The novel is set in a mysterious world where enigmatic Mentors run a sociological experiment. The mentors gathered volunteers from Earth from various places and times: from Germany of the 1940s, the USA of the 1960s, Sweden of the 1970s, etc. The volunteers do not know the goals or conditions of the experiment. In spite of different native languages the people can effortlessly communicate with each other. Most of the people live in the City that is skirted by a swamp on one side and a desert on the other. Apparently, the experiment runs out of control, the City is shaken by a social unrest and an egalitarian system of job rotations is replaced by a dictatorship.

The main character — Andrei Voronin — is an astronomer from Leningrad of the 1950s. He struggles to find his identity and his place in the strange city, at first being a vehement opponent of the dictatorship, and later becoming a leading adviser of the dictator. Naively idealistic at the beginning of the novel, he seems to have become crass in the second half.

However, eventually, he leads an expedition to explore the desert. The expedition proves difficult in the extreme. The members are exhausted, they turn back or perish. Eventually, only Andrei and his skeptical friend Izia Katzman forge ahead. They encounter deserted cities and ruins of Earth cultures that show that the mysterious world is very old and humans have inhabited it for a long time.

As Andrei and Izia proceed, they ponder the strange world and the meaning of human existence. They run out of supplies, but they keep going on eager to learn what is beyond the "zero point". Andrei apparently dies on the border shooting at his double. He then finds himself back in the Leningrad of the 1950s, where his Mentor tells him that he passed the first circle, but "there are many of them ahead".

A cargo spaceship, propelled by a photon engine with a large reflective mirror ("sail"), visits the Jupiter system to deliver cargo to a staffed science station on Amalthea. Damaged by meteorites, the spaceship falls into Jupiter but survives the pressure and floats in the dense atmosphere. The crew manage to work around the damaged mirror and start the main engine to escape Jupiter and finally reach Amalthea.

The story follows Alexander Privalov, a young computer programmer who, while driving home from a vacation in Karelia, gives a ride to two hitchhikers and ends up staying at the National Institute for the Technology of Witchcraft and Thaumaturgy (NIITChAVO) in the fictional town of Solovets. There he discovers a research institute where sorcerers, folkloric creatures, and Soviet bureaucracy coexist, and scientists approach magic with the same rigor and administrative red tape as any other branch of science.

The novel combines folklore, absurdist humor, and a parody of Soviet scientific institutions and academic life.

A spaceship, propelled by a prototype photon engine, sets off for Venus, which is then an enigmatic and unexplored planet that is covered by clouds. The tasks of the crew are to test the prototype engine in field conditions and to locate and set radio beacons on the so called "Uranium Golconda" (a place with incredibly large heavy metals deposits) that is presumably found somewhere on the second planet of the Solar System.

As the crew ventures into the depths of Venus, unknown dangers take them out one by one and so only four of six return home after they accomplished the mission, and all are badly damaged both physically and mentally. However, their feat was the first milestone in colonizing Venus and the first step into the 21st century.

Roadside Picnic is set in the aftermath of an extraterrestrial event, the Visitation, which occurred simultaneously in several locations around the Earth over a two-day period. Neither the Visitors themselves nor their means of arrival or departure were ever seen by the local populations, who lived inside the relatively small areas, each a few square kilometers, of the six Visitation Zones. The Zones exhibit strange and dangerous phenomena that are not understood by humans and contain artifacts with inexplicable properties.

A cidade de Harmont está mudada. Desde que foi palco de uma das várias invasões alienígenas na Terra, o clima é de incerteza e medo. Os visitantes anônimos não se comunicaram com os terráqueos, e assim deixaram a humanidade com questionamentos aterradores. Nos locais onde eles estiveram, agora zonas proibidas, fenômenos perigosos continuam acontecendo. O trabalho ilegal de Redrick Schuhart, e de todos os outros stalkers, é invadir esse território para coletar e depois comercializar estranhos e misteriosos objetos trazidos de mundos distantes. Publicado pela primeira vez em 1971 na União Soviética, Piquenique na estrada mistura alusões à Guerra Fria e reflexões sobre a insignificância humana. Adaptado para os cinemas no filme Stalker, de Andrei Tarkóvski, é um dos maiores clássicos da ficção científica no leste europeu.

The story describes the adventures of Maxim Kammerer. Kammerer is an amateur space explorer from Earth. The novel starts when Kammerer accidentally discovers an unexplored planet Saraksh inhabited by a humanoid race. The level of technological development on the planet is similar to mid-20th century Earth. Recently, the planet had a nuclear and conventional war and the predicament of the population is dire. When Kammerer lands, the natives mistake his spaceship for a weapon and destroy it.
At first, Kammerer does not take his situation seriously. He imagines himself a Robinson Crusoe stranded on an island inhabited by primitive but friendly natives. He is looking forward to establishing contact and befriending the population of the planet. However, the reality turns out to be far from glamorous. Kammerer finds himself in the capital of a totalitarian state, perpetually at war with its neighbors. The population is governed by an anonymous oligarchy of Unknown Fathers, with police and military omnipresent. The city is grim and polluted. The ordinary populace leads the life of privation and misery. What goes on around Kammerer does not make sense to him, since his own society is free from war, crime and material shortages.

Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a &“full empty,&” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he'll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems. First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years. This authoritative new translation corrects many errors and omissions and has been supplemented with a foreword by Ursula K. Le Guin and a new afterword by Boris Strugatsky explaining the strange history of the novel's publication in Russia.

'A beautiful book' Ursula K. Le Guin
This mordantly funny and provocative tale from Soviet Russia's leading science fiction writers is the story of astrophysicist Dmitri Malianov. As he reaches a major breakthrough, he finds himself plagued by interruptions, from a mysterious crate of vodka to a glamorous woman on his doorstep. Is the Universe trying to tell him something?
'On putting down one of their books, you feel a cold breeze still lifting the hairs on the back of your neck' The New York Times

A spaceship, propelled by a prototype photon engine, sets off for Venus, which at that time, is an enigmatic and unexplored planet covered by clouds. The tasks of the crew are a) to test the prototype engine in field conditions and b) to locate and set radio beacons on the s.c. "Uranium Golconda" (a place with incredibly large heavy metals deposits), presumably, found somewhere on the second planet of the Solar System.
As the crew ventures into the depths of Venus, unknown dangers take them out one by one, so only a half of them returns home after accomplishing the mission—all badly damaged, both physically and mentally. However, their feat was the first milestone in colonizing Venus and the first step into the 22nd century.

The novel follows Anton, an undercover operative from the future planet Earth, in his mission on an alien planet, that is populated by human beings, whose society has not advanced beyond the Middle Ages. The novel's core idea is that human progress throughout the centuries is often cruel and bloody, and that religion and blind faith can be an effective tool of oppression, working to destroy the emerging scientific disciplines and enlightenment.
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Don Rumata has been sent from Earth to the medieval kingdom of Arkanar with instructions to observe and to save what he can. Masquerading as an arrogant nobleman, a dueler, and a brawler, he is never defeated, but yet he can never kill. With his doubt and compassion, and his deep love for a local girl named Kira, Rumata wants to save the kingdom from the machinations of Don Reba, the first minister to the king. But given his orders, what role can he play? This long overdue translation will reintroduce one of the most profound Soviet-era novels to an eager audience.
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are widely known as the greatest Russian writers of science fiction, and their 1964 novel Hard to Be a God is considered one of the greatest of their works. Yet until now the only English version (unavailable for over thirty years) was based on a German translation, and was full of errors, infelicities, and misunderstandings. Now, in a new translation by Olena Bormashenko, whose translation of the authors’ Roadside Picnic has received widespread acclaim, here is the definitive edition of this brilliant work.

Maxim Kammerer is given a high-priority assignment as a security officer: track down Lev Abalkin, whose unorthodox, individualistic way of living threatens the status quo.

Soviet science fiction novel by the Strugatsky brothers.