "Visitations" leave mysterious Zones with bizarre artifacts. People called Stalkers, like Redrick Schuhart, illegally enter Zones to collect these artifacts, which have extraordinary and often hazardous properties. The narrative focuses on Redrick's life, from financial gain to personal loss and existential questioning, as he deals with the Zone's effects on society and himself.

#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

1. None, aside from making sure I carve out some time to read every day.

2. Roadside Picnic (tagged)

3. Fat City (Leonard Gardner)

Tag @RaeLovesToRead @IuliaC @eeclayton @Ruthiella @Yuki_Onna

If this book wasn't Jeff VanderMeer's chief inspiration for writing Annihilation, I would be amazed. Aliens pay Earth a brief visit, then bugger off, leaving behind six "Zones" full of strange artifacts and some terrifying phenomena that flout our scientific laws. Were these artifacts a gift to humanity? A warning? A threat? Or just some junk they discarded by the side of the interstellar highway before continuing on to their actual destination?

INTERVIEWER: ...I suppose that your first important discovery, Dr. Pillman, was the celebrated Pillman radiant?

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Roadside Picnic is probably my favorite type of sci-fi — a bit dated, a bit ambiguous, and the sci-fi is just prevalent enough to place it in the genre. Otherwise it could easily fit into 50s-era noir with the wisecracking, tough as nails protagonist, Red Schuhart, the shady underworld of smuggling, and the quick pacing.

For fans of Tarkovsky‘s film adaption, Stalker, this novel is nothing like it.

#thoughtfulthursday @MoonWitch94

1- Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts Grounds.
2- Me , My Soul , and My love .
3- Green Eggs and Ham ( Dr Seuss).
BERTIE BOTT‘S EVERY FLAVOUR BEANS, ( Harry potter ).
Lembas , Elves love this bread.
Last but not the least , Scooby Snacks .

#thoughtfulthursday @MoonWitch94
Awesome questions - I've been enjoying inviting myself to all your fictional picnics! 😄
Thanks for the tag @shortsarahrose

1) Bellagio, Lake Como (the fictional worlds I visit tend to be rather bleak 🤣)
2) You lot, of course!
3) Cheese, prosciutto, bresaola, crusty bread, spicy olives and cake! Lots of cake.

If you haven't played yet, you're tagged!

If you enjoy scifi this is one to check out! Aliens come to earth but just as fast as they arrive, they're gone. They leave behind some waste but no one knows why or what they came for.. Years later the areas that were visited are deemed "The Zone" filled with anomalies and dangers lurking around every corner. You never know what The Zone has in store for you.

Finished this one last night, wrapping up my #20in4 challenge! @Andrew65

I wanted very much to like this book. But I found that I wasn‘t all that entertained. And perhaps this book isn‘t about entertainment but about hardship and work and taking care of your family no matter what during a dangerous and hazardous time. I honestly had a hard time with the main character but know that he did what he did out of his best intentions. Not a book for easy reading but definitely one of survival.

New book club book! Anyone heard of or read anything about this book?? #bookclubreading #bookclub

This influential short sci-fi story is a must for fans of the genre. Soviet era bleakness in a dystopian future, there's a lot to unpack in such a short story.

There are some flaws, but the influence and importance of the work cannot be overlooked.

I liked the premise and enjoyed the first half, but towards the end it was dragging.

This was an old bingo post that me made think abt how long it‘s been since I‘ve read any Russian novels! I remember loving the classics when I was younger, but I‘m honestly not sure if I‘d be in the mood for them nowadays 🤣

Anyways, I‘ve recently gotten some solid recs for Russian sci-fi, which sounds super interesting! Putting “Roadside Picnic” and “Metro 2033” on my tbr list, just to get started 🖤

Spotted this intriguing #tattoo on social media. The tat-wearer shared the book that inspired her, and I put Roadside Picnic on my TBR immediately!

First contact stories often involve highly-evolved intelligent species or aggressive enemies bent on attack, but Roadside Picnic describes a world impacted by alien contact without context or explanation. Zones contaminated by the alien visitors become astonishing, lucrative, sometimes deadly wastelands. I'll be thinking about this thought-provoking, visceral novel for a long time.

Russian sci-fi is an interest of mine and this is a classic. A Earth which was visited by aliens a decade or two before. Why? Unknown, all we do know is that they landed at a scattergun pattern of sites across the earth and left behind some material remains. Red the protagonist a stalker, skilled at entering such sites and recovering artefacts which although immensely powerful we do not understand. Red is a character just trying to make a way for

Ahhh those Russian authors.....

Great book: SciFi novel that goes beyond aliens and spaceships and monsters. Aliens came, were not interested in us at all, just left stuff behind in certain “Zones“, that may have been litter or not, nobody knows. Nobody understands the science or how they work but as always people try to make the best of it starting with the “stalkers“ that go in these Zones to retrieve them and paying a high price in doing so. There is so much more to it. 👍 ⬇

“Look into my soul, I know - everything you need is in there. It has to be. Because I've never sold my soul to anyone! It's mine, it's human! Figure out yourself what I want - because I know it can't be bad!”

So excited to get into this!

I've read this a long long time ago and still remember to this day that it was an awesome read. So today when I found out the audiobook is on sale at Google, I couldn't resist. Only a few minutes in and I love the way Robert Forster is reading it

And now for something completely different…

"Science fiction lends itself readily to imaginative subversion of any status quo. Bureaucrats and politicians, who can‘t afford to cultivate their imaginations, tend to assume it‘s all ray-guns and nonsense, good for children." From The forward, Ursula K. Leguin

Currently reading Roadside Picnic for Sci Fi Book Club. It's a strange book; I seem to only get the flavour of what I'm reading after each chapter.

It seems to be telling me a story without me realising it. If you like your sci fi bleak and devoid of exposition, this could be a winner!

I thought this book sleeve was appropriate for my current read.

What an interesting read! But I have so many unanswered questions. I would've liked to know more about what it was like at the time of the visits, and more about Red's daughter. I really liked the narration in the first section, when Red was narrating in first person POV, and disappointed when the focus moved to another character and that narration stopped. Though I really enjoyed Richard and Valentine's conversation in Richard's section.

#BookAndBeverage

Water is my go to beverage besides coffee

I have a reading buddy today! #CatsOfLitsy

I liked the concept of this book but I didn't really get it. Maybe it's the writing style or there were a lot of nuances I didn't pick up on, but it was confusing at points until half way in. I'm curious what the video games are like based on the book.

Excellent new take on first contact. What if aliens land, stay for awhile, then pack up and leave without saying a word, but leaving some detritus behind?

#aspacemancametravelling #winterwonderland
Here's a book that i plan to read in 2019. About stalkers finding artefacts left by aliens on earth.
I also picked up the film in a local shop - i don't read a lot of sci fi but the these editions of so attractive i may think about a sci fi a-z 👽

I read #RoadsidePicnic in one sitting during a camping trip in Minnesota this year. It has quickly become one of my favorite #scifi stories. It takes place after a visit from an unknown #alien species and the impact of their coming and going. A unique read from the #StrugatskyBrothers who went through a lot to have this work published in Soviet Russia. It was the inspiration for the film #Stalker by #Tarkovsky, which I also recommend. Please read.

#currentlyreading

My trip to York to the theatre yesterday wouldn't have been complete without a visit to this fab shop. I managed to be restrained and only buy one book, but that might be because I bought them all last time... @squirrelbrain @mitch @daydreamin_star @miralunasbooknook

This has been on my list for a very long time. Finally audio-booked it on my perfectly timed seven-hour drive home after drill this weekend. I loved it. It felt to me like atypical science fiction the same way ‘Story of Your Life‘ did. And audio was definitely the way to go on this one.

A classic sci fi story written by two brothers in 1971 Russia. It has influenced the genre to this day. The style (perhaps the translation) was challenging. I am sure I missed references to the politics in Russia at the time. The story foretold the Chernobyl disaster in many ways. I appreciate thought-provoking speculative fiction.

My review of Roadside Picnic is up on my blog today: http://www.twohectobooks.com/2018/01/r58-roadside-picnic-by-arkady-and-boris.htm...

“It reminded him of the buttons on his mother‘s jacket — amber, translucent, golden. He always longed to stuff them into his mouth and suck on them, expecting some extraordinary treat, and he‘d take them into his mouth and suck and every single time would be terribly disappointed, and every single time he‘d forget about the disappointment — not that he‘d actually forget, he‘d just refuse to believe his memory as soon as he saw them again.”

Reading Envy Podcast 106: Falling Asleep During Tarkovsky Films. This bonus crossover episode features Jon Laubinger from the Film Baby Film Podcast, where we discuss the book Roadside Picnic and the film Stalker. https://tinyurl.com/ReadingEnvy106

I'm trying to finish the books I decided I'd keep in my 2016 speed dating projects...better late than never! I had another reason for reading this one which will be revealed at a later date.
This is a story about the aftermath of a first contact - aliens that came in and left debris (like a roadside picnic, get it?). "Stalkers" comb the forbidden zones for alien technology and suffer the aftermath.
Fans of Area X would like it!

Saw the awesome #5movie post by @Tsubame this morning! Here's my international take.

The Beat That My Heart Skipped - French crooks and pianos
Hidden Blade - favorite non-Kurosawa samurai movie
Il Sorpasso - perfect Italian road comedy
Stalker - mind-melting adaptation of the tagged Russian sci-fi novel
Kontroll - Hungarian comedy-thriller filmed entirely on the Budapest subway system

I'd hoped for this to basically be Dostoyevsky writing science fiction, so was a bit disappointed to find it a lot more zippy than that. However the premise is excellent and it left me wanting to know more about the world.

Christmas presents are starting to arrive and it's snowing and life is beautiful

Great classic SF while being more than just SF? I still think of this book and I read it a month ago. Lots of philosophical and moral tidbits to chew on if you wish!

#Scifi

Great new translation and Robert Forster delivers a fantastic audiobook performance. One of my all-time favorite sci-fi classics.

I've had an on-again-off-again thing with audiobooks for over a year now but I think I've finally found my niche. Revisiting some of my favorite Russian sci-fis all day at work today~

Ultimately I liked the concept better than the execution. The idea of aliens stopping by Earth & leaving behind a bunch of trash without even acknowledging humanity is such a nice response to the usual First Contact trope, but I just wanted something more even if I can't figure out what yet.

Here's an explanation for intelligence I haven't heard before.