Astronauts. The Voice of the Lord. On-Site Inspection

This volume, which opens the Lem Six-Book Series, brings together under one cover three novels by the outstanding Polish science fiction writer – The Astronauts, The Voice of the Lord and A Survey of the Place. Written at different times (in 1951, 1967 and 1981 respectively), they differ not only in their subject matter but also in their style of presentation.

If The Astronauts, despite its fascinating plot, is a novel-warning for those societies that are focused on war and destruction, The Voice of the Lord, written in the form of a mathematician’s memoirs, is more of a philosophical treatise on humanity and our place in the universe. On the other hand, A Survey of the Place is a complex, multi-layered work, a sharp satire on both authoritarian (“Kurdło”) and democratic (“Luzan”) societies.