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tashenone's review
5.0
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 its 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.
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 its 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.
gavgav's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
cryingalot49's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
atagarev's review
5.0
I was a little nervous going into this reread after a decade but this is still my favorite sci fi book of all time. It is a tale about First Contact but that is more a framing narrative for what amounts to a series of essays on the history, philosophy and morality of science and scientists. It is a thought-provoking work chock full of interesting ideas that play off each other.
As can be expected from a book published in 1968, there are some things that haven't aged very well. The geopolitical landscape drawn is very strongly based on the Cold War for obvious reasons yet the concerns it raises are still applicable in today's landscape of ineffectual response to climate change. Certain scientific theories around the future of the universe, the CMBR, populaton explosion and others have been proved incorrect or supplanted by improved theories in the intervening decades. I don't find that to be much of a detriment but other similar limitations are much more obvious in today's context e.g. the fact that this wide-ranging examination of human thoughts on First Contact never once mentions the thoughts of anyone who is not a European-descended man. For real, women are literally non-existent in this book. I see this as an artifact of the time but it is still something to keep in mind as you read.
If there is one major downside to the book, even though I hesitate to call it exactly a weakness, its how strongly it is based on the PoV of a mathematician and natural scientist. I see this as one of its greatest strengths as it is the reason the main character's PoV speaks so strongly to me yet without a strong grounding in mathematics, physics and information theory, a lot of the subtlety of expression and details of the concerns raised would be hard to appreciate or even notice. At the same time, I have spoken to some friends who found the viewpoints presented very one sided... I cannot say I agree as I find them no more one-sided than those of any other author but it is not the one-sidedness common to authors submerged in the world of literature so perhaps that can be seen as a shortcoming to some.
As can be expected from a book published in 1968, there are some things that haven't aged very well. The geopolitical landscape drawn is very strongly based on the Cold War for obvious reasons yet the concerns it raises are still applicable in today's landscape of ineffectual response to climate change. Certain scientific theories around the future of the universe, the CMBR, populaton explosion and others have been proved incorrect or supplanted by improved theories in the intervening decades. I don't find that to be much of a detriment but other similar limitations are much more obvious in today's context e.g. the fact that this wide-ranging examination of human thoughts on First Contact never once mentions the thoughts of anyone who is not a European-descended man. For real, women are literally non-existent in this book. I see this as an artifact of the time but it is still something to keep in mind as you read.
If there is one major downside to the book, even though I hesitate to call it exactly a weakness, its how strongly it is based on the PoV of a mathematician and natural scientist. I see this as one of its greatest strengths as it is the reason the main character's PoV speaks so strongly to me yet without a strong grounding in mathematics, physics and information theory, a lot of the subtlety of expression and details of the concerns raised would be hard to appreciate or even notice. At the same time, I have spoken to some friends who found the viewpoints presented very one sided... I cannot say I agree as I find them no more one-sided than those of any other author but it is not the one-sidedness common to authors submerged in the world of literature so perhaps that can be seen as a shortcoming to some.
leemartin91's review
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
jaccarmac's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The introduction plus two chapters of His Master's Voice provide a litmus test for the novel. I was enchanted but uncertain of Lem's ability to land the project. Happily, it was entirely successful, though not via plot; Complaints of HMV's plotlessness are really the beginning: If you don't get it post-bloviating I can't imagine you'll ever start. Hogarth really does bloviate. The man's not unreliable in the textbook sense, but spends far too much ink justifying himself in the introduction and then keeps going. The first hilarious turn of the book. And the final such progression: From a metaphor two degrees removed from wine to urine. The payoff of assertions without explanation is, of course, for them to be dropped by the end. The justification for treating the signal as non-noise sneaks up, happens in fact out of the narrative time established for it. The dissolution leaves room for the novel to end as psychological or metafictional study, with none of the possible annoyances of those forms. Science fiction has been a subject of the narrator, after all, one of the things that don't really matter, the things with which Lem gives his story novel scale. As a silly mortal whose mortality, at least, remains distinct from language, I take solace in the sparks-between that seem more-or-less accessible.