Jun 4, 2023
Read the ebook edition off Hoopla of Roadside Picnic, it is dated 2012 and contains the introduction by Le Guin. She points out that this book is a great example of non-heroic science fiction, no supermen, no geniuses, just a bunch of common people slogging through their reality. And slog they do, cursing, drinking, fighting, the Brothers Strugatsky render a world full of Russian “soul” circa 1971, cursed in various ways, to me like rebellious surfs. As she says “The protagonists of idea-stories are marionettes, but Red is a mensch. We care about him, and both his survival and his salvation are at stake. This is, after all, a Russian novel.”
I couldn’t put it down and interrupted other reading to finish it. I didn’t like the ending at first, but after a few days I realized it really couldn’t have been finished any better (and leaves open sequels which I haven’t located yet.)
“Wait” said Valentine, “Listen, ‘You ask what makes man great?'” he quoted, “Is it that he re-created nature? That he harnessed the forces of almost cosmic-proportions? That, in a brief time, he has conquered the planet and opened a window onto the universe? No! It is that despite all this, he has survived and intends to keep doing so.”
Thanks to those who went before me and posted about this excellent book.
by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky