This is my second Strugatsky book, and it's made me think that their work just might not be my kind of thing. I found myself not really enjoying the novel while reading it, but appreciating it somewhat more on reflection. I valued the reading experience, but it isn't one I find myself wanting to recommend. I like the memory of having read it more than I liked actually reading it - does this make sense?
Aliens have briefly visited the Earth, for a "roadside picnic" - they landed for a bit, then left, leaving their landing area polluted and full of alien garbage. Humanity cordons off the landing areas, the Zones, to keep people safe and so scientists can investigate. Stalkers are people who sneak in to the Zones to find alien artifacts to sell on the black market.
The story takes place over a few years, and during that time the existence of alien tech and polluted landing zones becomes a mere fact of life, an everyday occurrence to the people living near the Zones. After the initial shock and surprise at the realization that We Are Not Alone, life goes on similar to before. For the majority of the novel, the alien tech and the strange effects of the Zone on the town are in the background: the story focuses on the dreary and grim lives of those involved in the black market for alien tech, "swag".
The novel has an oppressive, bleak, and claustrophobic atmosphere. The characters' lives are very insular, intent on their next payday so they can provide for their families - the significance of alien contact does not matter to the majority of humanity, who are just working to survive. The Zones are dangerous, and their dangers little understood. There are rough methods for navigating them, made by trial and error - the ruined and desiccated corpses of dead stalkers litter the floor. The stalkers could die at any moment, if their instincts slip up. The world is brutal and uncaring. The aliens' indifference to humanity further adds to the novel's grimness: they never bothered to establish contact, just landed, made a mess, and flew off again. The human scientists experiment with the alien tech but have no understanding of how it works; the aliens are so technologically superior to us that we are like monkeys trying to reverse engineer the latest iPhone.
The characters are, for the most part, ordinary folk living out their ordinary lives - lives which just happen to involve alien technology. Familiarity breeds indifference; humanity accepts the amazing technology and advances of the modern world as a fact of everyday life. SF stories tend to treat Alien First Contact as a momentous world-changing event; Roadside Picnic goes further: world-changing events become the new normal.
I find it hard to rate this novel. I didn't enjoy it very much while reading it, but it has a grim realism to it which is impressive and evocative. I can see that the novel has its merits, and am glad I read it. Roadside Picnic is certainly an SF classic, but I don't think it's my kind of SF classic.
