Rating: 
Summary: Throw out your preconceptions about science fiction
Review: The first thing I read by Lem was _Solaris_, which is a unique book in his canon. It's a very serious, psychological novel in many respects. _Eden_, the second book I read by him, shares the sense of total alienness that seems to be one of Lem's main themes. The ship-wrecked space traveling scientists who function as the protagonists, basically try to figure out the world on to which they've crash landed. The exploration leads to all sorts of bizarre landscapes and situations that seem to have no logic. And, again, that's the author's point. This alien landscape is ALIEN. Saying more about the book's contents would be a cheat to the reader, and my slim description of the novel's main ideas certainly doesn't do _Eden_ justice. I wouldn't recommend this as a first book for someone who has never read Lem, but his writing is well worth sampling since he has used a number of different approaches (humorous, satirical, philisophical) and can't be appreciated from the reading of just one or two novels
Rating: 
Summary: Multi-layered futurology
Review: The reviewer who wrote that this book is about first contact is, of course, right. But this is only the surface layer of the pearl - underneath it, Lem's EDEN unveils social critique as well as technical foresight. Five astronauts meet a strange world built with social lassez-faire and anonymous dictatorship, and a technology that is far advanced in terms of chemical manipulation - what else did the ingenious author have in mind than the former Soviet Union and the Western society, both projected some 50 to 100 years into the future? This clairvoyant prophecy - at least regarding technological developments, since nanotech cries out from every scenery on the alien world - is a must for everyone interested in global changes that might happen even now since most of Lem's ideas have become real in the past decades. Strongly recommended. And this applies also to all of his other works which I'm glad to have had the opportunity to get my hands on, in the German translations.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible portrait of alien encounter
Review: There is no one in the world of sci-fi who can quite pull off that alien encounter like Stanislaw Lem. This particular story is a real gem. We are on an earth-like world with strange creatures that are somewhat human-like in their emotions and psychology. The more they stay, though, the stranger it gets until we discover that this "Eden" is not all it appears but a continual scene of death and war. What is worse, that is the preferred mode of reality.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible portrait of alien encounter
Review: There is no one in the world of sci-fi who can quite pull off that alien encounter like Stanislaw Lem. This particular story is a real gem. We are on an earth-like world with strange creatures that are somewhat human-like in their emotions and psychology. The more they stay, though, the stranger it gets until we discover that this "Eden" is not all it appears but a continual scene of death and war. What is worse, that is the preferred mode of reality.
Rating: 
Summary: A poor version of Fiasco
Review: This book (I believe) is one of Lem's earlier stories and it reads like so-so pulp sci-fi. Fiasco (a true 5 star science fiction novel) picks up the idea of contacting a new world and does it so much better. I suggest reading this only if you are a Lem completist (I've read all of his stuff except 2 books).
Rating:
Summary: Sober Science Fiction
Review: This book is a far cry from the usual way science fiction is presented. It has all the elements...different planet, aliens, technology, etc., but the writing and ideas are of such quality that it is as readable as the latest pocket thriller but as dignified as a nineteenth-century novel. This is the kind of science fiction that even the most unrelenting critics of the genre can enjoy
Rating: 
Summary: Fairly dull
Review: This book was just not interesting. All the human characters were men. It was hard to tell them apart. They formed no personal relationships. They didn't even have names but were referred to by their jobs.Their discoveries on a strange planet were also not interesting. One could hardly make any sense of them. When the men finally learn what the planet is all about, that, too, is disappointing and not interesting. The only reason I give this book two stars instead of one is that the writing wasn't terrible.
Rating:
Summary: A Trojan horse sci fi horrorshow
Review: This is not just a standard sci fi book about crash landing on a strange planet, though a ten year old can (and has) read it on that level and enjoyed it on that level. It's also not just an examination of a "truely" alien society though it works on that level as well, and it may be more comfortable for some older readers who may prefer not to look much deeper. Most of the U.S. reviewers of this book don't really get it, the only review I read here which seemed to understand the point Lem makes was the reviewer from Germany. One have to understand Lem to understand his work. Most of his books were written from behind the iron curtain. Almost everything Lem wrote (when he was still writing novels) is both political and socially relevant, usually very bitingly so. One of the things which make him an especially interesting writer is that, in addition to being a brilliant futurologist and social critic, he was forced to write with great subtelty to escape the notice of censors and poltical watchdogs. He does not beat you over the head with the message in Eden, thats for sure. You have to read between the lines a little bit. But there is a scathing social message in Eden.... think about automated manufacturing plants which mindlessly produce worthless junk to the detriment of individual beings ... think about it the next time you are walking around a mall, maybe, or passing by a landfill. The beginning of the book, with it's odd, intermittently fleshed out characterization, is really a subtle parody of US science fiction of the time, socially and poltically "colorblind" science fiction. The naive good intentions of the "central casting" Astronauts is a chilling contrast to the creepy reality of the ironically named planet....
Rating:
Summary: A Trojan horse sci fi horrorshow
Review: This is not just a standard sci fi book about crash landing on a strange planet, though a ten year old can (and has) read it on that level and enjoyed it on that level. It's also not just an examination of a "truely" alien society though it works on that level as well, and it may be more comfortable for some older readers who may prefer not to look much deeper. Most of the U.S. reviewers of this book don't really get it, the only review I read here which seemed to understand the point Lem makes was the reviewer from Germany. One have to understand Lem to understand his work. Most of his books were written from behind the iron curtain. Almost everything Lem wrote (when he was still writing novels) is both political and socially relevant, usually very bitingly so. One of the things which make him an especially interesting writer is that, in addition to being a brilliant futurologist and social critic, he was forced to write with great subtelty to escape the notice of censors and poltical watchdogs. He does not beat you over the head with the message in Eden, thats for sure. You have to read between the lines a little bit. But there is a scathing social message in Eden.... think about automated manufacturing plants which mindlessly produce worthless junk to the detriment of individual beings ... think about it the next time you are walking around a mall, maybe, or passing by a landfill. The beginning of the book, with it's odd, intermittently fleshed out characterization, is really a subtle parody of US science fiction of the time, socially and poltically "colorblind" science fiction. The naive good intentions of the "central casting" Astronauts is a chilling contrast to the creepy reality of the ironically named planet....
Rating:
Summary: fine alien description
Review: This is only the second Stan Lem book I've read (Solaris being the first), and here, once again, Lem captures the utter strangeness of an alien world and its utterly strange inhabitants. As others have mentioned, Lem chooses to identify the crew members by profession rather than by name, with one exception. I'm not sure of his reason for this, but my guess is that he was trying to show the tendency of humans to comparmentalize, and, subsequently, to show how this could present a barrier to understanding alien beings. Here, Lem presents a well-thought-out alien atmosphere, with "doublers" living in a society that we can barely imagine. The most interesting parts of the story were the various planetary explorations performed by the men, both on foot and by ground vehicle. It is rare, at least in my experience, to encounter an author who can describe such strange places in such fine and honest detail. I also enjoyed Lem's take on the human contamination of such worlds. Recommended for those who enjoy exploratory, adventure-type science fiction with a philosophical twist.
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