#171 in Science fiction
Roadside Picnic
- 179
- Pages
- about 3.5 h
- Reading time
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
About the book
Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a “full empty,” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he’ll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems. First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.1 across 717 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 83% of the weight and the score stays at 8.1 — the Science fiction average of 7.8 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.6 | 74 | 10% |
| Hardcover | 8.0 | 643 | 90% |
Reader voices
The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).
“This felt like a whole new type of science fiction, compared to what I'm used to. I guess this comes in large part from the fact that comes from an entirely different culture than tmy previous readings (Soviet union).”
“I'd probably say I was disappointed by this. It gets 4 stars because it's really good but unfortunately it's one of those books that simply can't be read in a vacuum so it inevitably suffers from high expectations. The final chapter is absolutely incredible with…”
Frequently asked
How long is Roadside Picnic?
It has 179 pages — shorter than 96% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Science fiction — with scores between 8.0 and 8.1, closest to this book.
