''Coming out of the Shadow'' ( pl, Wyjście z cienia) is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel by Polish writer

Janusz A. Zajdel Janusz Andrzej Zajdel (15 August 1938 – 19 July 1985) was a Polish science fiction author, second in popularity in Poland to Stanisław Lem. His major genres were social science fiction and dystopia. His main recurring theme involved the ...

. Critics variously translated the title as ''Out of the Shadow'', ''Leaving the Shadow'', etc. Finished in 1978, it was first printed in 1983 by ''

Czytelnik The ''Czytelnik'' Publishing House ( pl, Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza „Czytelnik”) is a publishing company in Poland. It was established in 1944 behind the Soviet front line as the ''Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza "Czytelnik"'' ("Czytelnik" Publishin ...

'' Publishing House.Klasyka polskiej fantastyki - Janusz A. Zajdel - Wyjście z cienia
book review by Jan Bodakowski, November 15, 2014 It belongs to the genre of social science fiction of

dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

type and describes the future of the Earth under control of the aliens. In the introduction to the book, the author reveals that the plot of the novel is an evolution of an idea found in the short story ''Solidarność'' by Julia Nidecka. The circumstances of the novel is a thinly-veiled allusion on the Communist regime in Poland: the aliens claim that their invasion is in fact in defense of the Earth against other "bad" aliens; at the first glance the society as a whole is content: all goods are fairly distributed, the economy is stable, etc., if one disregards certain restrictions imposed by the aliens: certain territories are off limits for humans, research in ants is forbidden, development of the technology is banned, etc. Human leaders are convinced that aliens "know better", that an external point of view was necessary to bring things in order. The reviewer Jan Bodakowski notes that the latter arguments were repeated almost literally by Polish politicians who pushed for integration into the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. Another critic notes the parallel with the stationing of the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

in Poland, including its eventual demoralization. The novel includes features of a ''

bildungsroman In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood ( coming of age), in which character change is impo ...

'': The life story of protagonist Tim illustrates the growth of the resistance among teenagers and young scientists. It was suggested that the young age of the protagonist was chosen keeping in mind the target audience.Adam Mazurkiewicz, "Elementy Bildungsroman w twórczości Janusza Zajdla ", p. 8 in
''Informator Gdanskiego Klubu Fantastyki''
no. 193, 2005, special issue "Year of Zajdel"

References

{{reflist Polish novels 1983 novels 1983 science fiction novels Polish science fiction novels Janusz Zajdel Czytelnik books 20th-century Polish novels Social science fiction pl:Wyjście z cienia