Scores around a 8/10. It is my second work from the Strugatsky brothers, as I pummel ahead the SF Masterworks series from Gollancz. Some of my notes from reading the book:

• This is a low to the ground, gritty science fiction book. Characters are miserable for the most part, as the aliens didn’t even bother to even acknowledge us after their short visit of Earth. Their aftermath has desperate yet puzzling ramifications.
• There is an (allegedly) Tarkowsky masterpiece in film based on this book called Stalker. I have not watched it, but intend to. It is freely available on Youtube as of this writing.
• The publication history of this particular book is interesting. Apparently the grim nature of the writing, setting and story made more than one censor wary. I can see why.
• So, aliens visited Earth. They left a bunch of junk on their passing, which nobody noticed. Now these areas are dangerously pilfered since said junk are actually wonders to Humanity, potentially able to jump ahead science and knowledge. This is done under official institutions and also by the stalkers - Ne’er-do-wells wanting to risk their skins to make a quick fortune. Red, our unlikeable main character (an alcoholic amongst many other vices), is one of them.
• The sad reality is that nobody has a clue on what is going on. What those artifacts are. What the consequences are for tampering with them. Scientists and institutions are but a farce trying to save face in the midst of everything.
• On p.33 there is a brilliant internal dialogue by Red, after making it out of the Zone, that reads to me as the same internal dialogue of someone having just survived the atrocities of War.
• Why do humans chose to stay at or nearby these dangerous Zones? I suppose the Strugatskys cleverly realize that we are irrational actors in a Chaotic Universe, and we cling to any familiarity, even if it means greater danger.
• “Man is like that. If it wasn’t the Visit, it would have been something else. Pigs can always find mud.”
• Red is not evil, but he’s definitely not likeable.
• The book opens more questions than it answers, and I commend it for that.
• Unrelated, but: the first 30 pages read like the most OSR of OSRs die-in-a-hole of roleplaying games. Take note, punks!