The book built on this dark foundation, is lively, racy, and likeable. If there had never been the Visitation, there would have been something else. It's just that that's the way the world is. A superintendent of the Institute thinks, 'My God, we won't be able to do a thing! We don't have the power to contain this blight. Corruption and crime attend the exploration of the Zones disasters seem to pursue fugitives from them. Here the aliens were utterly indifferent to us if they noticed our existence at all there has been no communication, there can be no understanding we are scarcely even savages or packrats-we are just garbage. In the traditional first contact story, communication is achieved by courageous and dedicated spacemen, and an exchange of knowledge, or a military triumph, or a big-business deal ensues. The implied picture of humanity is not flattering. A black market flourishes 'stalkers' enter the forbidden Zones and, at risk of various kinds of terrible and painful death, steal bits of Visitors' litter, bring the stuff out, and sell it, sometimes to the Foundation. An international Foundation sponsors research. They cannot figure out the principles of the artifacts, the science behind them. Some of the mystifying and dangerous debris proves useful-eternal batteries which power automobiles-but the scientists never know if they are using the devices for their proper purpose, or employing (as it were) Geiger counters as hand-axes and electronic components as nose-rings. The picnickers have gone the packrats, wary but curious, approach the crumpled bits of cellophane, the glittering fliptops from beercans, and try to carry them home to their holes. Aliens have visited the earth and gone away again, leaving behind them several landing areas (now called The Zones) littered with their refuse. Roadside Picnic is a 'first contact' story with a difference. Le Guin A New Book by the StrugatskysĪrkady and Boris Strugatsky.

Roadside picnic novel