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Fiasco

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Fiasco

By: Stanislaw Lem
Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
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About this listen

 The planet Quinta is pocked by ugly mounds and covered by a spiderweb-like network. It is a kingdom of phantoms and of a beauty afflicted by madness. In stark contrast, the crew of the spaceship Hermes represents a knowledge-seeking Earth. As they approach Quinta, a dark poetry takes over and leads them into a nightmare of misunderstanding.©1988 Stanislaw Lem (P)2009 Audible, Inc. Science Fiction Fiction Emotionally Gripping Greek Mythology Ancient Greece

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I've read this book a few times over the years and always get something new from it. A lot of Lem's hard serious science fiction novels (Solaris, Eden, The Invincible) deal with contact with aliens in a similar way, how can we make contact with the truly alien, do we understand ourselves enough to do so anyway, do we have the right etc?

This is Lem's last novel, he only writes essays after this book and there are quite a few essay like passages throughout the book, musings on varous themes etc, but don't let this put you off, they are always interesting. No other writer has the same approach and vision as Lem and you won't read another science fiction book like this. There are parts of the book that have stuck in my head for years, especially the finale. The narration is great as well.

Classic hard sci-fi

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A chilling, disturbing dissection of humanity's inability to escape its club-wieldind, genocidal roots, even and moreover when they think they are at the peak of their climb to God-like serene rationality.
Also, an eulogy to our bold anthropocenthrism.
Finally, buyer beware: this is not your classic, action packed sci-fi. Lem was a physics PhD, and a philosopher. Most of the book develops as a reflection, which may be puzzling when unexpected, but believe me, action and suspense are embedded in the long reflections and asides, all coming to a synthesis more and more apparent as the events slowly develop, while the reader helplessly witnesses the ethical horror unfold, endowed by those long musings with an understanding of further ethical horrors to come, yet unable to prevent them. This is sci-fi that changes your assumption on humanity. Straight to my "to be read in schools" shelf.

A rewarding effort of the mind

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