Roadside Picnic

Roadside Picnic is an important science fiction novel because of its unique concept: aliens visit earth on a sort of camping trip, stay for a few days while figuratively dumping battery acid into the stream before zapping off to pastures new and leaving heaps of waste that's incredibly valuable due to its technological properties.

This waste can lead to nasty side effects such as the birth of deformed children, but the financial rewards are worth the risk of collecting it, making for an exciting backdrop to a potentially riveting story.

But Roadside Picnic isn't a very enjoyable book for all sorts of reasons regardless of its literary esteem.

It's sometimes irritating, long-winded, vague and annoying, with dislikeable characters, mammoth-long chapters, unsatisfying action scenes and a largely directionless plot with too much chitter chatter, like a videogame with constant cutscenes instead of letting you play and have fun.

What actually happens in Roadside Picnic?

Not a lot.

There's rumors of a golden sphere, an object more valuable than anything retrieved from the exclusion zones before, capable of granting wishes and worth risking life and limb for, but the rest of the story is pretty boring to read.

In some ways reminiscent of Neuromancer - the inconsistent story and blurry action grind more than the fantastical technical parameters.

We don't meet, see or interact with the aliens or get any explanations about their equipment or how they arrived on planet Earth, making them feel like a background excuse instead of relevant, more like a social or political dialog than an interesting point of focus.

The main character is arrogant, often bad tempered and physically slaps people to make them shut up, as well as constantly resting for another cigarette break to create more narrative filler.

Even though I disliked all the in-between bits, I'm still rating Roadside Picnic three stars for its stellar concept and because some parts probably went over my head.

Classified as a sci-fi masterwork, it's not as famous as it could be because the authors fail to clearly express themselves or write an interesting narrative, which feels boring and outdated once you take away the roadside picnic part.