Cover of the Week: Roadside Picnic/Tale of the Troika by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Pocket 1978 Cover artist Alan Magee
The Cold War between Russia and the United States kept Soviet science-fiction authors from being published in North America. The UK and the rest of Europe were blessed with many wonderful novels from what is a rich seam of science-fiction from Russia and Eastern Europe. One of those authors, or rather, a team of authors is the Strugatsky Brothers (Arkady and Boris). They published many novels from 1958-1988. None more famous than Roadside Picnic primarily because it was made into a movie by the genius Russian filmmaker - Andrei Tarkovsky (title: Stalker).
I saw the film first and, of course, it was brilliant as are most of Tarkovsky’s films. But when I read the novel (actually it’s a novella or “short novel”) I was quite surprised as it was much less poetic and strange. The fictional version was as much a critique of Russian bureaucracy as it was a science-fiction story. I like them both for different reasons. However, the Strugatsky brothers were not happy with the film version although it made them famous.
The story of Roadside Picnic is simple: An alien spacecraft visited the Earth at six specific locations and left behind some “trash” that Russian scientists are attempting to explore and understand. Another type of explorer (a “Stalker”) is a civilian who enters the zone illegally to steal artifacts and sell them. The film and the story both focus on a Stalker character.
The Pocket paperback version I am featuring has a wonderful cover design by Alan Magee. I love the Escher-type feel to the central Stalker figure and the uplight glow on his face by an orb that is featured in the story. Ah, the days when the cover artist reads the novel they are creating an illustration for. Not so common today. Overall, it is a perfect representation of the story - weird, mysterious and very much a science-fiction story.
Note that the second story in the book (Tale of the Troika) is a very different tale full of black humor and Kafkaesque bureaucracy. I’d like to point out that there is an excellent introduction to the two stories by scifi master Theodore Sturgeon.
You can find this edition in good condition for $40-60. Thankfully, more of the Strugatsky brothers’ books have been translated in the last decades. Click this link for a full list.
