This is StanisÅ‚aw Lem week. This past Monday, we looked at his novel The Investigation. Today, we’re reviewing a two-volume set: Tales of Pirx the Pilot and More Tales of Pirx the Pilot.

“Cadet Pirx!”

Bullpen’s voice snapped him out of his daydreaming. He had just had visions of a two-crown piece lying tucked away in the fob pocket of his old civvies, the ones stashed at the bottom of his locker. A jingling, shiny silver coin—all but forgotten…

“Cadet Pirx, what would you do if you were on patrol and encountered a ship from an alien planet?”

Pirx opened his mouth wide, as if the answer were there and all he had to do was to force it out. He looked like the last person on Earth who knew what to do when meeting up with a vessel from an alien planet.

“I would maneuver closer,” he answered, his voice muted and strangely hoarse.

The class froze in welcome anticipation of some comic relief.

“Very good,” Bullpen said in a fatherly sort of way. “Then what would you do?” …

Furiously, he racked his empty brains in search of the appropriate paragraphs from his Space Manual, but it was as if he had never laid eyes on it. Sheepishly he lowered his gaze, and as he did so, he noticed that Smiga was trying to prompt him—with his lips only. One by one he deciphered Smiga’s words and repeated them out loud, before he had a chance to fully digest them.

“I’d introduce myself.”

So begins the first of the Tales of Pirx the Pilot.

The two novels come one after the other in terms of content and were originally released, in 1968 in Polish, as a single work. Between them, they contain ten stories following Pirx’s career from the time he was a cadet until he’s a seasoned veteran. As he matures, he develops confidence, wisdom, and a justifiable dislike of robots. In typical Lem style, the Tales of Pirx the Pilot are engaging, strongly plotted stories, full of character depth as well as cool future-tech gizmos.

Pirx, you see, is a pilot of space vessels, freighters mostly. In his world, space travel is common. Yet things always seem to go wrong, and Pirx always seems to get caught in the middle of it. Pirx is a seat-of-the-pants, “to hell with the instructions—they can’t help me now” kinda guy, in charge of hundred-foot-tall, mega-ton space rockets. From the beginning, Pirx faces crisis, insanity, disaster, ghosts, intrigue, court martial, and a crazed killer robot. And his instincts save him time and again.

Take the first story in the collection, “The Test,” an account of Pirx’s final exam, as it were, his maiden solo voyage. How did a half-witted, daydreaming, bungling idiot like Pirx get into the program in the first place? Nonetheless, I guess he made it, and it comes down to this. It’s just a routine escort mission, but he needs to get it right. A screw up could cost him his pilot’s license, or his life, as it turns out. The ending I will not give away, but I will say it left me shocked and laughing.

By the last story, entitled “Ananke,” Pirx finds himself investigating the cause of a devastating crash, of a new-model freighter. By this time, he’s been piloting for decades, and space flight has been computerized to the hilt since the time he was a cadet, and these new pilots don’t even know how to operate the machinery, not like he had to learn as a cadet, and he doesn’t like it, not one bit. He’s probably right.

Tales of Pirx the Pilot and More Tales of Pirx the Pilot not only transport us to the future, like science fiction should, but challenge us to think about where we’re going on the way.