Somehow the fact that this is more of a philosophical novel evaded me before I started reading it - and then immediately caught up with me. The beginning was a bit heavy, this I admit, but I quickly got absorbed by the story and found the narrator's reasoning - whenever he became more introspective - clear and easy to follow. And then - what a story it was!

This is my third Lem novel and for the third time I'm tempted to say, "not much happened, but not for a moment was I bored." I usually love the concept of human scientists making successful contact with an alien civilization via the universal language of science (what can I say, I'm a STEM student), but here I got something different: all the reasons for why we might fail to communicate with aliens and it got me hooked from the start. As always, the prose was just perfect - descriptive and beautiful but never superfluous. Not action-packed, like I said, but when there was tension (oh, you'll know which part I'm talking about when you read the book!), I physically felt it.

Definitely not everybody's cup of tea; but if you're looking for reflective scifi, this is it.