His Master's Voice

Such deadly wit, such deadly playful tightrope walking . . . a modern European version of Swift or Voltaire.
Peter S. Beagle, The New York Times

In a cycle of melancholy sci-fi novels written in the late nineteen-fifties and sixties Eden, Solaris, Return from the Stars, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, The Invincible, and His Master s Voice Lem suggested that life in the future, however remote the setting and however different the technology, will be no less tragic. Astronauts disembark from a spaceship into the aftermath of an atrocity; scientists face an alien intelligence so unlike our own that their confidence in the special purpose of human life falters. Lem was haunted by the idea that losses can overwhelm the human capacity to apprehend them.
The New Yorker

Fourteen years after his death, the universe is still struggling to catch up with the vast creative force that was Stanis aw Lem. And for my money, it won't be surpassing him anytime soon . . . Enjoying the genius of Lem requires readerly dexterity and a willingness to go wherever the author takes you . . . These marvelous, absorbing and often hilarious books make our weary universe seem pale and undistinguished by comparison.
The Washington Post

The release of these new volumes seems to expand the possibilities of what a university publisher can do.
LitHub

This thorough, intellectual take on a classic hard sci-fi trope is Lem at his best.
Publishers Weekly, starred review