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selenicseasThis is a book I'd vaguely heard about through the years, but didn't pick up until last December. I knew it was the inspiration for the Stalker series of video games and also learned recently that it was one of the inspirations for the Southern Reach series.
It was much less scientific than I expected, and there isn't all that much time spent in the zone. Instead, much of the book focuses on how the zone affects the people around it, from mutations in their children, to personal health, to the local economy. It's small-picture, focused on the working class, rather than big-picture, focused on the aftermath of aliens visiting Earth.
The edition I have comes with an afterword discussing how difficult it was to get the book published in the Soviet Union. Evidently it was too vulgar and hopeless for the censors.
It was much less scientific than I expected, and there isn't all that much time spent in the zone. Instead, much of the book focuses on how the zone affects the people around it, from mutations in their children, to personal health, to the local economy. It's small-picture, focused on the working class, rather than big-picture, focused on the aftermath of aliens visiting Earth.
The edition I have comes with an afterword discussing how difficult it was to get the book published in the Soviet Union. Evidently it was too vulgar and hopeless for the censors.
