Introduction[]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Тени Чернобыля (Shadows of Chernobyl) is the first book of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. book series. Only Russian translation available to date.
There is a whole book series based on the novel Roadside Picnic and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game franchise. So far, they are only available in Russian. The first book is called S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadows of Chernobyl (Russian: Teni Chernobylya). It features a couple of stories written by different authors and fans of the game series.
Later, as the game gained more and more fans, the book series became a hugely successful franchise. However, most of the novelization don't follow the game storyline, as neither are the books connected to each other.
The success of the series has resulted in a decline in quality as some of the stories became rather stereotype novelizations applying the same clichés.
German novelization[]
Before S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was launched in 2007, GSC teamed up with fantasy author Bernd Frenz to produce German books . Frenz said in an interview that he was given one single afternoon with a beta version and a God mode trainer to get acquainted with the game. He produced three books, although totally different from the actual story. Even so, the books were a success and Panini, the publisher, launched several translations from Russian. However, some of the books were not up to the expectations and they also suffered from low linguistic and production quality.
Literary contest[]
Back into 2002, GSC announced a competition for the best literary works about the adventures of stalkers in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Until 2004, fans created 451 stories and novels, and you can find the works of the English-speaking writers here.
Gallery[]
These are the covers of the other books in the series: