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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.
travisbenton's review
4.0
Way different than I was expecting but pretty good after I got through the intro. The book is more philosophy than fiction. It goes over some failings of humanity and gives a wittgensteinian take on our (in)ability to understand intelligence species other than our own - similar to his position in Solaris.
shane_tiernan's review
3.0
This is definitely not for everyone, but I did enjoy it. The first half is really dry but also really interesting. The second half there's actually some dialogue and more story. As with stories about "first contact" there's always that excitement about "How is this author going to handle it?" And are they ever going to actually figure it out or meet the aliens (Looking at you [b:Rendezvous with Rama|112537|Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1)|Arthur C. Clarke|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405456427l/112537._SY75_.jpg|1882772]).
In this one there were a bunch of different really cool theories and maybe one of them was right and maybe they figured it out, I'm not telling, don't want to spoil it for anyone.
In this one there were a bunch of different really cool theories and maybe one of them was right and maybe they figured it out, I'm not telling, don't want to spoil it for anyone.
isaacrubberducky's review
5.0
This might be my new favorite book. The pitch on the back of book is just an excuse for Lem to philosophize about the nature of academic research, where it comes from, and why it happens. If you typically enjoy Lem, or philosophers that spend a lot of time taking shots at bureaucrats, you'll enjoy this book. It is both exciting and satisfying, and I will be recommending it to nearly everyone.
orange_eating_class's review
5.0
"With sufficient imagination a man could write a whole series of versions of his life; it would form a union of sets in which the facts would be the only elements in common."
The idea of the individual as a microcosm of society or even the universe as a whole is a very old one. It is an idea that Stanislaw Lem regularly explored in his fiction, insofar as his writing exhibits a fairly radical Socratic ignorance concerning our ability to understand the nature of the self (as seen in the above quote from the preface to this book), alien intellects, and nature. His Master's Voice is probably the ultimate expression of Lem's skepticism. The novel is about Cold War-era scientists attempting to make sense of what appears to indisputably be an interstellar message from alien beings. Numerous plausible interpretations of the message and the senders' intent are put forward, most of them plausible, but none even remotely definitive. Indeed, the only thing that would appear to be certain is an utter disregard or at best despairing acceptance by these scientists of the use to which the knowledge derived from the message might be put. With the United States and USSR already locked in a standoff with the nuclear weapons developed using 20th Century science's previous revolutions, the greatest priority in decoding the alien senders' message is in its military applications. It's depressing, but also more realistic than the vast majority of science fiction which treats the misuse of science as an aberration of a morally pure (or at least morally neutral) pursuit, rather than as an enterprise which has historically been centered on aiding the powerful in their conquests. His Master's Voice is, additionally, a deeply philosophical book, but also a more nakedly human novel than any of the other works I've read by Lem, and as such, it probably deserves to stand as his masterpiece even above the likes of Solaris. It has become an instant favorite of mine, and I suspect I will repeatedly return to it in the future.
The idea of the individual as a microcosm of society or even the universe as a whole is a very old one. It is an idea that Stanislaw Lem regularly explored in his fiction, insofar as his writing exhibits a fairly radical Socratic ignorance concerning our ability to understand the nature of the self (as seen in the above quote from the preface to this book), alien intellects, and nature. His Master's Voice is probably the ultimate expression of Lem's skepticism. The novel is about Cold War-era scientists attempting to make sense of what appears to indisputably be an interstellar message from alien beings. Numerous plausible interpretations of the message and the senders' intent are put forward, most of them plausible, but none even remotely definitive. Indeed, the only thing that would appear to be certain is an utter disregard or at best despairing acceptance by these scientists of the use to which the knowledge derived from the message might be put. With the United States and USSR already locked in a standoff with the nuclear weapons developed using 20th Century science's previous revolutions, the greatest priority in decoding the alien senders' message is in its military applications. It's depressing, but also more realistic than the vast majority of science fiction which treats the misuse of science as an aberration of a morally pure (or at least morally neutral) pursuit, rather than as an enterprise which has historically been centered on aiding the powerful in their conquests. His Master's Voice is, additionally, a deeply philosophical book, but also a more nakedly human novel than any of the other works I've read by Lem, and as such, it probably deserves to stand as his masterpiece even above the likes of Solaris. It has become an instant favorite of mine, and I suspect I will repeatedly return to it in the future.
mortifiedpenguin92's review
informative
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? No
3.0