Reviews

Пикник на обочине by Arkady Strugatsky

jackdiiorio's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Really interesting Sci Fi book with interesting history behind it too. Being written and not allowed to be published during the USSR. The inspiration for the STALKER game series which I'm now also interested in checking out. Imagine aliens visiting our planet and we are essentially insects playing with their litter after having a picnic and leaving. Good exploration.

raymondmcdonaldauthor's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

pad_z's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

benchedforairbud's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

appleshoes's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

kezemu's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

4.5

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

fast-paced

2.0

dude sci-fi leaves me with a 'meh' feeling

saneyossarian's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

3.0

nongshaw's review against another edition

2.0

yeah nah

534534564587654323456789's review against another edition

5.0

It’s like Annihilation met nuclear plant (leak) allegory. Killer concepts; empties, graviconcentrates, spacell/infinite batteries, hell slim, black sparks, replicas/zombies, golden sphere, just to name the narratively significant ones. And many other interesting ones yet only mentioned in passing like the opposite shadow and sliver web.

This book does the opposite of fed into human egotism of writing aliens as fundamentally human which is commonplace in sci-fi (space opera ugh). It reminds me of Lem and Lovecraft a little.

I don’t think I ever appreciated how a character came alive through the way they talk, and the verbs chosen for them. I particularly like how alive (even cute) the scientists felt. Moreover, I didn’t know I ship scientist/delinquent SO hard and it’d make such an upgrade to nerd/jock and brood/sunshine.

I love this book, even the foreword was concise and informative. I assume the translation was of fine quality? Too bad I can read Russian, I barely know Cyrillic alphabet.