His Master's Voice - Softcover

Stanislaw Lem; Michael Kandel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810117312 ISBN 13: 9780810117310

Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 2006

Synopsis

Originally published in 1968, His Master's Voice is a transitional work between Stanislaw Lem's more or less straightforward science fiction of the earlier years and the searching, difficult, and frequently experimental works of later decades. The novel takes the form of a posthumously published diary by an eminent mathematician, Peter Hogarth, a key participant in the His Master's Voice project, a blunt analogy to the Manhattan Project.

About this title

Review:

"I would recommend ["His Master's Voice"] urgently to anyone in need of a taste of nobility." --"New York Times Book Review"
"I would recommend [His Master's Voice] urgently to anyone in need of a taste of nobility." --New York Times Book Review

From the Back Cover:

"Twenty-five hundred scientists have been herded into an isolated site in the Nevada desert. A neutrino message of extraterrestrial origin has been received, and, under the surveillance of the Pentagon, the scientists labor on His Master's Voice, the secret program set up to decipher the transmission."--BOOK JACKET. "Among them is Peter Hogarth, an eminent mathematician whose posthumous diary makes up the novel. Hogarth joins His Master's Voice after all efforts to decode the message prove futile and, after an early success, gives up on the project to pursue clandestine research into the so-called TX effect. Hogarth comes to realize that the TX effect could lead to the construction of the ultimate weapon - a fission bomb - and that such knowledge must not be allowed into the hands of the military."--BOOK JACKET. "Originally published in 1968, His Master's Voice takes to task the military takeover of scientific research, Cold War - era politics, and humanity's perpetual capacity for (self-)destruction. It remains a mordant satire on scientific microworlds and the monstrous political and military systems bankrolling them."--BOOK JACKET.

About this edition

• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0810117312
• ISBN 13: 9780810117310
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200