Stanislaw Lem - His Masters Voice

We are like snails, each stuck to his own leaf. I retreat behind the shield of my mathematics, and recite, when that does not suffice, these final lines from Swinburne’s poem:

Zakopane, June 1967

Kraków, December 1967

END

A pulsating stream of neutrino radiation from a source with the power of a sun has been detected on earth and a team of scientists assembled to study and decode the mysterious message. As the scientists wrangle among themselves, clashing and conspiring while jockeying for favor and position, Lem produces witty and inventive satire of “men of science” and their thinking. In the race to discover whether the message is a technological gift or the formula for the ultimate weapon, the author grapples with the issue of scientific responsibility in a compelling sci-fi thriller.

“This is not a book, as it might seem, about science and scientists, the military, or politics, though they are all here. It is a book about the whole human race and what it’s like to be part of the twentieth century.”

“By the last chapters one is racing like a romance novel addict.”

“If he isn’t considered for a Nobel Prize by the end of the century, it will be because someone told the judges that he writes science fiction.”