Exploring the new Penguin Science Fiction range with some classic Russian authors @ShinyNewBooks

Regular Ramblings readers will know of my love of Russian Science Fiction writing, particularly of the Soviet era; it’s a genre I’ve covered many times before, so I was very excited to see a classic title by the Strugatsky Brothers was included in the new Penguin Classics Science Fiction imprint.

I’m going to be covering a few of the titles from the imprint for Shiny New Books, but as I read this one I realised I’d come across it before, under the title of “Definitely Maybe”! However, that edition is hard to find and expensive, so this is a welcome re-release by Penguin, and the book itself is a wonderful, often moving and very powerful read by a duo of amazing authors. I loved it, and you can read my full review here!

“Life on other planets is difficult” (Einsturzende Neubauten)

The Air of Mars
Translated and edited by Mirra Ginsburg

I shared a picture of this book a few weeks back when I picked up a copy, thanks to a hint from Joachim Boaz at Science Fiction Ruminations; having provided a guest post for him on Women Soviet Sci Fi authors, he knew of my interest in such things, and this book features two such pieces! It has the added bonus of a work by a favourite of mine, Kirill Bulychev, so of course it was inevitable I’d track it down! As I mentioned, this is an ex-library book from Towson State University in the USA, and it still has the library card and tag in it, which I love. Though interestingly enough, it seems to have been classified as “Juvenile”, which is kind of odd – maybe some libraries consider sci-fi only suitable for teenagers… 😉

As this is probably not a common book, I thought I’d list the contents, which are:

Temira by Olga Larionova
The Brat by Valentina Zhuravleva
A Tacan for the Children of Earth by Kirill Bulychev
We Are Not Alone by Sever Gansovsky
Twelve Holidays by Vladlen Bakhnov
The White Pilot by Mikhail Yemtsev and Yeremy Parnov
A Ticket to Childhood by Victor Kolupayev
The Garden by Gennady Gor
The Air of Mars by Dmitry Bilenkin

Of the authors included, I’ve read Larionova and Bulychev, and heard of Gor. So this is something of a voyage of discovery for me!

The ever-dependable Mirra Ginsburg states in her short introduction “In choosing the stories, I sought above all for variety, excitement, surprise and delight” – and she delivers that in bucketfuls. What is so impressive about the book is the range of the stories: encompassing everything from traditional space-based narratives through future Earth tales, time travel and clever authorial in-jokes, the scope is wide and very entertaining.

“Temira” and “Tacan” are structured as traditional outer space tales with expeditions from Earth visiting other planets and civilisations. However, both delve into the effect that Contact can have on a different world, although in the latter Bulychev seems to conclude that some alien beings are subject to the same vanities as humans. Two of the stories, “Holidays” and “A Ticket”, feature time travel, and the latter is particularly poignant as the narrator grapples with the fact that his past and his visits to it seem unlike those of others. “The White Pilot” is almost Wellsian or Vernian tale, with a shipwrecked man developing a strong link with marine life.

Naturally, the king never consulted anyone when he devised his innovations. True, he was surrounded by counselors and sages, but in Yonia counselors earned their title only by listening to the king’s counsel; and sages, by nodding sagely every time the king spoke. (“Twelve Holidays”)

“The Garden” and “We Are Not Alone” were more fable-like in atmosphere. The former again features time travel as well as a being with the ability to make an exceptional transformation. The latter is a dystopian story of a society kept in darkness, and it is this tale that most strongly resonates as one making parallels with Soviet society. “The Brat”, however, is a very different kettle of fish; more of an in-joke about science fiction authors and very funny.

That just leave the title piece, “The Air of Mars”, which is a marvellous story about a doomed man on the surface of that world. Lost and running out of air, a condition he had on Earth which was regarded as a kind of disability turns out to be something he can work to his advantage on a planet with different physical requirements. It’s a moving and powerful read, and a strong end to an excellent collection.

The library trappings…

Normally when I read Soviet sci-fi I end up looking for hidden messages or subtexts, as so many authors living under repressive regimes have turned to sci-fi as a way of hiding up their ideas and their dissent. Certainly, there were elements in some of the stories here, most obviously in “We Are Not Alone”, when any heresy against the dominant ideology is harshly punished. And in “Twelve Holidays” the clever trick used to get rid of a ruler could have been wishful thinking on the part of an author living with the cult of great leaders. However, whether or not there are hidden messages, all of these stories sparkled and entertained and made me look at the world and universe around me with fresh eyes – which for me is what I look for in science fiction writing.

So once again, Soviet science fiction does the trick. It certainly seems that the communist years where a golden time for that kind of writing, and I don’t think I’ve read a dud in all the short works I’ve read recently. This book is another one of Macmillan’s Russian Science Fiction issues, and it seems that the publisher can take much credit for bringing these works to the English-speaking world; not only have some of the other Soviet works I’ve read come from them, but I also have another one of Ginbsburg’s translations for them lurking on the stacks – but that’ll be for a later date…. In the meantime, this one comes highly recommended!

 

A reading update – and forthcoming plans!

I can’t believe that it’s actually June already – where the time goes, I don’t know, but to suddenly find myself halfway through the year is a bit of a shock!

May was a reasonable reading month, although I didn’t make it through as many books as I intended; things started well but then I found myself involved in a very looooong review book which took up the back-end of the month! Now I’m through that and trying to decide what to read next…

This month’s Virago author is Margaret Laurence and the choice of which I could read is going to difficult:

These are the only two Laurences I own, and I believe they’re both part of a sequence and not the first part! I’m trying not to buy books at the moment, but I may have to make an exception here if I want to read something by this intriguing-sounding author in June…

Speaking of buying books, I have purchased just one volume recently, thanks to a hint from a certain sci-fi blogger who’s aware I have an interest in Soviet sci-fi written by women (You Know Who You Are….)

This one took a little bit of tracking down, and I eventually had to procure an ex-library copy from the USA – but it’s in really good condition, and I don’t mind it being ex-library. I get a little sentimental about old-school library cards and trappings in this kind of book and I like to give books like this a good home. Pleasingly, as well as the story by Olga Larionova, whose work I rate highly, there is also one by Kirill Bulychev who I also rave about regularly. So a good find!

And there was a good bookish find of another kind recently! Youngest Child and Middle Child paid a flying visit at the end of May, which was absolutely lovely, and while they were here did a bit of room clearing (as we still have so much of their junk stuff in the house). Whilst rooting about in her room, Youngest Child found she had two of my books hidden away on her shelves, one of which in particular I was very pleased to have back:

I’ve had the Emily Dickinson book since I was a teenager and was most aggrieved that I couldn’t find it. So at least it is now back on my shelves with my other poetry books – result!

Continuing with my plan to have no plans, I don’t have any idea what I’m going to read in June and as I’m feeling a bit undirected reading-wise at the moment, I may well be lurching into more classic crime – well, you can’t go wrong there, can you? 🙂

Exploring my Library: Soviet Sci Fi Short Stories (a niche collection…)

I realise that Soviet Sci Fi short stories are a bit of a niche read – and certainly my recent guest post about that kind of story by women writers was even more obscure, as it was quite a task to track down any in translation! This set me digging around in my collection of Russian short story books, and I though it might be interesting to share the ones I have.

The first collection I ever acquired was “The Ultimate Threshold”. Translated by the esteemed Mirra Ginsburg, I think it’s probably one of the better known anthologies, and in fact it did contain one of the stories I read for my post.

As you can see from the contents below, the stories are all from the 1960s, which is interesting in itself. This was mainly the Brezhnev era, when there were attempts at détente between the east and the west, so maybe the book’s appearance reflects this. I don’t think I’d heard of any of the authors before obtaining the book, which is even more exciting. I’ve only read the Larionova so far, and it’s excellent, which bodes well for the rest of the book.

“World’s Spring” is a more recent acquisition, and one I got hold of when I was in search of stories by Kirill Bulychev, who has two works featured. Both were wonderful reads, and the book itself has a wide range of titles, split according to general theme. I also found one of my women’s stories in this volume, and I think it’s another highly regarded anthology.

My old friend J, picking up on my interest in Soviet Sci Fi, procured these for me from a bookseller friend of hers! I was of course attracted to the first by the fact that the Strugatskys were featured…

The second has another Strugatsky, plus a further selection of new-to-me names!

“Destination: Amaltheia” is the book I tracked down to be able to read “The Astronaut” for my guest post, and I’m so glad I did. It was a wonderful tale and one of the most moving sci-fi stories I’ve read. Plus the book is very beautiful…

I’m including this final anthology, although it isn’t strictly speaking a sci-fi one, because from reading the foreword it seems that at least one title is a science fiction story. It’s one I acquired for the Kataev story it contains, but there are a number of other authors I know of included so again there are plenty of riches to be explored!

Although I’ve only read a few of the stories from these collections, each one has been a gem and I’m very excited at the prospect of having such wonderful delightsto dip into. Maybe I’ll find time over the Christmas break to indulge a little…. 🙂

A lovely, lovely book

I have been casting around recently (for reasons that will eventually become clear) in search of Soviet Science Fiction stories written by women – which in English certainly seems to be a small pool! However, with a bit of digging online and after reference to the very wonderful ISFDB, I stumbled upon this:

It’s published by the Foreign Languages Publishing House, of whom I’m a great fan and I do seem to have been amassing more of their books recently. Isn’t this title page illustration wonderful?

Interestingly, the book is a softcover with an attached at the spine dustwrapper, and the inside flaps have wonderful pictures and biogs of the authors:

The contents page has the list of intriguing titles:

Apart from the aforesaid female author, the book also has a Strugatsky story so that has to be good.  I’m keen to find some time to explore the book, so watch this space…. 🙂

The Book-Finding Fairy makes a reappearance…

I’ve been purposely ignoring the charity shops lately, as it’s not as if the TBR mountain isn’t teetering; plus my reading speed has been surprisingly slow, and I keep getting distracted by cheap crafting supplies (that’s another story…) However, for some reason I felt the call of the Sense charity shop as I passed by it yesterday, and as I hadn’t visited it for a while I decided to drop in – which I was obviously meant to do…

The first two finds are particularly exciting as they’re both books that have been on my mental wishlist for a while – so to find them in excellent condition for only £1 each was a treat. They’re really not the usual type of thing that turns up in the Sense shop, so I can’t help thinking they were meant for me…

I took a punt on the Hamsun, as I couldn’t remember if I had this one or not (I have several of his titles) but fortunately I didn’t – so I’m really glad I did pick it up!

The Oxfam hasn’t had quite such brilliant stock recently, and their literature section really isn’t very well curated or organised. Everything is in the wrong category or order (though they haven’t got the howlers Sense has – Anna Karenina shelved by author under K…..) However, this caught my eye:

I’m keen to explore more of Amis senior’s work and so I thought I’d give this a try. I already have a couple of recent postal arrivals by Amis too, it’s just finding the time to read them:

I’ve read good things about both of them, and so I have high hopes!

Finally, I thought I’d share a couple of incoming volumes via my dear friend J. who, noting my interest in Soviet sci-fi, procured them from a book dealer friend of hers.

Since both feature the Strugatsky brothers, I’m rather excited! Now I just need to focus myself on *actually reading*!!!!

What it means to be human

Two more short stories by Kirill Bulychev

As you might have noticed, I was mightily impressed with the sci-fi short stories of Kirill Bulychev when I read his collection “Half a Life” recently. He was a very prolific author in his native language, but a quick search online revealed that not an awful lot of his works have been translated. However, I had a browse on the wonderful resource that is the Internet Speculative Fiction Database and found that there are some of his short stories in other collections and so I sent off for one that sounded particularly appealing – “World’s Spring”.

When it (finally) turned up, it was a lovely hardback edition – ex-library from the USA but in pretty condition despite that and the collection as a whole sounds really interesting. It’s one of the Macmillan Best of Soviet Sci Fi collections (as was “Half a Life”) and is translated by Roger DeGaris. The book is edited by Vladimir Gakov, apparently a sci-fi critic from the Soviet union, and he also provides a short introduction to each story. The volume is divided into four sections, entitled “Space: Amid the Stars – and on Earth”, “The Future – Fears and Hopes”, “Parallel Worlds: Space and Time” and “Aliens: Human and Nonhuman” . Bulychev’s two tales fall into the second and the last sections, and are just as good as the previous ones I’d read.

Bulychev really is a master storyteller, and in both stories he wrong-foots the reader from the beginning, not letting on quite who/what the protagonist is. In “An Ugly Bioform”, we meet (logically enough) a bioform – a human who has been surgically altered to survive extreme conditions on other planets and in other environments. Returning from his mission, he is somewhat alienated back on earth and unsure of his future until local events thrust him into a situation where his physical condition can be of use. The second story, “The Choice”, features someone who initially appears to be human, albeit with powers to change form and influence people. However, as the tale progresses it becomes clear that there is more to this person that meets the eye and they have a big decision to make about their future.

There is a consistent theme in both stories about belonging; whether you are a human originally or not a human, how much of your identity is defined by where you live and where you grew up? The stories explore these aspects of living very thoughtfully and Bulychev never hits you in the face with his message. Whilst celebrating simple human existence and the joys of life on earth, he shows the possibilities that could be out there in the universe. He also tells his story brilliantly, drawing you in and gradually revealing more about his characters and their setting until you’re completely involved in their fate – a real achievement in a short story. There’s a poignancy in both stories as we watch the characters wrestling with their circumstances and trying to make the right decision. In an era when the world is full of horrors, it’s timely to consider what it is to be a human being and what our responsibilities are to each other.

The introduction to the first story by Gakov is revealing; he discloses that Bulychev is the pseudonym of an academic and sings the praises of his prolific works, describing his work as “psychologically penetrating”. Of course, Wikipedia will tell you much, much more nowadays, but at the time of this book’s publication (1981) there was probably very little known in the west about the author. Gakov rates Bulychev highly, putting him as second only to the Strugatskys. I’ve probably not read enough of either of these to agree or disagree with that opinion, but I certainly rate Bulychev highly myself – and I fear another visit to the ISFDB may be due…. 🙂

(As an aside, this whole collection does look rather lovely – it contains a number of names I’m not familiar with, and when things are a little less frantic, I’ll spend some time exploring it!)

People are the same the world over…

Half a life by Kirill Bulychev
Translated by Helen Saltz Jacobson

Around the time I picked up my copy of “Dead Mrs Stratton”, I also tracked down a copy of “Half a Life”; I’d read about it on the Science Fiction Ruminations blog and it sounded fascinating. Iron Curtain sci-fi has become something of a thing with me recently; the Strugatskys and Stanislaw Lem have produced some of my favourite books, but Bulychev seems less well-known in the UK and I was keen to explore a little more widely. Bulychev, in fact, was extraordinarily prolific if you check out his Wikipedia page. However, very few of his works have appeared in English, and this collection, first published in the USA in 1977, is becoming harder and harder to track down.

“Half a Life” contains 7 short works, including the title piece which is the longest, and each is a little gem of tale. The book opens straightforwardly enough, with the setting of a small, oblast near the Volga. We are in post WW2 Soviet Russia and the army veteran ranger is waiting for a visit from his sister-in-law Natasha. Widowed Natasha is in the habit of leaving her daughter Olenka in the country for a break, and when she visits to collect her we sense a growing attraction between the two adults. However, this will be cruelly disrupted, as the story makes a sudden shift to the future, when an abandoned spaceship is discovered by a party from Earth who decide to tow it home. Exploring the wreck, one of the astronauts discovers a kind of journal kept by Natasha, and begins to piece together the story of a woman abducted by an alien ship as a specimen for a roving intergalactic race, trying to hold onto her sanity and her humanity. It’s an inspiring tale of resilience, strangeness and braveness, and left me feeling very moved.

Could he had missed traces of Natasha, walked right by them? Even on Earth, when one withdraws from the everyday world of airports and large cities, one loses the ability, as well as the right, to judge the real meaning of the things and phenomena one encounters. How much more true this was for the objects on an alien spaceship: the hemisphere, rolling away so easily from his feet; the recesses with their forgotten objects, and tools whose functions were a mystery; the tangled maze of wires and pipes; the bright stains on the walls; the bars on the ceiling; the sections of slippery floor; and the ruptured, semitransparent membranes. What sort of creatures had controlled the ship?

Although this is very much the centrepiece of the book, the rest of the stories are just as engrossing. “I Was the First to Find You” takes us along with a space expedition searching for signs of intelligent life on other planets; however there is an ironic temporal twist that affects their findings. “Protest” tells of the issues facing the Galactic Olympics – how is it going to be possible to have rules and regulations when the physicality of each race is so different? “May I Please Speak to Nina?” is a lovely little tale of telephone calls that transcend temporal boundaries. “Red Deer, White Deer” is set on a distant planet which has parallels with the development of early intelligence on our own. “Snowmaiden” again touches on the impossibility of connections between different races from different planets with completely different physical requirements to live. And the final story, “First Layer of Memory” is a very clever take on the trope of memory transfer.

Nature is cruel to intelligence. Still untempered and unaware of its potential strength, intelligence finds itself surrounded by powerful enemies; it hovers always on the brink of extinction. Enemies, both here and on Earth, are always more insolent and equipped with sharper and bigger teeth than the forebears of intelligent creatures. One must outwit them, hide from the, survive – on the other hand, without powerful enemies, one’s intelligence would not be sharpened.

Really, this is a wonderful collection of stories. I suppose I consider myself as a bit of an amateur when it comes to sci-fi as I haven’t read great amounts, and it’s a long time since I read any hard sci-fi and fantasy. Nevertheless, it seems to me that the best of the genre speaks to us about the human condition and how we would behave in certain circumstances. As this is Soviet era writing I found myself inevitably wondering if there was a subtext to the tales; and certainly it’s possilbe to draw some comparisons from the title story, where a woman is taken into custody and imprisoned for no apparent reason. And there is a specifically Russian feel to the stories, particularly in the time shifting “Nina”, which uses a specific historical setting, during food shortages in WW2, to tell another touching tale. There’s a poignancy in many of the stories, although there is also humour, with “Protest” reminding me very much of the light, ironic touch of Lem.

But I think Bulychev’s work transcends boundaries; whether we read of Piotr or Peter, these are all human beings with whom we can identify, experiencing extraordinary situations and trying to cope wherever they are. Bulychev’s book is a remarkable and moving one, and it’s just a terrible shame that more of his work hasn’t been translated.

Sneaking In A Few More Lucky Finds…

I always find that around Christmas time my book-buying calms down a bit – probably a combination of anticipating nice parcels under the tree, and not wanting to risk picking up something I might be given! Plus I’m focussing on what other people might want… However, I have to confess to a few recent arrivals, both by post and via the lovely local charity shops.

First up, an addition to the ever-growing pile of sci-fi on the shelves, and a Russian one at that (I have a number of Lems and Strugatskys and Soviet sci-fi anthologies lurking there too). This had a glowing review on Science Fiction Ruminations, and so I felt impelled to send for a copy…

Next, a couple of lovely editions from the Hogarth reboot in the 1980s. The Stafford book is one I was very keen to read (though for the life of me I can’t recall where I read about it – I should write these things down, really). The Anthony Berkeley is a classic Roger Sheringham tale; I enjoyed the several stories about him I read recently, and I remember this book being championed when the Hogarth Crime list was launched though I don’t think I owned a copy. The Stafford was from the Samaritans,  and the Berkeley from the Oxfam.

It’s a long while since I read any Angela Carter, but when I saw this in the Age Concern charity shop my interest was piqued. It’s Carter non-fiction and oft quoted as a classic and a book I really *should* have read. So for £1 I brought it home.

Another strange one, again from the Samaritans. I’ve read about Themerson somewhere, but goodness knows where. But it sounded quirky and intriguing and it’s an old Faber so it’s definitely worth a try!

And finally, my current read. More about Katayev will follow but this is thanks to Shoshi, and it’s biography/autobiography with fascinating portraits of Bunin and Mayakovsky. I stumbled across it while researching Katayev and had to send for a copy straight away (I need to own *anything* to do with Mayakovsky!)

I took the opportunity to revamp the shelves a little because of the new arrivals and with Christmas coming; I don’t keep a formal TBR but I do have a kind of ‘currently interested in’ section and it now looks like this:

Slightly tidier, and with a little room for some new additions. Must get the poetry pile down a wee bit, though….. 🙂

******

P.S.  And here’s a little late arrival that turned up after I’d scheduled this post, courtesy of Youngest Child on her return from university for Christmas – lovely! 🙂

Spoofing the Crime Novel – with a little bit of Sci Fi thrown in!

The Dead Mountaineer’s Inn by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky

I suppose I shouldn’t really be surprised that I’m discovering new and wonderful books and authors after all these years of reading – but I still get a real kick out of stumbling across something wonderful! I did last year with “Definitely Maybe” by the Strugatsky brothers; a piece of Soviet satire/sci-fi that was thought-provoking as well as being a fantastic read. it was published in the excellent Melville House Press’s Neversink Library, which seem to specialise in bringing obscure-ish works to us, and they’ve come up trumps with another book by the duo, in the form of “The Dead Mountaineer’s Inn”, a work from 1970 translated into English for the first time – and what a treat it turned out to be…

The blurb has it that the brothers were sick to death of fighting with the censors, trying to get their work published; so they decided to produce a detective novel, in which no harm could be possibly seen. However, this being the Strugatskys things didn’t exactly go as planned… Despite having all the tropes of a classic crime novel – isolated ski chalet, motley collection of guests, vacationing detective, avalanche, murder and locked room mystery – the brothers take things a step further, throwing in ghostly manifestations, a decidedly intelligent dog, plus possible zombies and extra-terrestrials…. The whole book is a wonderful mix, but also a very, very wonderful read.

The detective in question is Inspector Peter Glebsky, escaping from routine and family to take a skiing trip to the Dead Mountaineer’s Inn, recommended by his friend Zgut. You get the impression quite early on that Glebsky is a bit of an unreliable narrator, and certainly that does seem to be the case as the book progresses. Glebsky hits it off instantly with the Inn’s owner, Alek Snevar, and also the St. Bernard Lel (left over from the titular mountaineer). And the guests *are* a motley crew – there’s the scientist Simone, constantly climbing up walls and emitting hysterical laughter; Mr. and Mrs. Moses – the former very eccentric, the latter very beautiful; the magician du Barnstoker and the child of his deceased brother, known as Brun and of indeterminate sex; the highly strung Hinkus; and Olaf Andvarafors, described as a “blond viking”.

None of these characters are remotely straightforward, and as Alek and Peter strike up a kind of friendship, drinking together and chewing the fat, the Inn is subject to apparent manifestations; why is the shower always in use, but no-one knows who’s in it? Is Brun a boy or a girl? Does Lel know more than the humans? And why is Hinkus spending so much time on the roof in the snow? As the protagonists become trapped at the Inn by an avalanche, events become more and more mysterious and a murder takes place – but the body is in a locked room with absolutely no way of entry, the murder method itself is decidedly odd, and Glebsky (who is turning out to be a somewhat unreliable narrator) struggles to make sense of what’s happening around him. I’m not going to reveal any more about the plot because it’s a real delight watching it unfold, but let’s just say that the denouement is completely unexpected and surprisingly thought-provoking.

By midnight the owner and I had a pitcher of hot port already under our belts, and had moved on from discussing how best to notify the guests that they had been buried alive to more universal questions – for example, Is mankind doomed to extinction (Yes, doomed, but we won’t be around when it happens); Is there a force in nature that the human mind cannot fathom (Yes, there is, but we’ll never know anything about it); Is Lel the St. Bernard capable of sentient thought (Yes, he is, though convincing scientific dolts of this is impossible); Is the universe in danger of succumbing to so-called “heat death” (No, it is not in danger, due to the existence of perpetual motion machines of both the first and second type in the owner’s barn); Was Brun a boy or a girl (Here I was unable to come to any conclusion, but the owner put forward the odd idea that Brun was a zombie, that is, a sexless creature animated by magic)…

“The Dead Mountaineer’s Inn” is a book that obviously is going to work on several different levels, and I expected no less approaching a work written during Soviet times: it functions as a basic murder mystery story, as a spoof of the genre itself and the tropes associated with it, but also crosses genres in a way that’s very ahead of its time. And of course it is a comment on the state of the world as it was in 1970 and how it would be seen by people from other worlds. It’s important not to forget that the Strugatskys are mostly known for their science fiction; a genre much used in Soviet times, and one that would allow them to slip commentary past the vigilant eyes of the censor.

In some ways, the book reminded me of another Neversink treasure I read recently, “Where There’s Love, There’s Hate” which also spoofed the detective genre very successfully. I loved that book very much, but I think the Strugatskys take things to another level with this book, which left me meditating rather deeply on the mess humanity’s made of this planet and the failings of the human race. There were also hints of the influence of Stanislaw Lem, another recent discovery of mine, and I can’t help thinking that Soviet sci-fi writing is something which would bring rich rewards if explored.

Many years ago I discovered the Russian director Tarkovsky and was captivated by his film “Stalker”. It’s only very recently that I realised it was based on “Roadside Picnic” by the Strugatskys (a book I’ve recently invested in). Although I don’t read much hard sci-fi nowadays it was a type of writing I was very fond of in the past and I think I could quite easily be drawn back to it again…