Fiasco

By: Stanislaw Lem

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

The planet Quinta is pocked by ugly mounds and covered by a spiderweb-like network. It is a kingdom of phantoms and of a beauty afflicted by madness. In stark contrast, the crew of the spaceship Hermes represents a knowledge-seeking Earth. As they approach Quinta, a dark poetry takes over and leads them into a nightmare of misunderstanding.

©1988 Stanislaw Lem (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Not standard Sci-Fi fare ...

It's OK. There were certainly passages that made me stop and think, especially concerning the paths civilizations may take when it comes to war, self-destruction and so on. Lem must be brilliant but Fiasco seems to be mostly comprised of long expositions on these subjects and the story itself moves very slowly. And I really couldn't understand the ending at all. It just sort of fell off the cliff. All in all, it was worth it.

Meh. Not Lem's Best

The story might have been more interesting if the characters didn't read so much as mouthpieces for the author's views on alien contact. The long-winded lectures and exposition on the science of contact deflated any tension in the plot or interest in the characters. It was almost like reading a Socratic dialogue in some parts. I listened to much of this book in a kind of numb determination to get through it because there was little actual drama or character development. Good science fiction, in my view, needs to strike an appropriate balance between telling and showing: telling about the science and the speculation on future developments and showing that through scene-driven character development. Fiasco is most definitely a "telling" novel so full of exposition and long asides that the characters are only a tertiary concern. Wyman's narration, which can be very credible when he is given good material, only added to the slog of this book since the regular rolling tones of his speech lulled me into inattention and boredom. Skip this one and get Solaris narrated by Allessandro Juliani if you haven't already; that is guaranteed to be a better experience with Lem. It has interesting ideas, but it's not worth the slog to get to them.

Sci-fi for the Hard of Core

This book is short on action but full of aha and hmm moments. In the form of a novel the author shares his thoughts and ideas about alien life and what an encounter with it look like as well as some ideas about advanced forms of artificial intelligence. The book uses scientific language and advanced concepts but it's not necessary to be familiar with them to follow the thoughts and get the ideas. If you ever wondered about what other forms of intelligence laws of nature can produce this is a book for you.

Maybe it reads better than it listens

I decided to give up after I nearly fell asleep and drove off the road. This was during an endless and repetitive description of the rock formations Lem imagined to be on Saturn's moon Titan. I was already a bit sleepy from a 20-minute passage that served to convey little more than the fact that the main character put on a mech-suit.

Short vivid descriptions stimulate the imagination. These long repetitive descriptions stifled mine. If I had been reading the book instead of listening to it, I could have skimmed them or skipped ahead to the good stuff. The narrator is quite good, but I nonetheless recommend reading this book rather than listening to it.

Sublime tale

Lem's wild and relentlessly logical imagination crafts a multi-layered tale of male desires probing and engaging nature. A delightful intellectual ride and a wise caution to grand ambitions combined with grand technical power.

Instruction Manual

If you like reading instruction manuals or how to books, then you may love this book. I got a little over half way and had to give it up. Most the time my mind would wonder, no matter how hard I tried to concentrate and figure out what the story was. It is also very heavy in physics. Lots and lots of discussion. If you want to read hard sci fi and catch the wonder of space, read Arthur C. Clarke.

Simply nothing like it

Stanislaw Lem is one of my favorite sci fi authors and this book does not disappoint. A strange, though provoking story that kept a sense of wonder throughout the book. Certainly not a book for everyone but for people who love sci fi filled with ideas that stick long after the book is done, this surely is a book to read.

interesting, but not as good as solaris

not a bad book at all really. fairly characteristic of lem. long passages that read like hard science, minimal characterization, extreme skepticism about interpersonal communication. just feels like he's only got this one note, though. you get essentially the same experience reading his other novels.

A true masterpiece

Lem at his finset. the novel is a pinaccle of Lem's literary talent. a must read for any fan of hard SciFi

Preachy

Didn't realize this was from 1986 - you can tell.
Very disapointing - preaches a lot to justify the characters comiting mass murder.
Also has very stupid characters.

A rewarding effort of the mind

A chilling, disturbing dissection of humanity's inability to escape its club-wieldind, genocidal roots, even and moreover when they think they are at the peak of their climb to God-like serene rationality.
Also, an eulogy to our bold anthropocenthrism.
Finally, buyer beware: this is not your classic, action packed sci-fi. Lem was a physics PhD, and a philosopher. Most of the book develops as a reflection, which may be puzzling when unexpected, but believe me, action and suspense are embedded in the long reflections and asides, all coming to a synthesis more and more apparent as the events slowly develop, while the reader helplessly witnesses the ethical horror unfold, endowed by those long musings with an understanding of further ethical horrors to come, yet unable to prevent them. This is sci-fi that changes your assumption on humanity. Straight to my "to be read in schools" shelf.