11-12-2019, 04:29 PM
Snagged a copy of the new translation at the library sale and wanted to read it before I traded it.
It's about a remote Russian town that sits next to an area where aliens visited (called "the Zone" and where some alien tech is left, plus strange distortions of physics), and primarily told by a stalker - a guy who sneaks in there to find artifacts to sell on the black market. It's pretty grim. Very atmospheric, but an unpleasant atmosphere: everyone drinks a lot and is scamming to get by, and some get rich but most die or get arrested. And I thought it kind of fell apart at the end, but then I think some incomprehensibility is always a risk with translated fiction.
It was the basis for a film, reviewed here by CF, and a video game, both called Stalker.
It's about a remote Russian town that sits next to an area where aliens visited (called "the Zone" and where some alien tech is left, plus strange distortions of physics), and primarily told by a stalker - a guy who sneaks in there to find artifacts to sell on the black market. It's pretty grim. Very atmospheric, but an unpleasant atmosphere: everyone drinks a lot and is scamming to get by, and some get rich but most die or get arrested. And I thought it kind of fell apart at the end, but then I think some incomprehensibility is always a risk with translated fiction.
It was the basis for a film, reviewed here by CF, and a video game, both called Stalker.
the hands that guide me are invisible