Reviews

Slowly going therough Lem's novels. This one is not up to the level of Solaris or His Master's Voice, both masterpieces of a rare kind, but it's still really good.

therealmasterprocrastinator's review against another edition

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adventurous informative reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I liked the old sci-fi aspect. Still being wide eyed about atomic power, but building on that with anti-matter and other things. Compared to Solaris, it felt a lot less mysterious and psychological, although I found some of those elements back here. At the same time I found it was short an succinct enough to bring over some interesting ideas.

heathenhearted's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

The combination of a pretty lean translation and in-depth exposition typical to this era of sci-fi make this a pretty dry read. However, the themes and ideas here are ahead of their time and just as fascinating to explore today. Worth the relatively brief read.

nickfask's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

2.75

konaka's review against another edition

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4.0

_juxtapositive_'s review against another edition

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5.0

Bottom line up front: this was way ahead of its time. Artificial intelligence and swarm behavior, nanobots, the evolution of non-organic and non-living matter…concepts that were so far away in 1964.

I read this probably over twenty years ago and didn’t remember much about it, so I picked it back up again. What struck me more now as an adult was how advanced these ideas were, and how they were used to seed the idea that we may not find organic life. Let’s be real- a “first contact” type scenario for us is far more likely to be with a probe or drone of some sort that relies on some sort of AI/neural network. And also the idea that in much older solar systems and galaxies we may be the new kids on the block to evolve enough for space travel. The premise really hammers home two main points: life isn’t always what we expect, and we may be really late to the extrasolar/extragalactic party.

I’ve come to appreciate this even more, and really hate that I’ve kept this aside for so long.

https://astrogeek.wixsite.com/localgroup/post/the-invincible-by-stanislaw-lem

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