A powerful sublight interstellar space ship, a “class two cruiser” called Invincible, lands on the planet Regis III which seems uninhabited and bleak, to investigate the loss of sister ship, Condor. During the investigation, the crew finds evidence of a form of quasi-life, born through evolution of autonomous, self-replicating machines, apparently left behind by an alien civilization that visited the planet a very long time ago. The evolution was controlled by “robot wars”, and the only form that survived were swarms of minuscule, insect-like micromachines. Individually, or in small groups, they are quite harmless to humans and capable of only very simple behavior. However, when bothered, they can assemble into huge swarms displaying complex behavior arising from self-organization, and are able to defeat an intruder by a powerful surge of EMI. Some members of the spacecraft crew suffered a complete memory erasure as a consequence. Big clouds of “insects” are also able to travel at a high speed and even to climb to the top of troposphere. The angered crew attempts to fight the perceived enemy, but eventually recognizes the meaninglessness of their efforts in the most direct sense of the word. The robotic “fauna” has become part of the planets ecology, and would require a disruption on planetary scale (such as a nuclear winter) to be destroyed.
The novel turns into an analysis of the relationship between different life domains, and their place in the universe. In particular, it is an imaginary experiment to demonstrate that evolution may not necessarily lead to dominance by intellectually superior life forms. The plot also involves a Conrad-like dilemma, juxtaposing the values of humanity and the efficiency of mechanical insects. In the face of defeat and imminent withdrawal of The Invincible, Rohan, the spaceship's navigator, undertakes a trip into the 'enemy area' in search of 4 crew members who went missing in action — an attempt which he and captain Horpach see as probably futile, but necessary for moral reasons. Rohan struck into mountains covered by metallic “shrubs” and “insects” and found these crewmen dead. He gathers some evidence and returns to the ship unharmed because of successful operation of the anti-detection device they managed to create for that purpose.
На этой странице свободной бесплатной онлайн библиотеки фантастики и фэнтези FictionBooks.top вы можете прочитать подробное описание романа «The Invincible», ознакомиться с другой информацией о книге, выбрать один из вариантов для чтения онлайн на нашем сайте или скачать полную версию книги в формате fb2. Книга написана автором Станислав Лем, относится к жанру Научная Фантастика, добавлена в библиотеку 18.07.2011 и доступна полная версия.
Художественный роман «The Invincible», объёмом 185 печатных страниц, подарит вам не один увлекательный вечер чтения. Выбирайте себе подходящую онлайн читалку на нашем сайте по ссылкам под постером или скачивайте полную версию книги в популярном формате fb2. В нашей читалке вы можете выбрать традиционный дневной режим чтения, а также модный ночной. Ночная тема отлично подойдет для чтения выбранного художественного романа в тёмное время суток перед сном, так вы обеспечите себе максимальное погружение в события книги «The Invincible». Ну а если вы предпочитаете сторонние читалки, можете скачать полную версию книги в виде файла в популярном формате fb2. Библиотека FictionBooks.top желает вам увлекательного чтения!