Present Books To Eden
| Original Title: | Eden |
| ISBN: | 0156278065 (ISBN13: 9780156278065) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Stanisław Lem
Paperback | Pages: 276 pages Rating: 3.91 | 4264 Users | 186 Reviews
Rendition As Books Eden
Strange, very strange.
Stanislaw Lem's cautionary tale of a six man crew's crash-landing on Eden, a planet resembling Earth but orbiting a far distant sun. We follow the astronauts on their adventure of discovery that turns weirder and freakier by the hour.
Other than the Engineer who is occasionally addressed as Henry, Stanislaw Lem refers to the members of the crew not by name but strictly by occupation - Captain, Engineer, Chemist, Physicist, Cyberneticist, Doctor. In this way, the Polish author underscores how each man registers and interprets the unfolding events and details of Eden according to his respective specialty.
And what an inscrutable planet! With this novel originally published in 1959, Stanislaw Lem proves himself a supremely gifted storyteller - as if wielding a huge literary magnet, every new scene, sighting, encounter and confrontation pulls readers deeper and deeper into identifying with the plight of the crew.
More than emphasis on character development of the six Earthlings, the story's focus is on landscape and flora, the peculiar, alien technology, and, above all, the bizarre beings inhabiting Eden. Thus, the novel is divided into two parts: the first 200 pages consists of the crew's planetary explorations and dealing with their rocket ship half buried in earth (the Doctor observes jocularly: the first landing beneath the surface of an unknown planet); the final 60 pages is the stunning revelation. Actually, a series of revelations. If the first part is a bit too detailed for your taste, please hang in, the payoff is what's revealed at the end.
As to what exactly Eden holds in store for our six explorers, here are several snapshots:
FUNKY FOREST
The men walk on ground that’s “soft, spongy, and gave off a vapor that made it difficult to breath.” They come upon a thicket of plants and intertwining branches. The Doctor notices a thick, black hair hanging at eye level and freezes: “A pearl-colored, bulbous thing hanging from the stalks that converged at the base of one of the “cocoons” was watching him.” The Chemist hissed, “Disgusting.”
What the Doctor does next as a means for closer examination speaks to our very human urge to analyze, categorize, classify and understand non-human life forms on our own terms. But how much right do we as humans have in interfering with what we encounter on other planets? One of the abiding questions Stanislaw Lem has us ponder. My own quick observation: the term “disgusting” is a value judgement and a weak one at that; not so much a response but an instant reaction, a knee-jerk reflex.
PERPLEXING PLANT
Our planetary pioneers come across what looks like an abandoned factory, an enormous room with conveyor belt and signs of mass production. Among the unusual sights: great soaring columns with lumps of molten materials flowing inside. Stanislaw Lem clicks his imagination into overdrive when describing the detail of how, further in, there’s more unfathomable processes and machine-like actions. The crew beats a hasty retreat and the Engineer explodes: ”It’s the work of a lunatic, or, rather” – he pointed in the direction of the factory - ”lunatics. A civilization of lunatics, that’s what this damned Eden is!” Such a pronouncement, Mr. Engineer! As I was reading, I wondered: What would be my response if I was part of the crew?
CREEPY CRITTER
Right up front in Chapter 2, following initial reconnaissance, upon return to home base, the crew is in store for a rude awakening: a creature from Eden has invaded their ship! And the massive hulk is now lodging itself in the navigation room. “Just in case,” said the Engineer, and raised the jector, pressing the stock to his hip and aiming at the shapeless mass. With a hiss the shot hit the steeply arched hulk right below the hump. The huge body stiffened, swelled, and seemed to cave in a little, to flatten." I can imagine Stanislaw Lem wincing as he wrote this scene. Again, an instance of human arrogance spearheaded by none other than the Engineer, representing the profession esteemed the pinnacle of knowledge back in the 1950s when the author wrote his book.
INGENIOUS INDWELLERS
Further reconnaissance brings to light more curios, more perplexities: breathing lung trees, bat-like flying creatures and then, “Dark ramparts reminiscent of old forts on Earth. The tops of the ramparts were level with where the men were standing, and they could see into the interiors, into narrow, crooked streets. The walls along the streets contained rows of rectangular openings that had rounded corners and were tilted back, as though aimed at the sky.” No doubt about it, the crew from Planet Earth is observing the handiwork of intelligent extraterrestrials.
SNAPPY SUMMATION
The Doctor reports, "It's curious that everything we find here is reminiscent of things we know on Earth, but only partly. there are always pieces that don't fit. These vehicles of theirs, for example, showed up here like war machines. . . . Those wells in the clay - they were terrible, of course, but what in fact were they? Graves? We don't know. Then that settlement, or whatever it was. An incredible place, like a nightmare. And the skeletons inside the 'clubs'? Were they museums? Slaughterhouses? Chapels? Factories turning out biological specimens? Prisons? Anything is possible, even a concentration camp!"
Are you intrigued? I certainly hope so! And this is only half the story. Wait until you read the final section when the crew is in for a series of startling unearthings (no pun intended), information about Planet Eden that Stanislaw Lem knows will prompt many philosophical discussions about the prospects of genetic engineering, biology and, believe it or not, even political ideologies.
Stanislaw Lem, 1921-2006 
Describe Out Of Books Eden
| Title | : | Eden |
| Author | : | Stanisław Lem |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 276 pages |
| Published | : | October 31st 1991 by Mariner Books (first published 1959) |
| Categories | : | Science Fiction. Fiction. European Literature. Polish Literature |
Rating Out Of Books Eden
Ratings: 3.91 From 4264 Users | 186 ReviewsColumn Out Of Books Eden
When people think of Lem, they probably think of 'Solaris' first, as is understandable with its having been made into a movie 3 times now. Lem harshly censured most science-fiction, finding it too anthropomorphized and familiar. Why do all aliens speak English with a British accent? Why do they all seem to be humanoid, with their arms and legs in the same place as our own? Why do the people of Earth even bother to explore space if all they're looking for is a mirror in which they can seeNo one does alien like Lem: utterly incomprehensible, not just another human dressed up.However, in this one the pacing is a bit off, and the crew seem hardly qualified to explore an unknown planet.Before the final explanation, I was almost sure we had a Solaris-like scenario here, in that the whole planet was one vast organism, and the various dumb creatures worked more or less like cells in a body, so the dumbness shouldn't be a surprise. The actual reveal was, I admit, much more effective,
Interesting take on what first contact with aliens might actually be like - the sheer incomprehensibility of something completely out of the human norm. A human ship accidentally crashes on a little-studied planet and tries to piece together the inhabitant's civilization from their own observations, knowing that the human point of view might not apply.Lem's writing is a little simplistic (perhaps due to translation), but he creates a fantastic world populated with incredible creatures and
I love Lem, but this was not one of my favorites. 'Eden' attempts to tackle similar themes as 'Solaris', but it wasn't as effective as that masterpiece.Six humans crash-land in planet Eden. All but one is identified throughout the book (both by the narrator and in dialogue) by their profession. I'm not clear why Lem made this choice, nor why he allowed one character to have a name, but it adds a sense of reading a fable. Though these characters are developed to an extent, they still remain
Pretty heavy-handed but also horrifying. The description of the factory eternally producing/recycling was my favorite part, even though it was brief.
This book is at the same time frustrating and fascinating. Nothing here happens like in Star Trek when protagonists visit and alien planet, land in the middle of a friendly city, where everyone speaks English, and they understand everything perfectly by the end of the episode. In Eden, the human visitors are faced with a completely alien biology and society. They spend most of the novels time fumbling in the dark. This fragment from the afterword of the Polish 1999 edition says it well:The
This is good science fiction. It's weird and amazing and horrifying, and it makes you curious, and gives you answers, but never enough answers. Good sci fi! However, it does offend some of my modem sci fi sensibilities. Some men land on a planet they know nothing about ("Have people landed here before?" "No, I think just some flyby probes," or something along those lines) and have no defined mission. Of course, they set off into the world and immediately begin breaking and shooting things.
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