Roadside Picnic

After the visit of aliens, Zones are formed on Earth — areas filled with inexplicable anomalies, deadly traps, and mysterious, but often useful artifacts. Quite quickly, stalkers gather around — brave and reckless people who risk their lives time and again, venturing into the Zone — often illegally — for the next «loot». Perhaps, in the history of modern world science fiction, there are not many works that have remained popular for as long as «Roadside Picnic». The novella served as the basis for Tarkovsky's cult film «Stalker»; three decades later, there appeared a no less cult computer game with the same name and a whole series of novellas and novels written using the world of «Picnic».