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Comment by ThaDood | Hacker News Reader

I agree. I enjoyed Roadside Picnic as its such a unique take on the ET visitation genre but my god is it depressing.

I still think it could have the potential be a really interesting TV show. Personally I think the slow nature of the book lends itself towards the show format.

Further, IIRC I believe that soviet authors/translators were able to skirt censorship for the LoTR books by wrapping them in a Sci-Fi setting. Soviet writer for science fiction are some of my favorites.

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It possibly reflects on daily life in the Soviet Union. Beetle in the Anthill is even more depressing. Still, the Strugatsky brothers are two of my favourite authors.

I re-read their books every ten years or so (along with some of Philip K. Dick's) because I keep forgetting the plot and the details. The Noon Universe books, along with Roadside Picnic are quite cryptic.

Anyway, The Doomed City is considered one of their most depressing of their novels, with a feeling of hopelessness characteristic of the Brezhnev era. I've long posponed reading it due to this and the fact that it's the last of their books published in my language that I haven't read.

I read somewhere that Strugatskys were once asked whether Inhabited Island was a satire of the Soviet Union, to which they responded with something like “it was not supposed to be the Soviet Union or any country specifically, but because we lived there, that is what we inadvertently ended up writing about”

Some of the RP editions have an afterword about publishing in Soviet and evading censorship thorough Sci-fi, pretty interesting. Soviet was a strange place.

Roadside Picnic is a lovely perspective on the genre, in that it isn't at all about the zone or any supposed aliens. The zone makes for a fascinating backdrop for the story, but in the end it is about the people just trying to carve out a life while exposed to an extraordinary, incomprehensible situation grown mundane. The zone could be swapped out for a disaster area or a hostile jungle or whatever, but by being the zone it becomes very alien to the reader as well. It contributes to what I really like about the book, simply being very atmospheric and immersive. It's all show-don't-tell, the reader experiences everything through what the characters see or hear, and the reader's picture of the world is as clouded and uncertain as those living in it. I found a bit of the same feeling in Metro 2033, where anything happening outside of a couple kilometers range is just rumours. Nobody really knows anything for sure and neither does the reader!

Also there was actually a RP TV-series in production with a really cool trailer, but I think the pilot didn't take off so it shut down.

Had no idea there was a TV-series in the works. Would love to see that pilot.

Found this video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoGkB5yvDDk

its imdb page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5024734/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

There was an NBC TV series in 2021 called Debris, canceled after 1 season, that must have taken some inspiration from Roadside Picnic (at least from what I see in this failed series trailer). It's about 2 federal agents searching for parts of an exploded alien spacecraft. It was your typical "monster of the week" while building up an overarching story. Each piece of the ship would have some unique and crazy affect on the area and/or people around it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debris_(TV_series)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11640020/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

edit:

ah, looks like I'm not the first to notice this connection: https://www.reddit.com/r/Debris/comments/nz6pkl/debris_and_r...

Offhand this immediately reminds me of Warehouse 13. I wonder if it was similarly inspired?

Roadside Picnic is probably my favorite version of alien visitation. I'm partial to stories where the aliens are largely incomprehensible. Especially the ones who can manage the high tech requirements of FTL. Felt very realistic having the aliens visit Earth as tourists and not invaders, ignore the locals, and throw their trash around.

I am also a little surprised it hasn't been made into modern show. It would perfectly fit the paradigm of the modern story arc-based show that's centered around a big mystery. But, there's some consolation when one can see the influence of Roadside Picnic on other shows. Seems like it was a big influence on Lost.

> I still think it could have the potential be a really interesting TV show.

It's already a movie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(1979_film)

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