His Master's Voice [Paperback]

Stanislaw Lem (Author), Michael Kandel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 1999

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 alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Polish

About the Author

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.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 199 pages
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press; 4th ptg. edition (November 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810117312
• ISBN-13: 978-0810117310
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.6 x 8.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #577,324 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars an incredibly intelligent read February 20, 2003

By chris romano

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wow. HIS MASTER'S VOICE, as others have alluded, it's an incredibly intelligent read. Thick in it's diction, it demands your attention, to say the least. Admittedly, I had a difficult time with the first 50 pages or so, but I became completely engrossed by the halfway point.

Told in essentially diary format, HMV tells the story of one scientist's involvement in a secret goverment project established to decipher what appears to be a message from possibly superior, intelligent life. While most scientists spiral their theories into the fantastic, ours manages to poke sensible holes in each assertion...unfortunately escalating the Project's sense of hopelessness and ineptitude along the way.

Somehow, the scientists manage to produce possibly random effects from the recorded signal, but what does it all mean in the grander scheme? It's a wonderful moment when the main character finallly establishes his own theory of the signal, the effect, and his own short-comings.

I loved it.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Lem's greatest work. And that's saying a lot. February 19, 1999

By "professorguy"

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.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars LEM THE THINKER July 5, 2006

By Robert L. Brockett

Format:Paperback

Stanislaw Lem's HIS MASTER'S VOICE is a masterful work with issues. The story, simple on its face and straightforward enough, has an alien message sent via neutrino particle waves being intercepted by mid-20th Century humankind at the height of the Cold War. An ever-growing army of scientists from every conceivable discipline are gathered in the desert (think Manhattan Project) to decode the thing. This formidable assemblage quickly begins to resemble nothing so much as the Biblical Tower of Babel. Agendas are on parade, most noticeably that of the American military, always on the lookout for a new mega-weapon (they nearly get their wish). In the end, nothing is resolved and we are left with far more questions than answers. (Beware: some of those questions are themselves quite remarkable, with the power to twist the average mind into an intellectual pretzel overnight.)

What Lem really gets right here is practically all in the Introduction, a stellar piece that had me jotting quotes on bookmarks. The "story," such as it is, doesn't really get going until about the second chapter. Essentially, the depths of human intellectual limitations are mined throughout. Lem's deft use of the desertscape serves to remind us of our hopelessly remote place in the universe and of the sheer vastness of space. Lonesome, indeed.

Where the book goes wrong is in Lem's basic approach. Rendered as a sort of posthumous epistolic diary, there is scant dialogue and very little action. A more dramatic approach would have saved HMV from its utter dryness. My guess is, this time around, Lem only wished a room with enough scale in which to park his ideas, and this he has done to the point where too much of the time the piece resembles more a work of philosophy than fiction.... A case of too much telling and not enough showing. Any dependable novelist would recognize the mistake.

In the end, HMV is not a display of Lem the Artist, but Lem the Thinker. And what a thinker he was. Read more ›

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If "Contact" is kindergarten level, "HMV" is PhD level November 8, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

If you ever happened to watch the misfortune that is the movie "Contact" (I have to admit that I have not read Carl Sagan's book, but I do hope it was better than the movie), know that this book deals with many of the same topics. But, if "Contact" is a kindergarten-level treatment of the topics in question, "His Master"s Voice" is a PhD-level treatment. A must for anyone for who likes science fiction to be more than just badly written fantasy with a few techie terms thrown in.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Proceed with Caution November 25, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

HMV is a very heavy read. Not in its weight but in its content.
This story reads more like philosophy than sci-fi so I can understand if people struggle with it.

Another point is that nothing is really ever solved in HMV. Just like the scientists trying to understand the message from the stars, the reader is left with the same frustration because we are told the outcome in the first few pages of HMV; defeat.

The message that Mankind has stumbled upon is an enigma so complex it would be like explaining the laws of physics to a baboon. The slight progress man does make is so subjective that it can't be considered true progress at all.

I would recommend HMV only to avid Lem fan's and to the others I would point in the direction of Fiasco, Solaris, or The Invincible.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An irritating but rewarding SETI novel August 8, 1996

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

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.
The signal seems to carry many levels of meaning,
each one more bizarre and mind-boggling than the last.
Lem, as always, weaves together ideas from the fringes
of modern science. He also explores the human aspects
of scientific research.

This book is not light reading.
Many parts require a mental effort like, say,
that needed to play chess.
This can be irritating, even infuriating.
For readers are up to the task, however,
the book rewards the effort many times over.