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1st out of 15 books
—
8 voters
Return From the Stars
Hal Bregg is an astronaut who returns from a space mission in which only 10 biological years have passed for him, while 127 years have elapsed on earth. He finds that the earth has changed beyond recognition, filled with human beings who have been medically neutralized. How does an astronaut join a civilization that shuns risk? Translated by Barbara Marszal and Frank Simps...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
June 1st 1989
by Mariner Books
(first published 1961)
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The depressing scene with the condemned discarded robots was of course later stolen by Spielberg, but sadly even Lem didn't do anything with it. Unlike Futurological Congress, there is no grey horror reality behind the shiny peaceful wellfare state.
Hals relationship with Olaf, esp. the scenes in which they are naturally naked or wrestling, is even closer to m/m than works of this genre usually are - since women only serve one purpose - und that is the last remaining place for him, since neither...more
Hals relationship with Olaf, esp. the scenes in which they are naturally naked or wrestling, is even closer to m/m than works of this genre usually are - since women only serve one purpose - und that is the last remaining place for him, since neither...more
One of the woeful inadequacies of the publishing industry, to me at least, is the absolute dearth of foreign novels. Perhaps that is not their fault, after all, translation necessitates the death of a great many idiomatic subtleties and english readers are notoriously unenthusiastic about the intellectual output of places they see as either inferior or simply foreign (observe the American perception of the stereotypically self-obfuscating French intellectual, inevitably some kind of combined Sar...more
I agree with most of the positive comments by other reviewers here. In the hands of the right director, “Return from the Stars” would make an excellent film – more in the tradition of thoughtful, art-house sci-fi like “Gattaca” than as a blockbuster Hollywood movie (although someone like George Clooney would be ideal for the part of Hal – he should have filmed this novel instead of remaking “Solaris”). If you are keen on the Lem of “Futurological Congress” then maybe this book won’t be so much t...more
My absolute favourite Lem book ever! I love the story itself, a man returning to earth from a deep space mission only to find the familiar place strange and unknowing, since after his departure ten years ago, over hundred years have passed on earth due to time dilatation.
The beginning of the book is the part, most people dislike but I love it. The protagonist is absolutely lost in a world that is not at all recognizable for him, even the language has become so strange and different, he has no id...more
The beginning of the book is the part, most people dislike but I love it. The protagonist is absolutely lost in a world that is not at all recognizable for him, even the language has become so strange and different, he has no id...more
In the opening chapter, the use of imagery to describe the world the pilot has returned to overwhelms us as much as it overwhelms him. We are lost as much as he is. I imagine this is how SF reads to people who hate SF. As the narrator adjusts, the world becomes easier to absorb and the novel becomes easier to read. Words that were once nonsensical suddenly have meaning, and the narrator explores the Earth where he is suddenly an alien among his own people.
Lem writes well, suggesting events that...more
Lem writes well, suggesting events that...more
I liked the second half of "Return from the Stars" better than the first. The story is about deep space explorers that return to earth, only to find everything has changed.
Surprise!
While 10 years have passed for the explorers, 130 years have passed for Earth huggers. At its core this is a story about alienation and despair. That's what comes from having no roots, no home, no family, no friends, and no connection to these people to whom you have returned. There are few, if any, shared cultural...more
Surprise!
While 10 years have passed for the explorers, 130 years have passed for Earth huggers. At its core this is a story about alienation and despair. That's what comes from having no roots, no home, no family, no friends, and no connection to these people to whom you have returned. There are few, if any, shared cultural...more
Hal Bregg, uzun yolculuğunu bitirmiştir. Yıldızlara dokunup gelmiş bir pilot, bir kahramandır o. Gerçekten öyle midir? Yolculuğa çıktığından bu yana 126 sene geçmiştir. 150 yıldır yaşamasına rağmen 40 yaşını biraz geçkindir ve kendini kahraman gibi hissetmemektedir. O gittiğinden bu yana tüm Dünya değişmiştir. Bu adamdan zamanın kıyısından düşmüş kayıp biri olarak yeni dünyaya uyum sağlayabilecek midir?
Lem tüm hikayeyi Bregg'in ağzından anlatır. Kitabın başlarındaki kafa karışıklığı, algı yoksun...more
Lem tüm hikayeyi Bregg'in ağzından anlatır. Kitabın başlarındaki kafa karışıklığı, algı yoksun...more
picked this up after a friend recommended it for the "silence of space" described in the story as well as the curious world that an astronaut returns to after being in orbit for 10 years and returning to Earth and finding it has aged 127 years into the future.. he's out of touch with this new culture (a culture whose people are free from war, any form of violence, stress, risk taking, competitive sports, accidents, etc..) and his adventures in this world were amusing and interesting and definite...more
I'm not sure what to think of "Return From The Stars." At times I liked it and at other times I felt indifferent to it. Nothing jumps out as bad, exactly. The novel follows the main character, Hal, through the hardships of returning to Earth from a deep space exploration after nearly 130 years--only ten to him. And, of course, the world has changed and he goes through this huge cultural shock and people see that he's different straight away and he can't adjust so he goes on vacation after like t...more
Excellent! If you are looking for thoughtful, poetic science fiction, this is it! If you are looking for an accurate prediction, well, Lem basically anticipates the disappearance of books and their replacement by something like the iPad.
In a nutshell, this is the story of an astronaut who returns to earth after a ten year voyage. Because of time dilation, 127 years have passed on earth. The story depicts the astronaut's disorientation and (partial?) reintegration into a wholly changed world. It'...more
In a nutshell, this is the story of an astronaut who returns to earth after a ten year voyage. Because of time dilation, 127 years have passed on earth. The story depicts the astronaut's disorientation and (partial?) reintegration into a wholly changed world. It'...more
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История героя, вернувшегося домой - и не находящего своего родного дома. Все изменилось, трава пахнет не так, как в юности, и его подвиг не имел смысла. Одна из четырех борхесовских историй; Улисс, вечно плывущий к своей Итаке; дон Хенаро, вечно возвращающийся в свой Икстлан; Венечка, ищущий свои Петушки.
A couple years back, I read the first James bond book (Casino Royale) and was appalled by Fleming's allusions to "the sweet tang of rape." Even more horrifying was my conversation with a male friend afterwards, who claimed that every man wants to be just like James Bond, and continued with this claim even after I read passages to him (including the rape passage) and explained how much of a misogynistic asshole Bond is in the books. For the sake of our friendship, I'm forced to assume he wasn't p...more
Yıldızlardan Dönüş aslında bir eve dönemeyiş romanı. Kahramanımız Bregg, Prometheus isimli uzay gemisiyle çıktığı on yıllık yolculuktan sonra Dünya'ya döndüğünde, bütün geleneklerin ve kalıtsal birikimlerin tamamen değiştiği bir 'yeni toplum' ile karşılaşır. Haliyle Dünya'da on değil,yüz yirmi yedi yıl geçmiştir ve çağının öncülleri olan bu insanlar geri döndükleri gezegenin artık 'mağara adamları' olmuşlardır. Uzay yolculuğunun gereksizliğini savunan savlar, betrizasyon denilen -görece-insanın...more
This book is an interesting read and fun, too. Keep in mind that it was written and published in 1960s, so it must have been one of the early books that offered futuristic vision of our society. It's amusing to read about
technologies that we have now embraced and integrated into our lives. It is also interesting to take a look at the money free society that Lem has created. It is something that people are willing to talk about nowadays.
Lem's vision is not quite positive though, as carefree and v...more
technologies that we have now embraced and integrated into our lives. It is also interesting to take a look at the money free society that Lem has created. It is something that people are willing to talk about nowadays.
Lem's vision is not quite positive though, as carefree and v...more
Lem siempre me descoloca, y en este libro aún más. Transmitir la desorientación de un personaje mediante el lenguaje es complicadísimo, pero el primer capítulo lo consigue con creces. Las implicaciones filosóficas de la sociedad que se encuentra, y su resistencia a aceptarlas, son la base de todo el libro, pero en ningún momento consigue que empatice con el protagonista; me parece un tipo francamente desagradable.
Como todo lo que he leído de Lem, se merece una lectura más profunda y pausada.
Como todo lo que he leído de Lem, se merece una lectura más profunda y pausada.
Took me a while to get into this book, which was party because I kept trying to read it in 10min sections just as I was going to bed, then falling asleep on it. Also, though, it's pretty heavy on dense descriptions of scene and setting in the first 30-40 pages, which isn't all that gripping.
But it improves considerably as it goes along, and the narrator reveals more of his personality, or gains more of a unique voice. Something like that.
In any case, what looks in the early phases like it's goin...more
But it improves considerably as it goes along, and the narrator reveals more of his personality, or gains more of a unique voice. Something like that.
In any case, what looks in the early phases like it's goin...more
A unique view of the future on earth. I can only say that I read this book with a growing sense of loss - like visiting the home of your childhood and finding a glistening shopping mall in its place filled with detached youths that you will never relate to. Actually, that is almost exactly the theme of the book!
Our hero, a space traveller and Einsteinian time traveller (by virtue of acceleration) is a gorilla among the latest generation of humans on earth. Machines run the world, leaving humani...more
Our hero, a space traveller and Einsteinian time traveller (by virtue of acceleration) is a gorilla among the latest generation of humans on earth. Machines run the world, leaving humani...more
This is the first I've read of Lem, but I enjoyed it, and will probably read more. I don't feel like I got a fair idea of his work, since the man-returns-from-long-space-voyage-to-find-Earth-has-changed plot is about as stereotypical a scifi plot as they come. Still, it had some interesting moments.
I would not suggest reading the Kindle version. It had so many typos and entire chunks of text transposed that Amazon should be ashamed to be taking money for it.
I would not suggest reading the Kindle version. It had so many typos and entire chunks of text transposed that Amazon should be ashamed to be taking money for it.
Una de las historias de Lem que encuentro mas fascinante; primero, la desubicación del protagonista, que se encuentra fuera de lugar en las actividades mas simples de la vida tras su vuelta a la Tierra tras un viaje relativista de 127 años. Luego, la necesidad del ser humano de llegar mas allá precisamente para ser humano.
A 3 stars because the first half of the book where Bregg was getting to know this new world were really interesting but then he sees the girl at the vacation villa and it all falls apart into a lame romance... and then that last chapter was really strange...
Overall I liked it but it could have been much better.
Overall I liked it but it could have been much better.
Avaruusalus palaa pitkältä matkaltaan takaisin Maahan. Maa on muuttunut siitä, kun retkikunta oli lähtenyt tähtiin. Kirjan alku on mielenkiintoinen. Siinä kuvataan päähenkilön kummastusta uudenlaisessa maailmassa. Loppua kohti kertomus muuttuu enemmän ihmissuhdekirjaksi. Pidin kirjasta.
A rather difficult book for me to get into. I'm not sure whether this was due to the translation, but the jumping around in the story was very distracting. It's like several short stories just stuck together simply because they share the main character.
The ending also left me wondering what actually happened - was he heading back to space, or back to his 'wife'?
The ending also left me wondering what actually happened - was he heading back to space, or back to his 'wife'?
Definitely one of my favourite books written by one of my favourite authors. However sci-fi, it actually tells a story of a lonely man. A man that cannot find himself in the new world... Didn't it happen to all of us at least once in a lifetime? Absolutely a masterpiece!
Brak piątej gwiazdki za miotającego się bohatera-histeryka i relacje damsko męskie, które Lemowi po prostu nie wychodzą. Cała reszta świetna: i pomysł na społeczeństwo, i "efekty specjalne", i reakcje powracających z gwiazd.
Książka idealna na hollywoodzki scenariusz, aż dziw, że nikt się za to nie wziął.
Książka idealna na hollywoodzki scenariusz, aż dziw, że nikt się za to nie wziął.
Lem discuses two main things in this book,
1) what would humanity be like, if humans cannot even think about killing another being.
2) considering the big costs and the immense distance, is space travel really worth the trouble?
Lem' mastery lies in his uncanny diegeses, their elaborate descriptions, and strong conceptual themes. This book was a supreme analysis of space travel, especially its motivation and the reintegration of astronauts / cosmonauts into life on their return. Add that to the invention of Betrization and you have an impressive book.
Explica la història d'uns astronautes que tornen a la Terra i, degut a la relativitat, han passat segles mentre que ells només són uns quants anys més vells. Molt bo.
nefes kesici. ilk andan itibaren yaratılan atmosferi stanislaw lem'in detaylı anlatımı sayesinde beyninizde canlandırabiliyorsunuz.
This is the umpteenth time I read this book and the ending still surprises and confuses me. Sort of typical Lem. My favorite part though is still the start of the book - when a person from the present time is totally lost on Earth 150 years in the future.
Lem beats with his visions and ideas anything of that genre you may nowadays see in the movies, be it Minority Report, Cloud Atlas or what. None of what you get to see in the movies has anything fundamentally new. It is just more of the same, but louder, faster, better. Lem's fantasies kept me perplexed with their freshness, with the truely new ideas, with the questions they rise. Only 3 stars, simply because I currently do not seem to be so interested in the genre per se anymore ...
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Stanisław Lem (staˈɲiswaf lɛm) was a Polish science fiction, philosophical and satirical writer. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is perhaps best known as the author of Solaris, which has twice been made into a feature film. In 1976, Theodore Sturgeon claimed that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world.
His works exp...more
More about Stanisław Lem...
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“German:
Die Buchhandlung erinnerte an ein elektronisches Labor. Bücher waren kleine Kristalle mit gespeichertem Inhalt. Lesen konnte man sie mit Hilfe eines Optons. Der sah einem Buch sogar ähnlich, allerdings mit nur einer einzigen Seite zwischen den Einbanddeckeln. Berührte man dieses eine Blatt, so erschienen hintereinander die Textseiten in ihrer Reihenfolge. Aber es wurde - wie mir der Roboter-Verkäufer sagte - von den Optonen wenig Gebrauch gemacht. Das Publikum zog die Lektonen vor - sie lasen laut vor, und man konnte sie auf eine beliebige Stimmart, Tempo und Modulation einstellen.
Englisch:
The bookstore resembled, instead, an electronic laboratory. The books were crystals with recorded contents. They can be read the aid of an opton, which was similar to a book but had only one page between the covers. At a touch, successive pages of the text appeared on it. But optons were little used, the sales-robot told me. The public preferred lectons - like lectons read out loud, they could be set to any voice, tempo, and modulation.”
—
1 person liked it
Die Buchhandlung erinnerte an ein elektronisches Labor. Bücher waren kleine Kristalle mit gespeichertem Inhalt. Lesen konnte man sie mit Hilfe eines Optons. Der sah einem Buch sogar ähnlich, allerdings mit nur einer einzigen Seite zwischen den Einbanddeckeln. Berührte man dieses eine Blatt, so erschienen hintereinander die Textseiten in ihrer Reihenfolge. Aber es wurde - wie mir der Roboter-Verkäufer sagte - von den Optonen wenig Gebrauch gemacht. Das Publikum zog die Lektonen vor - sie lasen laut vor, und man konnte sie auf eine beliebige Stimmart, Tempo und Modulation einstellen.
Englisch:
The bookstore resembled, instead, an electronic laboratory. The books were crystals with recorded contents. They can be read the aid of an opton, which was similar to a book but had only one page between the covers. At a touch, successive pages of the text appeared on it. But optons were little used, the sales-robot told me. The public preferred lectons - like lectons read out loud, they could be set to any voice, tempo, and modulation.”
“I spent the afternoon in a bookstore. There were no books in it. None had been printed for nearly half a century. And how I have looked forward to them, after the micro films that made up the library of the Prometheus! No such luck. No longer was it possible to browse among shelves, to weigh volumes in hand, to feel their heft, the promise of ponderous reading. The bookstore resembled, instead, an electronic laboratory. The books were crystals with recorded contents. They can be read the aid of an opton, which was similar to a book but had only one page between the covers. At a touch, successive pages of the text appeared on it. But optons were little used, the sales-robot told me. The public preferred lectons - like lectons read out loud, they could be set to any voice, tempo, and modulation.”
—
1 person liked it
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