Kind of funny that I read this only a couple months after reading The Invincible, since they're almost the same book. Humans come to unexplored planet and then wonder what the hell is going on exactly.

I found it interesting that he decided to use the character's titles instead of names, so you had "the Captain", "the Doctor" etc... Only once (as far as I remember) did he use a name (one of the guys was named "Henry") and that was only because another character was calling out for him and it would have sounded funny if he was yelling, "Chemist, are you there?" It did help to keep things straight, but removing that extra, "Which one is Henry?" type thing that happens when reading other books with 5 or 6 main characters. Especially since Lem's forte is definitely not characterization.

I'm really hoping the next Lem book I read is totally crazy, because that's what got me reading his stuff in the first place. Though this wasn't bad at all. ( )

Crash landing on a planet whose beauty caught their eye, the six-man crew divide their efforts between repairing their ship and exploring the planet. Only one man is given a name; the others are identified only by their profession. Yet they are not mere sketches: each has a personality and a realistic variability. They are on the whole heroic, curious and adventurous, and debate whether to remain and explore even as they overcome the severe obstacles to repairing and righting their ship. The technology is an odd mix to contemporary eyes: atomic motors, autonomous robots, but film cameras. Attention to detail: the planet has no ionosphere - radios don't work. The planet is utterly alien: plants but no animals, unfamiliar smells. The initial explorations are as disorienting to us the readers as to the explorers.

* S P O I L E R S *

Contact with an abandoned automated factory; eventually with the population of the planet. An inadvertent killing of a local. Various reactions from regret to fear of retaliation. Observation of incomprehensible social patterns. Formation of theories. Much social, philosophical, and pragmatic debate. Sympathy develops when a native attaches itself to them, in a manner the men interpret as escape from something intolerable: slavery, genocide?

A deus-ex-machina in the form of a local scientist which risks its life to contact them and establish communications; a miracle of desperation, human cybernetic ingenuity and alien determination results in something of an explanation of a society controlled by a secret government which through disinformation and control of communication has convinced its people that it does not even exist, and sets groups against each other keeping the population divided and controlled. Large segments of society are damaged as a result of a failed genetic engineering program some generations earlier that itself has been declared as never having happened.

Our team of explorers wants to help. Intervene, interfere, leave alone and not meddle? Human weapons are superior, something could be done - but how do you help a system you don't understand, when your human sympathies are an inadequate guide? They would have to destroy the system entirely, become tyrants in turn, to try and build something different. And how could human standards be applied to make something better for such a different society? The elect to leave, reluctantly. From orbit they remark again how beautiful this flawed and damaged Eden seems. ( )

Didn't draw me in.

A strangely fascinating book. ( )

Started a bit wierdly as I saw it was 'first published in 1990' but the extreme retro feel became more normal once I realised it was written in 1059 and that was the translation date.

Of course it continues very wierdly as this is Stanislaw Lem. He is such a master of 'show not tell'. Six crew members known by their occupation - Captain, Engineer, Chemist, Physicist, Cyberneticist, Doctor - except the engineer is sometimes called Henry by the captain - and a very alien planet. There's a lot of detailed description in the first half and I did get a bit impatient but by the second half I found it hard to put down. ( )