A pretty solid soviet science fiction novel, in which prospectors referred to as Stalkers explore and retrieve artifacts from the Zone, the site of an alien visitation event years in the past. It has just the right amount of science fiction terminology, concepts and lore to string the reader along, but it's strength really is the character's interior voices and social commentary. I listened to the audiobook version with an afterword by one of the authors and found it particularly insightful.