Tales of Pirx the Pilot
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Stanisław Lem's Tales of Pirx the Pilot, published in Poland in 1979, and continued in 1982 as More Tales of Pirx the Pilot, are a series of short stories about a spaceship pilot named Pirx. They are one of the best known works of Lem, being one of the optional readings for the schoolchildren in Poland. Pirx stories can be classified as a moderate hard science fiction with some comic elements, and are probably the closest things that Lem has written to popular image of science fiction genre in the English-speaking world.
To some extent they can be seen as resembling Star Trek: The Original Series, especially considering that many gadgets used by Pirx would be seen as obsolete even today: for example Pirx uses cement to plug leaks from a nuclear reactor. Several stories deal with robots and in that are reminiscent of Isaac Asimov's early robot stories, resonating with sympathy for the machines: even when a robot has been transformed into a destructive juggernaut, it's usually through no fault of its own.
While Lem's later novel, Fiasko, also features Pilot Pirx, it is actually a separate novel, where Pirx is just a minor character.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The novel is set somewhere in the XXIst-XXIInd centuries, in a futuristic Occidental world (as opposed to a Communist Utopia where some of Lem's other novels take place) in which Mankind is starting to colonize the Solar System, has some settlements on the Moon and Mars, and is even beginning the exploration of the other solar systems.
Pirx is a cadet, a pilot, and finally a captain of a merchant spaceship, and the stories relate his life and various things that happen to him during his travels between the Earth, Moon and Mars.
The story of Pirx is that of a professional spaceship crewman: from cadet to pilot and eventually captain. In a way, Pirx is an anti-hero: unlike traditional space pilots, there is little if nothing heroic in him. Whereas sometimes he finds himself in extremal situations, he overcomes mostly due to an ordinary common sense and only moderate luck. In particular, in the story The Inquest a human gullibility actually helps Pirx to defeat a robot who intended to prove that he is better than humans.
[edit] List of the stories
Tales... were translated by Louis Iribarne. More tales... were also translated by Iribarne, with the assistance of Magdalena Majcherczyk. Exception is The Hunt which was translated by Michael Kandel.
- From The Tales...
- The Test - Pirx is a cadet and goes on his first real flight... at least he thinks so.
- The Conditional Reflex - Pirx goes on the Far Side of the Moon for some practice - but too much trust in the machines can be dangerous.
- On Patrol - Pirx is now a Patrol Pilot and learns that taking machines at their word can be dangerous.
- The Albatross - Pirx is a helpless witness to a space disaster.
- Terminus - Pirx takes command of an old spaceship whose other crewmember, a reactor-maintenance robot has a strange habit - and a long memory. Again a cautionary tales about robots.
- From More tales...
- The Hunt - A robot goes deranged on the Moon. Only problem : it is armed...
- Pirx's Tale - Pirx encounters an unidentified object Pirx while hauling scrap - likely the first evidence of extraterrestrial life found so far. But it's on a hyperbolic trajectory out of our solar system, and the recording systems of Pirx's ship are malfunctioning...
- The Accident - This one is actually set in a possibly alternate universe, where interstellar flight is a reality. Pirx takes part in a survey of another Earth-like world, and finds evidence of remarkably humanlike behavior on the part of the team's robot, faced with a challenging rock climb.
- The Inquest - A complex plot about the role of robots in our life. This tale is told from multiple points of view, concerning Pirx's involvement (and possible culpability) in a test project for a new type of android astronaut.
- Ananke - Pirx is on Mars and witnesses a terrible accident of a brand new ship, that seems to be the result of a malfunction in the ship's autopilot.
