- Paperback: 199 pages
- Publisher: Harcourt Publishers Ltd; 1st Havrest/HBJ Ed edition (Mar 1984)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0156403005
- ISBN-13: 978-0156403009
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.5 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 621,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Scientists studying the phenomenon of neutrino radiation suddenly realize that the cosmic emissions are conveying a message for humanity, and the race is on to decode the alien transmission. A novel from the author of "The Star Diaries", "The Cyberiad" and "Return From the Stars".
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an insightful and provoking book, whose theme goes hand in hand with many of the greatest Russian SF works. Unlike his Western contempories, who mostly speculated about the unending future acheivements of man, Lem wrote about our fundemental limits, particularly in understanding the universe, and other people. In some ways, it bears a resemblence to the "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatsky (sp?) brothers.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'His Master's Voice' explores the limitations of our understanding of the universe in a similar way to the author's most famous book, 'Solaris'. It is also a savage satire on the politicisation of scientific exploration, and the tendency of human beings to spend more time on working out how to destroy each other than on developing their knowledge.
It's a dense, brilliant book told from the point of view of a scientist who has worked on a project to decipher a message from space, which is thought to be a 'letter' from a faraway civilisation. The scientists trying to decipher the letter meet with limited success, but one of the experiments they make produces a reaction that could be used to make a deadly new weapon. Predictably, the authorities soon decide that developing this weapon is now their top priority...
Every sentence in this book is packed with meaning and demands to be read slowly and carefully. 'His Master's Voice' is a difficult read, but it is always fascinating and is never boring. The idea that man is often too preoccupied with politics and short-term expediency to extend his knowledge of the universe is not a new one, but this book explores it in great detail and with such a savage satirical effectiveness that it feels new and fresh even today.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you're familiar with Lem, you know he can dash off deep insights as asides. Now imagine his intellect focused on what it means to be human trying to understand the universe. A masterpiece.
This is not his best science fiction (Fiasco gets that honor) nor his most revealing psychological work (ironically that's Cyberiad). It doesn't explore technology to the greatest extent (try the Golem lectures). However, it may stand as simply the most important work of fiction of the information age.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Deep and inspiring, with a dose of cold war angst.
This is a book I read first when I was very young, and which has somehow influenced and haunted me all of my life. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Christian Wendt
Impossibility
His Masters Voice is the perfect antidote to all those mainstream Hollywood movies that have cannibalised the literary science fiction of the last 100 years. Read more
Published 16 months ago by HHD
not is necessarily what you think
What other reviewers forget is that this is a political/philosophical work (in marxist terms there is no difference between the two). Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mr. P. J. Stokes
One of the 'must be read' books
Knowledge can be a powerful tools for good as well as evil. Lem offers an excellent and profound analysis of the relationship between human knowledge, psychology and environment-... Read more
Published 20 months ago by K. Gryszkiewicz
A Genuine Alienness
A highly recommended exploration of genuine alienness. Incommunicable, unfathomable, the kind of encounter that refuses to conform to the frameworks and paradigms that we attempt... Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2009 by Pablo K
More than just a satire of the scientific establishment
This book needs desperately to be reprinted. Though not as overtly humorous as many of Lem's other books, or as other scientific satires (Arrowsmith, The Black Cloud), it is... Read more
Published on 4 July 1999
an entertaining exercise for the mind
I had to read this novel twice to be sure I 'got it'. This I was glad to do, for upon finishing it the first time, I felt that my mind (the rational portion of it) had experienced... Read more
Published on 8 April 1997
An irritating but rewarding SETI novel
A synthetic signal from outer space is detected.
In Sagan's "Contact", the signal
encodes plans for a spaceship; here it's not so simple. Read more
In Sagan's "Contact", the signal
encodes plans for a spaceship; here it's not so simple. Read more
Published on 8 Aug 1996
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