A review by piccoline
Fiasco by Stanisław Lem

4.0

Two things: 1) Lem is capable of really wonderful stuff. 2) This book has its problems. So why four stars then, David? Well, look, there's some great riffs sprinkled throughout, and its wanderings and doldrums along the way end up almost erased by the blistering pessimism it musters in its closing 50 pages or so. You keep wondering, as the end drifts nearer, whether he's really got the courage to take it all the way. Oh yes, oh, he does.

And can you really argue that he's misread us? That's the truly terrifying question that echoes as the steam and smoke still rises of your scorched brain when you close the book at last.