Book Review: His Master’s Voice by Stanisław Lem (three stars)
‘What is taking place is a certain play of forces perfectly indifferent to man.’
Excellent short story hidden among the philosophic musings of protagonist and narrator as Lem’s hand puppet. Like most character-driven novels, starts slow. Extremely slow.
‘In the course of my work … I began to suspect that the “letter from the stars” was, for us who attempted to decipher it, a kind of psychological association test, a particularly complex Rorschach test.’
Skip both prefaces. Prepare to wade through pages of self-referential bloviation. The story starts in Chapter Five.
‘From the moment I landed on the roof, through all the meetings and conversations, the feeling never left me that I was playing a scientist in a grade-B movie.’
More an alternate history of post-World War Two America than genuine historical fiction. I liked it, but your mileage may vary.
“One who puts a digital tape in a player piano is making a mistake, and it is entirely possible that we have taken precisely such a mistake for success.”
As a Matter of Fancy 