Roadside Picnic
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
25 people recommended it in 13 threads, 2011–2025.
2 of those were in the last year.
What people on Hacker News said
This gets a near perfect score because of its style, setting, and plot.
Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (this one still haunts my dreams at times)
The approach is very unusual since there is never any direct contact between humans and the extra terrestrial intelligence. The book is more like a study of human society and how it could develop if suddenly there was some extremely advanced technology available to us which we are too primitive to understand/control.
Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky - a Soviet sf classic, I've read it 3x already. It tells a story about a closed zone where 'aliens' left their artifcats, and how that changed people around them.
I love how unbelievably melancholy that book is. The amount of smoking and drinking in every scene is kind of amusing too. It definitely hits that noir sci-fi vibe. Like what if the future goes kind of wrong, but not necessarily dystopian.
Agree, though the only non English science fiction book I've read (translated to English of-course) is Roadside Picnic, which probably would be in my list of the best Sci-Fi books of all time.
Where it comes up
- Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books? 2023 · 4 recommendations
- Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in? 2022 · 4 recommendations
- The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit) 2011 · 4 recommendations
- My favorite cult sci-fi and fantasy books you may not have heard of before 2025 · 2 recommendations
- Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read? 2024 · 2 recommendations
- Ask HN: What is your favorite fiction book? 2022 · 2 recommendations
- Ask HN: What were the best books you read this year? 2024 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life? 2020 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What are the best Sci-Fi books you've ever read? 2018 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift? 2016 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What books are you reading? 2015 · 1 recommendation
- My Summer Reading List 2013 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Great book that you read recently? 2012 · 1 recommendation