The Invincible
Author | : Stanislaw Lem |
Publisher | : MIT Press |
Total Pages | : 235 |
Release | : 2020-02-18 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780262538473 |
ISBN-13 | : 0262538474 |
Rating | : 4/5 (73 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: A space cruiser, in search of its sister ship, encounters beings descended from self-replicating machines. In the grand tradition of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, Stanisław Lem's The Invincible tells the story of a space cruiser sent to an obscure planet to determine the fate of a sister spaceship whose communication with Earth has abruptly ceased. Landing on the planet Regis III, navigator Rohan and his crew discover a form of life that has apparently evolved from autonomous, self-replicating machines—perhaps the survivors of a “robot war.” Rohan and his men are forced to confront the classic quandary: what course of action can humanity take once it has reached the limits of its knowledge? In The Invincible, Lem has his characters confront the inexplicable and the bizarre: the problem that lies just beyond analytical reach.