That said, I don’t think Nova Swing is just a derivative work – Harrison takes the ideas and turns them up a few notches, so an homage, yes, but not mere theft. I will never know how it would have been if it had been the other way around, but my hunch is that the book you read first might be a bit better because of it, as the basic idea is so strong, and the surprise factor simply is stronger during your first exposure. My own reading experience was colored because I read Nova Swing first. This definitely is a good book, and it has aged very well. The fact that it was the inspiration for Stalker, the 1979 movie by Tarkovsky undoubtedly added to the book’s fame and prestige.įirst things first. There are some glowing reviews of Roadside Picnic online (like this one on Speculiction) and overall this seems a well-loved book, that’s also being taken very serious as Literature.

Some people make it their living of illegally searching for alien artifacts inside the zone, risking their lives in the process. That zone also became a bit ‘strange’ because of it. The shared premises is the same: mysterious aliens visited for a while and left behind bits of unknown technology and debris in the zone where they visited. John Harrison’s excellent Nova Swing, which takes the basics of Roadside Picnic as a foundation for its own story. I’ve been drawn to this particular book because of M. My first attempt of reading something by the Strugatskies wasn’t successful – I quickly abandoned Hard To Be a God because I found it too transparent – but felt I should try another of their titles nonetheless.

The book was altered under pressure of the censors at the time, and it’s interesting to read a bit on the mechanics of that, just as Boris’ detached tone about the affair is of note – basically, he points out that all those petty bureaucrats are dead and forgotten, so why dwell on the past too long? The text in this edition is how the Strugatsky brothers intended it to be. I’ve read the new 2012 translation of Olena Bormashenko, which includes a 3-page foreword by Le Guin (okay, but not essential at all), and an excellent afterword by Boris Strugatsky about the history of the novel’s publication in Russia. A quick write-up this time, of a rather short book – 193 pages.

Strugatsky brothers roadside picnic