There comes to be a type of person known as a “stalker” who is a daredevil/badass who becomes a kind of expert at navigating the zones. But, of course, people want to get in there and come back out with some of the odd objects to be found inside, whether just out of blanket fascination, the belief that what’s in the zones have properties that could lead to fascinating study, to make themselves famous, or to get deep pockets by selling the zone loot to bidders willing to pay big bank for the stuff.

The zones get cordoned off by the authorities, and it becomes illegal to go into them. When people start entering these zones, it quickly becomes apparent how perilous they are, as many visitors either die or become afflicted in some horrific way by exposure to the elements the aliens planted. But whoever or whatever they were, they left behind six areas, called “zones,” that are filled with substances, objects, and phenomena that are both fascinating and dangerous. A mysterious alien force visited various parts of the earth and then vanished, never having been seen by any humans. Criterion Collection’s new edition of the Tarkovsky film provides an opportunity for a fresh look at both novel and movie. However, the novel finally saw its release in its original form-in scores of different languages-and for this, we can be grateful.

And when the authorities of the Strugatsky brothers’ home country did finally see fit to allow the story to appear as a book, it came out in a heavily censored version. But really, those of us who appreciate the novel should be thankful that we are aware of it at all.Ĭompleted by the Russian brothers in 1971 and published in a magazine the following year, it was held up in book form for several years due to Soviet censorship. Some admirers of the science fiction novel Roadside Picnic, written by the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, might feel that the book has not received the critical and popular recognition it deserves, particularly in comparison to the film that was made from it: Andrei Tarkovsky’s widely celebrated Stalker (1979).

Roadside picnic novel