The Invincible

For other uses, see Invincible (disambiguation).

The Invincible
First English-language edition
Author(s)	Stanislaw Lem
Cover artist	Richard M. Powers (English-language edition)
Country	Poland
Language	Polish
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Wydawnictwo MON (original) Seabury Press (English-language)
Publication date	1964
Published in English	1973
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages	316 pp (first edition, paperback)
OCLC Number	488362 (English-language edition)

The Invincible (Polish: Niezwyciężony) is a science fiction novel written by Stanisław Lem and published in 1964. It originally appeared as the title story in Lem's collection Niezwyciężony i inne opowiadania ("The Invincible and Other Stories"). A translation into German was published in 1967; an English translation by Wendayne Ackerman of the German translation was published in 1973. It was one of the first novels to exploit the idea of micro-robots (somewhat similar to the concept of nanobots), artificial swarm intelligence and "necroevolution", or evolution of non-living matter.

Plot summary

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 planet's 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.

Reception

Theodore Sturgeon praised The Invincible as "sf in the grand tradition," saying "The Science is hard. The descriptions are vivid and powerful."

Editions

Polish

• MON,Warszawa 1964, 1965
• Iskry, Warszawa 1982
• Interart, Warszawa 1995
• Nowa, Warszawa 1995
• Świat Książki, Warszawa 1997

English

• Seabury Press, New York, 1973
• Ace Books, New York, 1973, 1975
• Seabury Press, 1973
• Seabury Press, 1976
• Penguin Books, 1976
• Penguin Books, 1982 (with Tales of Pirx the Pilot and Return from the Stars)

External links

• Information about the novel on the website dedicated to Stanislaw Lem