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Tales Of Pirx The Pilot

Name: Tales Of Pirx The Pilot
Rating: 4.1 (6518 reviews)
Author: Stanisław Lem

Stanisław Lem January 1, 1961

4.1 6.5k Ratings

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Synopsis

In Pilot Pirx, Lem has created an irresistibly likable character: an astronaut who gives the impression of still navigating by the seat of his pants-a bumbler but an inspired one. By investing Pirx with a range of human foibles, Lem offers a wonderful vision of the audacity, childlike curiosity, and intuition that can give humans the courage to confront outer space. Translated by Louis Iribarne.

A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.

Books similar to Tales Of Pirx The Pilot

The Cyberiad

★ 4.14

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A brilliantly funny collection of stories for the next age, from the celebrated author of Solaris. Ranging from the prophetic to the surreal, these stories demonstrate Stanislaw Lem's vast talent and remarkable ability to blend meaning and magic into a wholly entertaining and captivating work.

The Star Diaries

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Ijon Tichy travels undercover to a robot world, joining an organization to clean up world history thru time travel.

Things go crazy immediately. His spaceship runs into gravitational vortices at relativistic speeds, resulting in massive time anomalies. It may be a blessing in disguise. The reason he couldn’t get out of the way was that a meteor had shattered the drive regulator & rudder. He could no longer steer his ship. He had a spare rudder, but couldn’t install it. It was a two-man job & he was alone. So when other versions of him start appearing, all he should need do is team up with one of them, fix the rudder & leave the gravitational vortex field.

After that gets straightened out, he goes undercover. A ship’s computer has mutineed & started its own colony, reproducing itself on a previously uninhabited planet. The insurance company paid the shipowner’s claim, & now believes that the ship, it’s computer & all its progeny belong to them. Tichy disguises himself as a robot & goes to investigate.

On another voyage, he heads to a planet where the government irrigation agency has irrigated beyond all need & refused to give up power. People live in water & are jailed in dry cells if they violate the love of water.

After his modern voyages, he comes back from 2166 to recruit himself as a member of THEOHIPPIP, the Teleotelechronistic-Historical Engineering to Optimize the Hyperputerized Implementation of Paleological Programming & Interplanetary Planning. History is in a mess because of all the time travelers. THEOHIPPIP's mission is: “For World History to be regulated, cleaned up, straightened out, adjusted & perfected, all in accordance with the principles of humanitarianism, rationalism & general esthetics. You can understand, surely, that with such a shambles & slaughterhouse in one’s family tree it’s awkward to go calling on important cosmic civilizations!...If need be, alterations will be made even before the rise of man, so that he arises better.”

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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. Translated by Michael Kandel.

The novel was published in German translation (translated by H. Schumann) in 1986. The Polish text published in 1987, the English translation (by M. Kandel) the same year.

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SETI - Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, diese Fahndung nach der Nadel im Heuhaufen, hat diesmal Erfolg: ein Planet im Sternbild Harpyie, die Quinta im dortigen Zetasystem, sendet Signale, und nach jahrhundertelanger Vorbereitung startet die irdische "Hermes" mit einer auserwählten Crew von Spezialisten, unter ihnen der zweite Pilot Marek Tempe, der später die Landung und den ersten Erkundungsgang vornehmen wird. Die Verwirklichung des Projekts bildet den Inhalt dieses Romans.

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The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.

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Contents:
Rocket Summer
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The Summer Night
The Earth Men
The Taxpayer
The Third Expedition
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The Settlers
The Green Morning
The Locusts
Night Meeting
The Shore
Interim
The Musicians
Way in the Middle of the Air
The Naming of Names
Usher II
The Old Ones
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The Luggage Store
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The Watchers
The Silent Towns
The Long Years
There Will Come Soft Rains
The Million Year Picnic

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ARTHUR C. CLARKE'S FAVORITE STORIES

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Librarian's Note: Alternate cover edition available here.

Simak's City is a series of connected stories, a series of legends, myths, and campfire stories told by Dogs about the end of human civilization, centering on the Webster family, who, among their other accomplishments, designed the ships that took Men to the stars and gave Dogs the gift of speech and robots to be their hands.

Tales Of Pirx The Pilot

Books similar to Tales Of Pirx The Pilot

The Cyberiad

The Star Diaries

Fiasco

Das Fiasko : Roman [Weiße Lem-Oktavreihe]

The Martian Chronicles

The Nine Billion Names of God

Nightfall

City

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