Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Roadside Picnic

A thrilling and gratifying read. For me the idea of an alien visitation as a “roadside picnic” was really interesting and novel. I think that most often aliens are depicted as having a kind of intelligence that is very similar to us, but this is isn’t necessarily a fair assumption to make. (How do we define intelligence? Well, humans are intelligent, so whatever it is that makes us distinct from other animals. This logic seems a little circular to me.)

While I wouldn’t say this is a character-driven narrative, Red’s relationship with his family is touching, and there is some evolution in his character.

Roadside Picnic is definitely of it’s time, but still inspired and well worth reading.

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ashleymg99's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Before I read this book, I had watched Andrei Tarkovsky’s STALKER (which was intriguing, visually delightful, but too slow for me) and my boyfriend is a fan of the games.

This is the cosmic horror novel of the 20th century - ~~Lovecraft stans can fight me~~. There’s something so sinister about our extreme lack of knowledge about the Zone, and the nightmarish effects it has on the environment and the people in it.

My favorite part of the novel was in the chapter from Noonan’s perspective.

Valentine’s Theory of the Roadside Picnic, and the ensuing discussion about the measure of intelligent life was fascinating to me. As I said, there’s something so intriguing and yet disturbing at the idea that these aliens are so far beyond our comprehension, that we are essentially bugs and birds that are examining the mess left by beings we can never hope to understand.

Valentine sees humanity for all its flaws, and in a world where aliens have visited us, he sees the insignificance of us - we are not worth testing, or training or observing. We are simply primitive animals, “using sledgehammers to crack nuts” - picking up alien space junk that we can never hope to understand the true use of, and adapting it for a more primitive purposes.

This is a short read, and overall I was pretty engaged, but there were some slower parts (particularly the beginning of Noonan’s chapter) that struggled to capture my attention.

This is a must read for any sci-fi, cosmic horror, or dystopian fans. Also, watch Tarkovsky’s STALKER - it’s written by the same authors and tells a similar story in the same universe, but is by no means an adaptation.

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saraaaa's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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gilnean's review

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adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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sipping_tea_with_ghosts's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Enjoyed my read, even if it felt more like a collection of ideas than a complete story. Brief but bursting with interesting bits of worldbuilding and a great "what if" scenario that warrants uncomfortable questions about our existence and how unimportant we are on the potential journey of others.

The summary promises a much more epic adventure than what is actually presented in the book however - coming off as half a dozen vignettes exploring an aspect of the Zone, lacking a real sense of progression. The main character is also about as complicated and welcoming as a porcupine seat cushion. The second half of the book was much more entertaining to me since it focused on two men debating existence at a bar instead of following around the barbed personality protagonist and his mutated daughter with no personality besides kid_behavior.exe and wife with subserviant_doe.exe

So if you're going through the classics like I am, then I'd say its great on delivering those intriguing introspections but lacking in a compelling journey. For less than 200 pages though, you could do much, much worse.

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