Tales of Pirx the Pilot

by Stanisław Lem

Book Overview

In Pilot Pirx, Lem has created an irresistibly likable character: an astronaut who gives the impression of still navigating by the seat of his pants-a bumbler but an inspired one. By investing Pirx with a range of human foibles, Lem offers a wonderful vision of the audacity, childlike curiosity, and intuition that can give humans the courage to confront outer space. Translated by Louis Iribarne.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151879788
• ISBN13: 9780151879786
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
• Length: 206 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Oddly Fascinating Space Adventures

This collection of stories by Lem is based around a chubby cadet by the name of Pirx. The character is plucky and gets into all sorts of fixes. I found the first short story the most surprising and fun to read. It's most vivid antagonist are two insects, and it's wildly creative. Another very good story is this one about a robot re-living over and over the last few hours before the death of an entire ship (this was before Pirx's time). A very haunting tale. Overall, a great collection!

Excellent, thoughtful short stories

Tales of Pirx the Pilot, and More Tales of Pirx the pilot are two excellent sci-fi books! What is unique is that there is such a strong psychological edge to them. And the fact that Pirx is such an everyman - kind of unsure of himself, and from the outside, unassuming and apparently not especially competent. But Lem does something amazing with Pirx - with each story, he gains experience, confidence, cynicism, and most importantly, judgement and wisdom. Make sure to read the Pirx books, as well as The Invincible, and Solaris.

a down to earth collection about space travel

Lem is a master of making fantastic situations seem ordinary. "Tales of Pirx the Pilot" is no exception. Pirx could very well be any one of us and that is one of the things that makes this collection great. We can all relate to Pirx as he stumbles among the stars.

Pirx - the Anti-hero

This book contains several stories that are easy to penetrate and still gives the reader a good portion of humor. The humor is often satiric to the society under it was written. This book will give you a contrast to the books by Elizabeth Moon, Keith Laumer and other authours. (this doesn't mean that the other authors are bad, but this is like having a strawberry instead of chocolate)

The standard by which 'hard' sf should be judged

By intelligently (and often humorously) deflating many conventions and cliches of sf, the author reminds us that it is, first and foremost, a literature of ideas and not an escapist genre. In this collection of short stories, we follow protagonist Pirx through his training as a cadet and go along with him on a few routine space flights, most of them plagued by red tape. Lem seems to almost take glee in de-glamorizing space travel, but the fact remains that something about it fascinates and terrifies us, as it does his character Pirx. The truth of the matter, as the author so deftly illustrates in these tales, is that space is a void. The only thing that makes it come alive as a place of adventure or peril is the human imagination, which puts our hero Pirx in more jeopardy than any naturally occuring dangers. _Tales of Pirx the Pilot_ ranks as a top-notch book because, like all good sf, it does not allow a reader to run away from reality but makes one confront it thoughtfully