Tales of Pirx the Pilot

Tales of Pirx the Pilot(Polish:Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie) is a science fiction stories collection by Polish authorStanisław Lem,about aspaceshippilotnamedPirx.

First edition (Russian)

Individual stories were published during 1959-1965 in various collections. The first collection of stories specifically about Pirx was published in 1965 in the Soviet Union in Russian under the titleОхота на Сэтавра( "The Hunt for Setaur" ). It was translated in Latvian asPetaura medībasin 1966.In 2009 a Lithuanian publisherEridanaspublished the story asSetauro Medžioklė.In Poland a more complete collection (asOpowieści o pilocie Pirxie) was published in 1968, and translated to English in two parts (Tales of Pirx the PilotandMore Tales of Pirx the Pilot) in 1979 and 1982. Pirx stories include both philosophical and comic elements. A fragment of "The Hunt for Setaur" was added to the required curriculum for Polish junior-high school students in the 1990s.

Pirx universe

About the country of origin of Pirx, we know only that money there are called "crowns" (koruny). The time frame of the events may sometimes look likenear future:while some stories mention private businesses, Orlinski describes the landscapes in stories as "inspired by those ofPolish People's Republic".At the same time, "The romantic times of astronautics have long gone"and mankind is busy colonizing theSolar System,has some settlements on theMoonandMars,and is even beginning the exploration of the other star systems.

Pirx is acadet,a pilot, and finally a captain of a merchant spaceship, and the stories relate his life and various things that happen to him during his travels between theEarth,Moon,andMars.

Pirx

Main article:Pilot Pirx

In a way, Pirx is as an ordinary "working man" who unlike traditional heroic space pilots has little if anything heroic about him. He sometimes finds himself in extreme situations, which he overcomes mostly through ordinary common sense and average luck. In particular, in the storyThe Inquest,Lem puts forth the idea that what is perceived a human weakness is in fact an advantage over a perfect machine. In this tale Pirx defeats the robot, because a human can hesitate, make wrong decisions, have doubts, but a robot cannot.

Stories

Tales of Pirx the Pilotwas translated byLouis Iribarne.More Tales of Pirx the Pilotwas also translated by Iribarne, with the assistance of Magdalena Majcherczyk. An exception is "The Hunt", translated byMichael Kandel.

Tales of Pirx the Pilot

• "The Test"
• "The Conditioned Reflex"
• "On Patrol"
• "The Albatross"

  Pirx is second navigator of a luxury starshipTitan,which receives a S.O.S. signal from starshipAlbatrosswith damaged reactor. Despite all efforts, people from Albatross could not be rescued.

• "Terminus"

More Tales of Pirx the Pilot

• "The Hunt"

  Pirx, now a starship commander, takes part in a hunt for a mining robot, which got damaged and started attacking people with laser. Suddenly he comes face to face with the robot, but did not fire at it, knowing that the robot is much faster. At that moment a rock next to Pirx is hit by laser from the vehicle of another hunter team. The robot hits the vehicle thus saving Pirx, and Pirx hits the robot. Later it turns out that another team didn't see robot and were aiming at Pirx, mistaking him for the robot. Pirx concludes that the robot deliberately saved him, because, with its perfect logic the robot saw that it was not the target. Therefore Pirx begins to feel remorse...

• "Pirx's Tale"

  Pirx tells a story of what had happened during his stunt as a commander on an old malfunctioning starship with a ragtag crew. They meet a huge drifting object amid a meteor swarm that looks like an alien artifact, but the opportunity of thefirst contactwas lost due to the utter and complete mishap: he even cannot transmit the recorded coordinates to the base because it turned out that the (tape) recorder was out of tape. And he was hesitating whether to report orally by radio, because he was in violation of numerous instructions...

• "The Accident"

  Pirx solves the mystery of a disappeared robot. Pirx figured out that the robot crashed while climbing a mountain without any apparent reason. Pirx concluded that it undertook the endeavor of its own free will, acting as an alpinist looking for a difficult climb. Pirx's colleagues dismiss this hypothesis.

• "The Inquest"

  For plot summary, seeInquest of Pilot Pirx,a 1978 film

• "Ananke"

  Pirx investigated a crash of a state-of the-art spaceship and find out that its artificial intelligence was trained by a former starship commander who was discharged from commanding due to hisOCPD,but who was found to be suitable as a trainer due to his meticulosity associated with the disorder. (In Polish, OCPD is called "anankesyndrome ", hence the title of the story.) Pirx concludes that starship's computer inherited the OCPD trait from the trainer and started doing a large number of marginally relevant actions, which slowed down its processing speed.

Adaptations

A television mini-series,Pirx kalandjai(The Adventures of Pirx), was released in Hungary in 1973.A Polish-Soviet feature-length film,Inquest of Pilot Pirx,was released in 1979.

Reception

Dave LangfordreviewedMore Tales of Pirx the PilotforWhite Dwarf#42, and stated that "The perfect thinking machine is never perfect because it's been built by fallible us. 'A robot that can match man mentally and not be capable of lying or cheating is a fantasy.' So much for Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics!"

Reviews

• Review by Bob Mecoy (1980) inFuture Life,May 1980
• Review by Ian Watson (1981) inFoundation,#21 February 1981
• Review by George Zebrowski (1981) inThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction,April 1981
• Review by Bruce Gillespie (1981) inSF Commentary,#62/63/64/65/66
• Review by David Langford [as by Dave Langford] (1981) inPaperback Inferno,Volume 5, Number 2
• Review by Bob Mecoy (1982) inHeavy Metal,August 1982
• Review by Norman Beswick (1991) inPaperback Inferno,#88

See also

• The Hunt(1950s Stanisław Lem short story),a precursor ofThe Huntof Pirx's tales.

External links

• Tales of Pirx the Pilotat the official Lem website (English version)
• Test pilota PirxaatIMDb- Polish-USSR movie adaptation.
• reviewby Jason Weisberger atboing boing
• A reviewatThe New York Times