Return from the Stars

Stanislaw Lem, Simon Ings, Barbara Marszal (Translator (Polish to English)) , Frank Simpson (Translator (Polish to English))

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English

Massachusetts Inst of Tec
18 February 2020

Science fiction; Classic science fiction; Fiction in translation; Space Exploration; Time Travel; Science Fiction

Series: The MIT Press

"An astronaut returns to Earth after a ten-year mission and finds a society that he barely recognizes.

Stanisław Lem's Return from the Stars recounts the experiences of Hal Bregg, an astronaut who returns from an exploratory mission that lasted ten years-although because of time dilation, 127 years have passed on Earth. Bregg finds a society that he hardly recognizes, in which danger has been eradicated. Children are ""betrizated"" to remove all aggression and violence-a process that also removes all impulse to take risks and explore. The people of Earth view Bregg and his crew as ""resuscitated Neanderthals,"" and pressure them to undergo betrization. Bregg has serious difficulty in navigating the new social mores. While Lem's depiction of a risk-free society is bleak, he does not portray Bregg and his fellow astronauts as heroes. Indeed, faced with no opposition to his aggression, Bregg behaves abominably. He is faced with a choice- leave Earth again and hope to return to a different society in several hundred years, or stay on Earth and learn to be content. With Return from the Stars, Lem shows the shifting boundaries between utopia and dystopia."

By: Stanislaw Lem
Foreword by: Simon Ings
Translated by: Barbara Marszal (Translator (Polish to English)), Frank Simpson (Translator (Polish to English))
Imprint: Massachusetts Inst of Tec
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 137mm, Spine: 20mm
ISBN: 9780262538480
ISBN 10: 0262538482
Series: The MIT Press
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 18 February 2020
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006), a writer called worthy of the Nobel Prize by the New York Times, was an internationally renowned author of novels, short stories, literary criticism, and philosophical essays. His books have been translated into forty-four languages and have sold more than thirty million copies.

Reviews for Return from the Stars

Lem's thought-provoking, reissued 1961 classic explores the questionable utopia that has emerged on a vivid future Earth through the eyes of an astronaut recently returned from the Fomalhaut star system, 23 light years away. -Publishers Weekly The writing is leisurely and elaborate, with a lot of gorgeous descriptive set-pieces....Atypical work from a master, but carried off with characteristic panache. -Kirkus Reviews -