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Title: Fiasco by Stanislaw Lem ISBN: 0-15-630630-1 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Vintage Lem
Comment: This is the only one of his books that I've ever read outside of Solaris and there are a lot of parallels in that book. Like that one, Lem discusses contact with an alien race and like Solaris, that contact goes against all previous sci-fi notions along those lines. Though in Solaris the alien was the planet and it was largely unreachable as an entity, which was the point, here the aliens even talk to the crewmembers though Lem still never shows what they look like. But this has some of his most interesting philosophical discussions, something we don't see a lot of in science-fiction today, or ever, for that matter. The reactions of the crew to a planet completely at war are fascinating, instead of staying out of it, they keep trying to show their strength and scare the inhabitants . . . so much for that Prime Directive. To me, the reactions of the crew were much more realistic than any other book I've read and if some people think they're extreme . . . well try to imagine yourself in the same situation. It's nearly impossible. It's a pity that this book is out of print when so many other lesser books are, but a dedicated fan can find it and if the number of reviews here inspires someone to go search it out, then hey, we've done our job.
Rating: 5
Summary: Science as Sociology, Literature
Comment: The finest example of science fiction in the world. Kandel does his usual acrobatics in rendering Lem's Polish into English. Lem has obviously learned much from Olaf Stapeldon; if only other writers would do the same, sci-fi would not be such a disappointing genre. Instead, sadly, Fiasco and Stapeldon's sci-fi books seem to be out-of-print.
Fiasco is simply astonishing: a meditation on the nature of intelligence, culture, technology. Lem often parodies science fiction while writing serious literature, but with this novel he and translator Michael Kandel outdid all previous efforts.
While The Futurological Congress remains my favorite Lem book (personal taste), Fiasco is the best Lem book in English, followed closely by the 'lectures' of GOLEM the computer in Lem's Imaginary Magnitude.
Rating: 5
Summary: Stanislaw Lem: The Moral Conscience of Science Fiction
Comment: In my opinion, Fiasco is an even more damning statement of the folly and pretense behind space exploration than Solaris is, and thank God for that. I believe Stanislaw Lem is one of the most aware authors in the whole field of science fiction. What some readers seem to perceive as his cynicism is, I believe, nothing more than the deep disappointment of a sensitive and truly optimistic man who is sick to death of the evil that men do to each other through the agency of science. Yes, he appreciates scientific inquiry, but he also understands fully how the emotional coldness of scientific inquiry has had the undesirable consequence of freezing our hearts dead, doorknob-stiff.
Furthermore, I think that what righteously enrages Mr. Lem is his ruthless recognition of the fact that for mankind, the primary benefit of technological advancement has been the acquisition of power, and we sure can't get enough of THAT. The indisputable proof of his sensible, knowledgeable, and historically validated cynicism as regards man's rush to technological godhood is written in the blood-splattered pages of the history of this planet.
Christopher Columbus' expeditions to the New World were followed up by a holocaust that engulfed the North and South American continents in a firestorm of genocidal warfare and deliberately introduced disease, resulting in the near-extinction of the peaceful, innocently welcoming Indians that he 'discovered' in 1492. In 1853-54, Commodore Perry on three visits to the Ryukyu and Bonin islands before going to Japan and while waiting for a reply from Japan, arrogantly dismissed the native's desire to be left the hell alone and made a naval demonstration by way of a volley of cannon-fire and landed his Marines twice. Of course, all of this preemptive violence was only to secure facilities for commerce, henceforth known as the "opening of Japan." Hurrah! So much for 'free' trade. Makes you think about the attack on Pearl Harbor in a new and interesting light, doesn't it?
In Fiasco, Mr. Lem has the courage to state plainly the true reason why we want to run out to the stars: to conquer them, to steal them, and claim them as our property. Listen, just listen, will you, to the thoughts of Tempe, the main protagonist in Fiasco who, after landing his capsule on the planet Quinta, wanders over a landscape utterly devastated by the cataclysmic assault that was launched from the orbiting mothership, Hermes, to punish the Quintans for not welcoming contact with the Earth-men:
"It was not his belief that communication with the Quintans was senseless, based on false assumptions---it was not that which oppressed him, but the fact that they had entered into a game of contact where violence was the highest suit. This thought he kept to himself, because more than anything he wanted to see the Quintans. How could he, despite all his reservations and doubts, turn his back on such an opportunity? Arago (the priest onboard the mothership) had taken a dim view of their policy even before the phrase "show of strength" came up (and) had called a lie a lie, had repeated that they were entering into a contest of deceit; that they were pushing so forcibly toward communication that they were actually abandoning it; that they were covering themselves with masks and stratagems---safer thereby, perhaps, but more and more removed from any genuine opening up of a view into an Alien Intelligence. They jumped upon Quinta's subterfuges, struck at Quinta's every refusal, and made the goal of the expedition less attainable the more brutal the blows they used in its attainment."
The way I see it, if we ever get as far out into this universe as some of us would like, and if we ever encounter any form of life that could respond in any way to our presence, I hope to God almighty that they are advanced enough, powerful enough, and angry enough at our uninvited intrusion into their space to send us back here with the quickness, with our tails between our rocket exhausts, humbled and ready to look into the mirrors that Stanislaw Lem advises us to look deeply into, before we go slinging our slop all over the cosmos again.
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Title: His Master's Voice by Stanislaw Lem, Michael Kandel ISBN: 0810117312 Publisher: Northwestern University Press Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.37 |
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Title: Eden by Stanislaw Lem ISBN: 0156278065 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 31 October, 1991 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem, Michael Kandel, Daniel Mroz ISBN: 0156027593 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 16 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy by Stanislaw Lem, Michael Kandel ISBN: 0156340402 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: October, 1985 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, Joanna Kilmartin, Steve Cox ISBN: 0156027607 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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