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His Master's Voice Hardcover – January 1, 1983

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 376 ratings

Text: English, Polish (translation)
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; F Second Printing Used edition (January 1, 1983)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 199 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0151403600
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0151403608
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 376 ratings

About the author

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Stanislaw Lem
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Stanislaw Lem is the most widely translated and best known science fiction author writing outside of the English language. Winner of the Kafka Prize, he was a contributor to many magazines, like the New Yorker, and he is the author of numerous works, including "Solaris".

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
376 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book insightful and thought-provoking. They appreciate the story concept that presents multiple views in a believable way. However, some find the dialogue tedious and dense. Opinions vary on the writing quality - some find it well-written and challenging, while others find it difficult to read for the first 50 pages.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

23 customers mention "Insight"23 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's sophisticated and thought-provoking exploration of ideas. They find it an original, intelligent, and philosophical treatise that explores human nature and real problems. Readers praise the author's profound understanding of science and humanity.

"...important things to say, and to my scientific mind Lem says it in a beautiful and moving and wholly believable way...." Read more

"...excellent, as always with Lem, and sci fi is first and foremost about mentally exploring...." Read more

"...read despite the fact that it was written well and had done very interesting concepts...." Read more

""His Master's Voice" is a stunning and elegant book by an author who deserves to have been more popular in the United States...." Read more

14 customers mention "Story quality"14 positive0 negative

Customers find the story engaging and thought-provoking. They appreciate the use of a story concept to present scientists' multiple views in an interesting and believable way. The book challenges readers to participate in an experience and demands their attention.

"...my scientific mind Lem says it in a beautiful and moving and wholly believable way...." Read more

"...strong sci fi classic- the writing is reasonably good, the thought behind it excellent, as always with Lem, and sci fi is first and foremost about..." Read more

"...In must be said however that Lem is a good story-teller and weaves his tale in and out enough to have certainly kept my attention and gained my..." Read more

"...Thick in it's diction, it demands your attention, to say the least...." Read more

15 customers mention "Writing quality"8 positive7 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the writing quality. Some find it well-written and fresh, while others find the first 50 pages difficult and tedious. The narrative is presented in first-person, which can be tiresome.

"...having long forgot the details of who did what, the book still reads as very fresh to me." Read more

"...It was written in first person and that can get tedious. There isn't really a lot of action as it's more of a memoir...." Read more

"A strong sci fi classic- the writing is reasonably good, the thought behind it excellent, as always with Lem, and sci fi is first and foremost..." Read more

"...The experience of reading Lem is like that of reading Kafka. The text is dense, difficult, and draining...." Read more

4 customers mention "Dialogue"0 positive4 negative

Customers dislike the dialogue. They find the discursive meandering tedious and slowing down the narrative. The narrative has virtually no dialog at all. The book is packed with a very challenging lexicon and dense philosophical content.

"...It, like all of Lem's books, is packed with a very challenging lexicon made up of both existing and Lem's original, created terms...." Read more

"...There is no dialogue, no action sequences, no special effects in this book...." Read more

"...It is very dense philosophically, and you might need to have a basic understanding of some mathematics and physics to really get the sophistication..." Read more

"...perspectives brought forth in the novel, all of the discursive meandering proved tedious and slowed what little momentum existed to a standstill...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2012
    I suspect some of the negative reviews are from people who were expecting sci-fi, or, to steal a line from a Woody Allen movie, they liked Lem's "earlier, funnier ones". Lem certainly wrote a range of books, from the Kafkaesque (Memoirs Found in a Bathtub), to the grim, to the philosophical, to mystery (Chain of Chance). I thought his autobiography very unusual, in that it focused not on his adult interpretation of his childhood, but his memories of how he saw it as a child. Thus the early part focuses on food and sensations, etc. Quite unusual.

    But now to His Master's Voice. I believe people will be reading this book in 200 years, long after most sci-fi has faded from print, the way most of us have not read the various fads of fiction of the Victorian era. Time winnows the seed from the chaff. HMV has important things to say, and to my scientific mind Lem says it in a beautiful and moving and wholly believable way. When, as the project gets started, Lem ends a chapter with the line: This is the story of an ant, I literally got goose bumps, for he has so perfectly described the very best of the human brain, man's semi-coordinated attack on puzzles and problems, and yet its weaknesses and limitations, for as effective as a hoard of ants are, they are also a bit chaotic; and that chaos is to be embraced, for perfect human union can lead to both great AND terrible things. Mortality and chance are important, necessary, for they periodically shuffle the deck.

    I could go on for pages on what this novel stimulated me to ponder. I read it first at age 22, during the height of public feminism, and it did take me a bit of time to accept that Lem does not seem to attribute women with any ability or interest in science, but once over the oddity of an all male world devoid of all sexual tension, the book feels fully rounded (imagine the statue of David with the genitalia airbrushed out. I'm not talking about "sex scenes", I'm talking about the absolute divorce of men from women, children, parents, FAMILY.) Decades later, having long forgot the details of who did what, the book still reads as very fresh to me.
    14 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2024
    A strong sci fi classic- the writing is reasonably good, the thought behind it excellent, as always with Lem, and sci fi is first and foremost about mentally exploring. Several of his others (Solaris, Eden, Invincible) are more gripping, but for those of you looking for food for thought, this one works well as well.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2014
    I'm a big fan of Lem. I'm currently reading "Invincible" and enjoying it very much.

    HMV was a difficult read despite the fact that it was written well and had done very interesting concepts.

    It was written in first person and that can get tedious. There isn't really a lot of action as it's more of a memoir.

    To his credit, Lem, in the voice of the protagonist, explains this to the reader.

    Would recommend for hard core fans.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2014
    "His Master's Voice" is a stunning and elegant book by an author who deserves to have been more popular in the United States. Many of Lem's books are allegedly science fiction, but very often (as in this case), the science fiction element of the book is a very thin wrapper around a series of long digressions, conversations, and observations. Here, the science fiction story is about a massive, failed effort to decipher an extraterrestrial signal. But the real focus of the book is on the limitations of human cognitive capacities, our failure to understand the world, the incessant need to impose arbitrary structure on the unknown, and how we come to terms with this. Our inability to understand the world runs through the book on every page; it's illustrated in human relationships, international relations, and political systems. Even the opening note by a fictitious editor of the present volume admits that the intended structure of the original manuscript it unclear.

    The experience of reading Lem is like that of reading Kafka. The text is dense, difficult, and draining. In fact, it's more difficult than Kafka because there are extremely dense (and very well-informed) philosophical discussions on various topics spread throughout the text. The protagonist (and the reader) often realize as the story progresses that they know less and less. This is certainly the case in "His Master's Voice". But Lem isn't nearly as bleak and hopeless as Kafka. Lem seems to think that there's real value in understanding our limitations, even if there's no way of transcending them.
    27 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • D. Goddard
    5.0 out of 5 stars take it easy, it rewards
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2024
    as others have mentioned, if you're expecting sci-fi, look elsewhere.
    the language is necessarily heavy-going in places, but this fictional tale is an important philosophical consideration regarding the very nature of our universe & our sometimes arrogant understanding of our place in it.
    it answers no questions, but corrects what those questions should be. ultimately, like the story's protagonists, you come away empty-handed but wiser.
    & damn, if you come to this from one of lem's lighter works (such as his munchausen-in-space, pirx), you'll probably think that there were two writers with the same name.
    after this, all other "first contact" works are going to seem like a waste of ypur time; stuff like sagan's 'contact', especially in cinematic form, will seem hopelessly inadequate, human-centric, sentimental &.. well, basically, duff.
    read this. it may make your head spin, but in a good way. profound. challenging. the central device is fictional, but the issues it raises are very real.
  • Kindleのお客様
    5.0 out of 5 stars 迅速に発送されて良かった
    Reviewed in Japan on January 3, 2020
    迅速に発送されて良かった
  • Waldemar
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on December 12, 2015
    Great book, will make you think after you read and it is great read.
  • HHD
    5.0 out of 5 stars Impossibility
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2011
    His Masters Voice is the perfect antidote to all those mainstream Hollywood movies that have cannibalised the literary science fiction of the last 100 years. Unlike Sagan's 'Contact' this is a message from the stars that cannot be wholly understood even to the point of them doubting that it was a message at all. The question is left open, no ends are neatly tied and no conclusions reached. If SETI ever recieves a message from the stars I expect it to be as difficult to interpret as the message in His Masters Voice. Not for fans of Star Wars...
  • stephen klump
    2.0 out of 5 stars more matter and less art
    Reviewed in Canada on October 3, 2022
    I got to a third of the way in. I'm calling that a draw.

    Wordy garbage, far more about fending off what the putative author thinks others might think about the revelation to come than anything else. I'm sure it all leads up to something wonderful if you have a few human lifetimes to get to the meat of it.

    Lem was a genius, to be sure, but this is not his best.