---
product_id: 54152314
title: "The Invincible Paperback – 27 Mar. 2017"
brand: "stanislaw lembill johnston"
price: "€ 19.44"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.ie/products/54152314-the-invincible-paperback-27-mar-2017
store_origin: IE
region: Ireland
---

# The Invincible Paperback – 27 Mar. 2017

**Brand:** stanislaw lembill johnston
**Price:** € 19.44
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** The Invincible Paperback – 27 Mar. 2017 by stanislaw lembill johnston
- **How much does it cost?** € 19.44 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ie](https://www.desertcart.ie/products/54152314-the-invincible-paperback-27-mar-2017)

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Incredible 'Invincible'!
  

*by B***W on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 August 2015*

NOTE: THIS REVIEW REVEALS SOME DETAILS OF THE PLOT, IN ITS DESCRIPTIONThe story begins in the void, with the mighty Earth ship Invincible - 18,000 tonnes of Class II Cruiser, and temporary home to a crew of 83 - having spent several long months travelling a parsec from its base in the constellation of Lyra. Journey's end is Regis III - an ageing planet, feebly lit by an equally aged and reddening sun; the crew's objective - to discover the fate that has befallen their sister ship, the Condor...From the outset, Regis III proves to be something of a baffling and contradictory world: the continents are deserts, seemingly devoid of life - and yet the atmosphere contains a sizeable proportion of methane, suggesting the presence of living organisms. But where are these organisms to be found - and where, exactly, is the Condor and its crew? Their investigations quickly provide some equally puzzling answers: in stark contrast to the harsh reality on land, where nothing appears to survive - not even the smallest microbe - the oceans, on the other hand, fairly teem with many varied yet strangely timid forms of life; and the Condor - well, that poor ship is located a couple of hundred miles away from where the Invincible has landed, but closer inspection shows it now to be hardly anything more than an abandoned hulk, with most of its 80 crew members long since dead...except for one grown man, seemingly as helpless as a newborn. Might their disastrous ending have something to do with the rusting metal bush-like ruins of what may once have been a thriving ancient city, or perhaps with the crumbling remains of almost impossibly venerable machines lying buried in the sand...? And what of the Invincible itself - is it safe, and can Commander Horpach and his crew protect their vessel from a similar catastrophe...?Told almost exclusively from the perspective of the Invincible's chief navigator Rohan, this shortish novel is an exciting read that builds and maintains a sense of tension right to the very last page. Written in the first half of the 1960s, it's a story that clearly embraces one of Stanislaw Lem's abiding themes in his fiction from that period - and a theme that, as preoccupations go, is perhaps not too difficult to understand from an author who was writing from behind the Iron Curtain during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis: Humankind's apparently boundless faith in the universal efficacy of its own technology (particularly, its weapons technology) - yielding a near unshakeable belief that the machines upon which we place so much reliance must always equip us to prevail against adversity, when in fact it's elementary human courage and resourcefulness that most often sees us through...that is, when we decide to offer them the chance to do so!So - without wishing to disclose too much more of the plot, it almost goes without saying that the basic premise of 'The Invincible' is thoroughly ingenious: that is an essential hallmark of Lem's writing, in general - but particularly so here, I think. Perhaps the manner in which the planet's nigh-indestructible swarming menace goes about incapacitating its victims is a little over-elaborate (being able to summon such incredible levels of unified power, wouldn't it have made far more sense for these entities to kill their chosen targets - either by frying their central nervous systems, stopping their hearts from beating, or simply tearing them limb from limb?); perhaps the spacecraft Invincible might have been better named 'Noah's Ark' - or maybe, 'Pandora's Box' - since it does appear to continually disgorge from its hold an unfeasibly large assortment of vehicles and robots of awe-inspiring power; there are certainly some similarities to the basic premise of the (earlier) 1956 film 'Forbidden Planet', as another reviewer has perceptively identified (an Earth ship travelling to a distant planet in order to investigate the disappearance of a previous expedition, but soon being forced to confront the formidable threat of a long-extinct alien civilisation's instrumentality...); and perhaps the characters - whilst being noticeably stronger-willed and determinedly more focused than their counterparts in 'Solaris', for example - are a little bit on the one-dimensional side, which is unfortunately one of Lem's perennial and most obvious weaknesses; but taken in the round, these are all rather minor considerations that shouldn't deter you in the slightest from reading what is - in my opinion - a magnificently compelling work of science fiction.If you purchase the Kindle edition, you will not only need to contend with Brian Johnston's Americanised (English) translation from the original Polish (spellings AND idiom, I'm afraid!), but also the now depressingly familiar and all too prevalent e-book typos! That said, I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending what is undoubtedly an absolute belter of a book!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Thoughtful and thought-provoking, fast-paced science-fiction adventure.
  

*by A***Y on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 March 2017*

This book really has it all, so far as science-fiction is concerned; it manages to handle themes on the nature of intelligent life, on eveolution, and on man's place in the universe, without being heavy-handed or didactic. Just enough of the ideas mixed in to the plot to ensure that the reader has the raw material for connecting these themes together, if they wish so to do.  But at the same time, it manages to be a fast-paced sci-fi action thriller, with blasters and shields and aliens and missing rockcet ships, and indeed, it is possible to read it in that vein without considering any of the more thoughtful themes.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Solaris' less well-known cousin, but similarly excellent.
  

*by D***S on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 December 2016*

The Invincible has themes in common with Solaris - the otherness of what might be out there and our limited grasp on how different other life might be; a critique of the human urge to explore for the sake of domination and to needlessly put human interests ahead of those of other species.This is also a good adventure romp with guns and aliens etc. the works. For those who find Solaris to lack action, this will certainly not disappoint.

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*Product available on Desertcart Ireland*
*Store origin: IE*
*Last updated: 2026-02-25*