His Master's Voice

By: Stanislaw Lem

Narrated by: Nick Sullivan

Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Here is a witty and inventive satire of "men of science" and their thinking, as a team of scientists races to decode a mysterious message from space. "I had the feeling that I was standing at the cradle of a new mythology. A last will and testament...we as the posthumous heirs of Them...."

©1998 Stanislaw Lem (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Stunningly intelligent; far too long.

While this is a must-read for hardcore fans of the first-contact genre, there's little here apart from the core idea; it's a great idea, but this novel would have been better as short fiction.

outstanding within the outstanding works of Master

An entertaining multi philosophical treatment of man and (super)human consciousness, questioning one track approaches of those extracting the insights of thinkers for their own otherwise destructive benefit.
An important book for anyone interested in science, scientism, history, philosophy and ... science fiction. Read it and you might wish to read it again ...

Sci-Phi: Science Fiction as Philosophy

Genius is one of those words that is overused. It seems like it just does not take much effort to qualify for such an honorific these days. However, there are those who truly deserve the title and, of these, Stanisław Lem is certainly one. His Master’s Voice is a powerhouse of philosophy, effortlessly weaving atomic age rhetoric together with high concept, hard science. The questions and answers pondered in this work trigger shift after shift of one’s paradigm, to the point that it is quite impossible to see the world the same way after turning the last page. While the lack of hard hitting plot points and extremely dense prose may not appeal to all, this book’s through-line has more utility and applications than a Swiss Army knife. Lem has constructed a true work of genius with His Master’s Voice, a work that could only have been conceived by a true master of the craft.

Great exploration of culture and tech interplay

Really interesting ideas! If you like The Expanse or Yuval Harari, you'll see an exploration of similar themes but in different scope and depth. The format (the musings of an academic on a paranoid Cold War American project to decipher a possible SETI signal) means you get a lot of imaginative thinking and intriguing possibilities, and not much plot development or action. If that's your cup of tea, you'll love it. If you're in the mood for a pulse-pounding space opera, this won't scratch that itch.

Excelent and entertaining

If you could sum up His Master's Voice in three words, what would they be?

Funny, entertaining, and intriguing.

What did you like best about this story?

That it worked so real and was entertaining.

Which scene was your favorite?

None specifically, but the introductions of some of the characters were brilliant

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The deception

Any additional comments?

Cool book.

Refreshing

I think this is a very refreshing piece of scifi. Sure, the story sometimes drags with intense bouts of reasoning but overall it really stand out as unique.

Amazing Sci-Fi, one of the best I’ve read

This book is amazing. If you like slow, thoughtful, and reflective fiction, with an extreme philosophical bent (particularly Philosophy of Language related to Russell and Frege and so on), this book is one of the best I have read. In my humble opinion, almost as good as The Dispossessed, which is one of my favorite sci fi books. This one is very philosophical, illustrating how truly difficult it would be to decipher a message (or if such a message could be discovered) from outer space. The protagonist, Peter Hogarth, is absolutely brilliant, being witty, arrogant, and extremely pessimistic on the discussion of language between cosmic beings. The only critique I can see reasonably is that if you aren’t familiar with much of philosophy of language, this book can be intimidating. Likely for myself, I became familiar with this book from my readings of this subject. Fantastic book.

10/10

A Masterpiece!

Extraordinarily erudite; this book has a tremendous amount to offer, but it is extremely dense in ideas, and references. It goes far beyond merely the notion of extraterrestrial contact, and delves into many aspects of philosophy and the human psyche. As Lem states in the book, “ the reader who, with growing impatience…in the hopes that I will regale him with thrills and chills every bit as delightful as those experiences, viewing horror movies…will be disappointed. I am writing, no sensational story, but telling how our civilization was subjected to a test of cosmic universality, and what became of this.“

His Master-piece

Any additional comments?

This is by far the best book of Stanislaw Lem and to me the best SCI-FI book in general.
One can think of it as a anti-Contact from Carl Sagan. Although there is not much action here, Lem manages to tell an interesting story and push his ideas about how small and silly we people are in face of real problems and storyteller communication.
The book is hard to read (listen) but it leaves you with a seance of real discovery once you're done. Your views on humanity will not be the same ever again.

Amazing insight for its time

Forbear the first few chapters; later on you’ll see their utility. An extremely engaging hypothetical situation that - who knows? - may become a real one any day…