Synopses & Reviews
A six-man crew crash-lands on Eden, fourth planet from another sun. The men find a strange world that grows ever stranger, and everywhere there are images of death. The crew's attempt to communicate with this civilization leads to violence and to a cruel truth-cruel precisely because it is so human. Translated by Marc E. Heine. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
Synopsis
A six-man crew crash-lands on Eden, fourth planet from another sun. The men find a strange world that grows ever stranger: a desert plain exuding acrid vapors, a greenish tinge at the horizon, a gray seven-foot tree that hisses and withdraws into the ground when touched, and thickets of vegetation like hanging spiders.
In a labyrinth of plant-shaped buildings are dead ends, passage-ways, domes, vaulted ceilings, and giant statues. And everywhere there are images of death: mass graves, naked bodies in ditches and wells, a beehive structure filled with clusters of giant eggs -- a skeleton within each egg.
The crew's attempt to communicate with this civilization leads to violence and to a cruel truth -- cruel precisely because it is so human.
About the Author
Stanislaw Lem is the most widely translated and best known science fiction author writing outside of the English language. Winner of the Kafka Prize, he is a contributor to many magazines, including the New Yorker, and he is the author of numerous works, including Solaris.