I'll start by saying that I love RP. This is not a criticism as much as it is wishful thinking.
In the beginning of the book when Red is entering the zone, you read about them looking inside dezzerted homes that were left untouched since the aliens came down and that just filled me with excitement. I was very eager to read a story that takes place in this zone that looks like a typical town but actually isn't. It felt very unique to me. Like, you know how Red explains how they can get this piece of technology from this super dangerous and deadly area… and it's a garage? I was looking forward to having more of these types of super regular/deadly areas but the novel didn't really take us on that type of adventure and most of it didn't even take place in the zone. So many buildings left unexplored. So much potential. We could've had an iconic map of the zone the same way we have an iconic map of Middle Earth and instead of cities like Rohan and Mordor, we get landmarks like the garage and the quarry, and some factory and some house called 'The Mikhailovs' House' or something regular Russian like that.
The book is as long as it needs to be, so instead of having a longer RP where more of the zone is explored, I would've loved sequels exploring other parts of the Zone. Again, I would've loved a map. Imagine RP stretched along a three-or-four-book franchise of short novels, same way '2001: A Space Odyssey' did, and kept expanding on the philosophy and having it develop and arc gradually and elegantly along the novels.
Just wishful thinking. A man can dream. Would you have loved this as much as me or do you think it would've been a bad idea?
by Loriol_13