Roadside Picnic and The Russian Nuclear Apocalypse

Roadside Picnic is one of those novels that, if you aren't an avid science-fiction reader, you might not have heard about but one whose impact has been rather noticable in a lot of fiction that came after it, most notably, these days, the Russian post-apocalyptic Metro series, of which the third game; Metro Exodus is proving to be a blast. After some initial misgivings I now have almost no complaints. Except, really: Fuck that car, although I did run into an amusing glitch with it.

Though the Roadside Picnic influence has diminished with each iteration of the series, there is still an occasional floating electrical anomaly to be found and the 'Stalker' nomenclature is still (barely) in use, but beyond that, the story has moved away from the strangeness to be found in Roadside Picnic and has instead embraced the more approachable nuclear apocalyptic concept so favoured by the masses (though I swear I haven't been irradiated in hours). It's a bit of a shame as I thought this was something the series did incredibly well, where it married the anomaly elements with the nuclear fallout stuff, and which gave the whole thing a rather unique feel.

 Right now, where I'm at, in the Caspian sea, the game has become to feel more Mad Max than what I had come to term 'the Russian Post-Apocalypse'. It's not in any way bad, but I still feel as if the series has been... diminished somewhat, become somewhat more conform, catering more to the mainstream and losing its uniqueness along the way.

Before Metro, there was the Stalker series, heavily inspired by the movie of the same name, and both of which carried the influence of Roadside Picnic much more on its sleeve. And indeed, even now the Stalker movie, 40 years after its release, is still worth a watch if you're into weird and moody (I know I am). In any case, it is a classic of Russian cinema and is nr 185 on Imdb's top 250 movies.
The Stalker game series is notable in that it did away with the origins behind the novel's 'Zone concept', and that it explicitly ties the Zone's creation to the Chernobyl disaster. And if you have been living under a rock, or in a fall-out shelter, and are unware of it, the recent HBO mini-series Chernobyl is a very good way to brush up on your history. It's very well researched, impeccably shot and scored, the acting is compelling, and the overall effect of the thing is just... devastating.

There is such a sense of doom hanging over every scene of the series that it becomes almost oppressive. And as you watch the various characters; the scientists and engineers, the firefighters, the miners, the soldiers and others, get closer and closer to the scene of the incident you are acutely aware of their inevitable fate, which you then also get to see. And if you've been amused by the response from Russia to the show itself, where they've announced that they'll be making their own show according to the 'true' story behind the incident; when you watch in the show how the government deals with some of the consequences to the disaster, and how they press down on the spread of information concerning the danger, in order to uphold their reputation, it's not hard to understand their response to the show, but it also is quite scary.
Chernobyl is horrifying and even depressing, but it is honestly a must watch. It's only 5 episodes, less than 5 hours in total. There really is no reason not to watch it, and you'll be richer for it.
Anyway, I got a little off track here, but I thought I'd share the reasons for why I searched out the novel before I write about it. I've been reading and watching Roadside Picnic-influenced fiction for at least a decade now, so I thought I'd go ahead and give it a whirl. And it turned out to be an awesome and very compelling read.

Redrick Schuhart is a Stalker, one of those individuals who risk their lives and their sanity by making harrowing treks into 'The Zone', the off-limits area riddled with the detritus left behind by a visiting alien race, the place that they left behind where the laws of the natural world, of reality itself, don't always apply. It is a dangerous and inhospitable place, likely to kill a man as soon as he sets foot inside its boundaries, but it is also a place filled with wonder and riches.

Inscrutable and even dangerous as these riches might prove to be, they command improbable sums from the black marketeers who profit off of them, who sell them to scientists or simply to those who have enough money, and so there are many who venture into danger for a taste of the wealth. But there are not many to last long in the strange and lethal environment.

Over the fifteen years since the aliens' Visit, many legends have sprung up surrounding the strange phenomena to be found. The strangest of which is 'The Sphere', an object capable of granting the beholder their most innermost wish. And though Redrick has lasted longer than any other Stalker in the Zone, due to his almost preternatural sense of the dangers ahead and a ruthless pragmatism, he'll soon feel himself forced to seek out the very strangest and most dangerous of what the Zone has to offer in order to have his most desperate wish fulfilled.

Roadside Picnic is a very engaging  novel, its bad-ass, down-to-earth protagonist easily drawing the reader into his views and his world, swearing at the stupidity and greed of mankind all the while. The novel is divided into 4 parts over a few years time, and we see Redrick, usually from his point of view, as he travels into the Zone and navigates its dangers and deals with his resulting stress, fear and anger. We watch as he tries to outrun the bad consequences of his excursions, or as he deals with the upheaval caused by the influence of the zone, be that the mutations and the resurrected dead, or the police force determined to arrest the various stalkers.
We see his concerns and understand his lamentation for mankind's condition, as he tries to bury his loathing for its incurable greed, and the hate he carries for perpetuating it. He is a good man, strong, outspoken and intelligent, kind but capable of extreme ruthlessness.
It's very strange, because I'm usually not a character person, but I found Redrick fascinating, enviable even, and I honestly would've loved it if this whole story had been longer. Not even fully through the novel I found myself wishing there had been a few hundred pages more.
Apart from Redrick, the Zone itself is also a huge draw, of course. The horrifying and wildly varied anomalies and objects to be found within its perimeter were hugely inventive and colourful.
The last part of the novel has some odd beats, specifically; it ends in one of those dialogue endings that can be hit or definite miss and which I'm usually quite annoyed by. It's a testament to the novel that I didn't mind this one, as it left much food for thought, not simply in what Redrick says, but also in the situation that he's in when the novel ends, both physically and psychologically. It's unclear, and though the back-blurb to this edition makes it seem pretty definitive, I didn't think this was the case. Or, at the very least, I didn't want it to be.
As I said, I really wish this one had been longer. Very much recommended.