It is hard to classify Lem as a writer. Surely, among those who are devoted to hard Science Fiction none stands higher than Lem. The writers of hard SF are a breed mysterious for I do not feel the impulse under which they write. I can understand space opera. Those who write and read it just want a few basic things, rockets, ray guns, aliens and omnicompetent protagonists. And I understand the speculators who ask ‘what if’ and try to answer the question. Both of these seek something alien, but not quite the way the hard SF does. The hard SF seeks something alien anchored in the certainties of modern science.
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