These stories of Pirx are a wonderful amalgamation of interesting science fiction, humour and action-adventure, done in a very readable and convincing way. Without revealing too much, I found that Lem's testing of the cadets to be a rather obvious requirement for any real deep-space or extended isolation mission even though he does it in a highly imaginative and unorthodox way. Great stuff. The character of Pirx is appealing, too. He's an everyman training to become a leader, with all of the doubts and foibles that ordinary men have. Despite the space background these stories are ultimately about the character and his development in each of the tales.
- ISBN10 0544312511
- ISBN13 9780544312517
- Publish Date 30 November 1990 (first published 14 April 1980)
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Harper Voyager
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 216
- Language English