Status Updates From Roadside Picnic

Red agrees to help them find the full empty but is almost spooked off when the CO tells him to cut the shit

When they enter the zone Red drinks a mysterious liquid and demands that Kirill and there buddy follow his exact instructions

Red thinks his boss is lame but also knows about a version of the empties in the zone that is full of a blue liquid. He sees he is losing his grip and red feels bad for him so he mentioned the full empty.

(Also worth noting that the cover and back of the book has bronze discs. The cover of this edition is of earth, shattered, so maybe there is some link between earth and the other planet)

Red, our protagonist, is a former stalker who now works as a research assistant for the people who study the zone. His reputation is well known but he tries to keep it low key. The man he works for, Kirill is obsessed with Empties. They are flat bronze discs that sit about 16 inches apart from each other in parallel with nothing in between. They can’t be pried apart melted with acid or pushed closer together

Where they interacted with earth there are these bubbles of there exposure, picturing stranger things upside down but more subtle and still a part of the earth. There are people known as stalkers who will scan angle for “swag” in the zones to sell. The aliens are far more technically superior than us.

I quote swag because i was surprised to find that word in this book. Turns out it’s a term from the 1700s

Open on an interview from a scientist, who discovered that the craters on earth all triangulate back to a specific planet out in space kind of like bullet holes

This interview gives a bit of exposition and is a nice way to introduce us to what is happening.

Aliens came, messed up 6 parts of earth and left. They did not stick around to talk the did there business and turned around

First time readings book from the folio society publisher so this is a cool experience, the paper is super thick and the book feels nice. The art is super abstract and gives kindof a twisted surrealism feel to it.

Intros by the illustrative and Ursula Lee Guin

First impression is that for a book written I. The early 70s and translated to from Russian to English the language is shockingly modern

Well-developed descriptions of characters and scenery, followed by occasional flashes of the strange. Unexpected changes in points of view, lots of drinking episodes, and a couple of undeveloped references to deformed children and revenants that allude to relationships with the strange phenomenon being exploited.