Tales of Pirx the Pilot - Softcover

Lem, Stanislaw

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156881500 ISBN 13: 9780156881500

Publisher: Harper Voyager, 1990

Synopsis

In Pilot Pirx, Lem has created an irresistibly likable character - an astronaut who gives the impression of still navigating by the seat of his pants. He is a bumbler, but an inspired one.

We follow Pirx through five adventures in a time when space travel has become routine. Yet things go wrong, mysteriously and suspiciously, and Pirx is the one to investigate strange accidents - either because his superiors trust his flair, or because they consider him expendable.

Whimsical, spellbinding, infused with Lem's uncannily vivid "familiarity" with the day-to-day realities and regions of space travel, the tales of Pilot Pirx build up to a towering climax. We first meet Pirx in school, embarking on a training mission that is to drive home to him, with devastating impact, the inadequacy of textbook knowledge in an astronaut's arsenal. The final adventure finds Pirx deciphering a spaceship's sinister past with the help of a robot's retentive memory.

By investing Pirx with the full range of human foibles, Lem offers here a wonderful vision of the audacity, childlike curiosity, and intuition that may give humans the courage to confront the vastness of outer space.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"A science fiction writer worthy of a Nobel Prize" -New York Times
Follow Pilot Pirx-a bumbling and irresistibly likeable astronaut-through five adventures set in a time when space travel has become routine. Pirx is charged with investigating strange space accidents, perhaps because his superiors appreciate his flair, or perhaps because they consider him expendable. The tales build to a towering climax when in the final installment, Pirx must decipher a spaceship's sinister past with the help of a robot's retentive memory.
At once audacious, childlike, and intuitive, the character of Pirx offers a wonderful vision of the very qualities that may, in the future, give us the courage to confront the vastness and uncertainty of outer space.
"Lem is not only a marvelous spinner of tales of the fantastic but also a challenging philosopher of the meanings and ramifications of technology." -Chicago Tribune
Stanislaw Lem is the most widely translated and best known science fiction author writing outside of the English language. Winner of the Kafka Prize, he is a contributor to many magazines, including the New Yorker, and he is the author of numerous works, including Solaris.

About the Author:

Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006) was the most widely translated and best known science fiction author writing outside of the English language. Winner of the Kafka Prize, he was a contributor to many magazines, including the New Yorker, and the author of numerous works, including Solaris.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Voyager
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0156881500
• ISBN 13: 9780156881500
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216