Tales of Pirx the Pilot

15 hrs. 18 min.

Language Russian

Author Stanislaw Lem

Narrator Sergey Kirsanov

Description

The collection “Tales of Pilot Pirx” is a set of separate moments from the life of a man who dreams of traveling to the stars. He works his way from an ordinary cadet, overcoming every obstacle placed in his path toward his dream, all the while thinking about what he has been given—until he becomes a first pilot, whose life is no less busy.

Each story is interesting both on its own—presenting a fully complete tale and the hero’s reflections that turn into a kind of philosophy—and also together with the others, helping to form an idea of the multi-faceted personality of the pilot, his quick thinking and courage. The stories also aren’t without humor: healthy, clear-headed humor of the kind that should exist in science fiction.

These adventures lead us, perhaps, to the most interesting moment in Pirx’s life—the flight to the stars and his encounter with another civilization, in the novel “Fiasco.” The novel is filled with the heroes’ reflections on what another civilization is and what is the best way to make contact with it. But the unknown civilization throws unexpected surprises in the course of its study…

Contents:

1. The Test — the beginning of Pirx’s career as a pilot
2. Conditioned Reflex — having brilliantly passed the simulator test, Pirx gets sent on a trip to the far side of the Moon. There he again, by a miracle, avoids the fate of the dead predecessors
3. Patrol — Pirx uncovers the mystery behind the deaths of two pilots; he himself again escapes death by a miracle, but the scientists who studied the issue in detail gain all the glory, while Pirx remains unknown
4. Albatross — Pirx flies on an interplanetary luxury tourist ship, but unexpectedly the ship comes to the aid of another, dying one…
5. Terminus — Pirx takes command of an old ship after a major overhaul and discovers a robot aboard that remembers the voices of the ship’s dying former crew
6. Pirx’s Story — Pirx recounts how, during a routine flight, he encountered a ship of a civilization that had died out several thousand years ago, but he couldn’t record the meeting on film or provide witnesses because his entire crew was sick or drunk
7. The Hunt for Setavr — on the Moon, Pirx joins a hunt for a runaway mad robot named SETAVR, which shoots at people and all-terrain vehicles with lasers. Pirx finds the robot, but a search rover mistakenly takes Pirx for the nearby Setavr and opens fire. The robot saves Pirx with return fire, but Pirx accidentally destroys his rescuer by pressing the trigger of his laser and is plagued by guilt.
8. An Accident — while the expedition is staying on an uninhabited trans-solar planet, a robot dies. Pirx concludes that the automaton decided, instead of doing its assigned work, to go climbing and have fun, and then fell off a cliff. Pirx’s companions treat the robot dismissively and don’t believe this version.
9. Interrogation — Pirx is put in charge of an experimental team consisting partly of people and partly of robots indistinguishable from humans; Pirx does not know who is a person and who is a robot. During the flight, crew members approach Pirx and, contrary to the prohibition, one says he is human, another says he is a robot, a third shares suspicions about the others, and so on. Finally, Pirx receives an anonymous letter from a robot that has decided to seize the world and promises Pirx support. Pirx doesn’t know whom to trust. At last the crew ends up in an emergency in which one of the pilots behaves in such a way that he must doom the entire ship, and only waits for Pirx’s decisive orders—but Pirx does not give them. Finally, the crew is saved, while the pilot dies; it turns out he was a rebellious robot. This incident is examined by a space tribunal, and another human pilot gives detailed testimony. The story begins with those statements and ends with later reflections from Pirx.
10. Ananke — a story from 1973, added to the cycle later. Commander Pirx investigates a catastrophe of a space apparatus on Mars and understands its causes by recalling a medical diagnosis that had been given to the device’s designer.