''Fiasco'' ( pl, Fiasko) 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 uni ...
novel by Polish author
Stanisław Lem
Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fiction stories are of satirical ...
, first published in a German translation in 1986. The book, published in Poland the following year and translated into English by
Michael Kandel
Michael Kandel (born December 24, 1941 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American translator and author of science fiction.
Biography
Kandel received a doctorate in Slavistics from Indiana University. His most recent position was editor at the M ...
in the same year, is a further elaboration of Lem's skepticism: in Lem's opinion, the difficulty in
communication with extraterrestrial intelligence
The communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (CETI) is a branch of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) that focuses on composing and deciphering interstellar messages that theoretically could be understood by another tech ...
(the main theme of the novel) is more likely
cultural disparity rather than spatial distance. It was nominated for the
Arthur C. Clarke Award
The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award i ...
.
The novel was written on order from publisher
S. Fischer Verlag around the time Lem was emigrating from
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
due to the introduction of
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
. Lem stated that this was the only occasion he wrote something upon publisher's request, accepting an advance for a nonexistent novel.
Plot summary
At a base on
Saturn's moon
Titan, a young spaceship pilot Parvis sets out in a strider (a
mecha
In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japanese is ...
-like machine) to find several missing people, among them
Pirx (the spaceman appearing in Lem's ''
Tales of Pirx the Pilot
''Tales of Pirx the Pilot'' is a science fiction stories collection by Polish author Stanisław Lem, about a spaceship pilot named Pirx.
The first collection of stories about Pirx was published in 1965 in the Soviet Union in Russian under the ...
''). Parvis ventures to the dangerous
geyser region, where the others were lost. Unfortunately, he suffers an accident. Seeing no way to get out of the machine and return to safety, he triggers a built-in
cryogenic device.
An expedition is sent to a distant star in order to make
first contact with a civilization that may have been detected. It is set more than a century after the prologue, when a starship is built in Titan's orbit. This future society is described as globally unified and peaceful with high regard for success. During starship preparations, the geyser region is cleared, and the frozen bodies are discovered. They are exhumed and taken aboard, to be awakened, if possible, during the voyage. However, only one of them can be revived (or more precisely, pieced together from the organs of several of them) with a high likelihood of success. The identity of the man is unclear; it has been narrowed to two men (whose last names begin with 'P'). It is never revealed whether he is in fact Pirx or Parvis (and he seems to have
amnesia). In his new life, he adopts the name Tempe.
The explorer spaceship ''Eurydika'' (
Eurydice
Eurydice (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρυδίκη 'wide justice') was a character in Greek mythology and the Auloniad wife of Orpheus, who tried to bring her back from the dead with his enchanting music.
Etymology
Several meanings for the name ...
) first travels to a
black hole near the Beta Harpiae to perform maneuvers to minimize the effects of
time dilation
In physics and relativity, time dilation is the difference in the elapsed time as measured by two clocks. It is either due to a relative velocity between them ( special relativistic "kinetic" time dilation) or to a difference in gravitational ...
. Before closing on the
event horizon
In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an observer. Wolfgang Rindler coined the term in the 1950s.
In 1784, John Michell proposed that gravity can be strong enough in the vicinity of massive compact ob ...
, the ''Eurydice'' launches the ''
Hermes
Hermes (; grc-gre, wikt:Ἑρμῆς, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travelle ...
'', a smaller explorer ship, which continues to Beta Harpiae.
Approaching the planet Quinta, which exhibits signs of harboring intelligent life, the crew of the ''Hermes'' attempts to establish contact with the denizens of the planet, who, contrary to the expectations of the mission's crewmen, are strangely unwilling to communicate. The crew reaches the conclusion that there is a
Cold War-like state on the planet's surface and throughout the planetary system, halting the locals' industrial development.
The crew of the ''Hermes'' assumes that the Quintan civilisation is inevitably doomed to collapse in
mutual assured destruction
Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy which posits that a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by an attacker on a nuclear-armed defender with second-strike capabilities would cause the ...
. They try to force the aliens to engage contact by means of an event impossible to hide by the aliens' governments: staging the implosion of their moon. Surprisingly, just before impact, several of the deployed rockets are destroyed by missiles of the Quintans, undermining the symmetry of the implosion which causes fragments of the moon to be thrown clear, some impacting the planet's surface.
However, even this cataclysm does not drive the locals to engage with their alien visitors, so the crewmen deploy a device working as a giant lens or
laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fi ...
, capable of displaying images (but also concentrating beams to the point of being a powerful weapon). Following a suggestion by Tempe, they show the Quintans a "
fairy tale" by projecting a
cartoon onto Quinta's clouds. At last, the Quintans contact the ''Hermes'' and make arrangements for a meeting. The humans do not trust the Quintans, so to gauge the Quintans' intentions, they send a smaller replica of the ''Hermes'' which is destroyed shortly before landing. The humans retaliate by firing their laser on the ice ring around the planet, shattering it and sending chunks falling on the planet.
Finally, the Quintans are forced to receive an 'ambassador', who is Tempe; the Quintans are warned that the projecting device will be used to destroy the planet if the man should fail to report back his continued safety. After landing, Tempe discovers that there is no trace of anyone at the landing site. After investigating a peculiar structure nearby, he finds a strange-looking mound, which he opens with a small shovel. To his horror, he notices that in his distracted state he has allowed the allotted time to expire without signaling his crewmates. As the planet is engulfed by fiery destruction at the hands of those who were sent to establish contact with its denizens, Tempe finally realizes what the Quintans are. However, he has no time to share his discovery with the others (or with the reader).
Interpretation
The book is the fifth in Lem's series of pessimistic
first contact scenarios, after
''Eden'', ''
Solaris'', ''
The Invincible
''The Invincible'' ( pl, Niezwyciężony) is a hard science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanisław Lem, published in 1964.
In 2019, Rafał Mikołajczyk published the comic book ''Niezwyciężony'' 'The Invincible'' . Reviewers note the fait ...
'', and ''
His Master's Voice
His Master's Voice (HMV) was the name of a major British record label created in 1901 by The Gramophone Co. Ltd. The phrase was coined in the late 1890s from the title of a painting by English artist Francis Barraud, which depicted a Jack Russ ...
''.
According to critic Paul Delany:
References
External links
*
{{Stanisław Lem
1986 novels
Novels by Stanisław Lem
Fiction set on Titan (moon)
1986 science fiction novels
Fiction about black holes
Novels about extraterrestrial life
S. Fischer Verlag books