Overview
"The fact that I was using a dead man's shirts and luggage didn't faze me in the slightest, and if it was a little hard going at first, then it was only because these things belonged to a stranger, not because their owner was dead."Written in the style of a detective novel, The Chain of Chance is classic Lem: a combination of action, hard science, and philosophical investigation. An ex-astronaut is hired to look into the death of a wealthy businessman, one of several men to meet a gruesome end after visiting Naples. The authorities suspect a pattern, but neither detectives nor a sophisticated computer enlisted for the investigation can crack the case.
On a trial leading from Naples to Rome to Paris, the ex-astronaut barely escapes numerous seemingly random threats on his life. Having set himself up as a potential victim, he realizes that he may now be the target of a deadly conspiracy—and that the conspiracy is not the work of a criminal mind but a manifestation of the laws of nature. The population has numerically exceeded its critical mass; certain patterns have begun to emerge from the chaotic workings of society. As the ex-astronaut unravels the puzzle, he begins to see that some of those patterns can be fatal.
A singular mystery novel, The Chain of Chance proposes an original scientific hypothesis in the form of a story layered with menace and driven at breakneck speed. It is among Lem's most accessible and popular books.
About the Author:
Stanislaw Lem is an internationally renowned author of more than twenty works of science fiction, including One Human Minute, More Tales of Pirx the Pilot, and Solaris. His books A Perfect Vacuum andHis Master's Voice were published by Northwestern University Press in 1999. He was born in Lvov, Poland, and lives in Krakow.
Louis Iribarne is a widely published translator. His work includes books by Czeslaw Milosz and Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, as well as Lem's Tales of Pirx the Pilot and More Tales of Pirx the Pilot.
An intricate, tightly plotted mystery with a sci-fi twist by "a science fiction writer worthy of a Nobel prize."--New York Times
Synopsis
"The fact that I was using a dead man's shirts and luggage didn't faze me in the slightest, and if it was a little hard going at first, then it was only because these things belonged to a stranger, not because their owner was dead."
Written in the style of a detective novel, The Chain of Chance is classic Lem: a combination of action, hard science, and philosophical investigation. An ex-astronaut is hired to look into the death of a wealthy businessman, one of several men to meet a gruesome end after visiting Naples. The authorities suspect a pattern, but neither detectives nor a sophisticated computer enlisted for the investigation can crack the case.
On a trial leading from Naples to Rome to Paris, the ex-astronaut barely escapes numerous seemingly random threats on his life. Having set himself up as a potential victim, he realizes that he may now be the target of a deadly conspiracy—and that the conspiracy is not the work of a criminal mind but a manifestation of the laws of nature. The population has numerically exceeded its critical mass; certain patterns have begun to emerge from the chaotic workings of society. As the ex-astronaut unravels the puzzle, he begins to see that some of those patterns can be fatal.
A singular mystery novel, The Chain of Chance proposes an original scientific hypothesis in the form of a story layered with menace and driven at breakneck speed. It is among Lem's most accessible and popular books.
About the Author:
Stanislaw Lem is an internationally renowned author of more than twenty works of science fiction, including One Human Minute, More Tales of Pirx the Pilot, and Solaris. His books A Perfect Vacuum andHis Master's Voice were published by Northwestern University Press in 1999. He was born in Lvov, Poland, and lives in Krakow.
Louis Iribarne is a widely published translator. His work includes books by Czeslaw Milosz and Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, as well as Lem's Tales of Pirx the Pilot and More Tales of Pirx the Pilot.
The Barnes & Noble Review
The New York Times once deemed the Polish writer Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006) "a polymath and a virtuoso storyteller and stylist.a genius." Given to exploring fresh territory with every book, Polish-born SF master Lem is perhaps most famous for his novel Solaris (1961), filmed twice.
But Lem produced over two dozen other books, ranging from the fabulistic (The Cyberiad [1967]) to the space-operatic (The Invincible [1964]) to the metatextual (Imaginary Magnitude [1973]). Although each volume boldly pioneered new dimensions, they all exhibited a common voice that blended sparkling intelligence, satirical irreverence, startling scientific speculations, and iconoclastic sociopolitical insights. Always a bit aloof from the herd of humanity, Lem was more philosopher than entertainer, possessing a Swiftian perspective on our foibles and charms, our record of failure and success.