ISBN: 0151770824 9780151770823

Category: Fiction / Literary

Page count: 247

"Originally published in 1961, Return from the Stars recounts the experiences of Hal Bregg, an astronaut who returns from an exploratory mission of ten years. Due to time dilation 127 years have passed on Earth. Bregg returns to a society that he hardly recognizes, one where danger has been eradicated. Children are 'betrizated' to remove all aggression and violence, but this also removes all impluse to take risks and explore. Bregg has serious difficulty in navigating the new social mores, and fails to adapt. While Lem's depiction of a risk-free society is bleak, he avoids heroizing Bregg and his fellow astronauts -- faced with no opposition to his aggression, Bregg behaves abominably. The middle of the book recounts the space mission, in which several of their collagues died horribly and very little of any scientific magnitude was discovered. As usual with Lem's books, there is no simple answer, and Lem's dissection has multiple targets"-- Provided by publisher