Rating: 
Summary: An irritating but rewarding SETI novel
Review: A synthetic signal from outer space is detected.
In Sagan's "Contact", the signal
encodes plans for a spaceship; here it's not so simple.
The signal seems to carry many levels of meaning,
each one more bizarre and mind-boggling than the last.
Lem, as always, weaves together ideas from the fringes
of modern science. He also explores the human aspects
of scientific research.
This book is not light reading.
Many parts require a mental effort like, say,
that needed to play chess.
This can be irritating, even infuriating.
For readers are up to the task, however,
the book rewards the effort many times over.
Rating:
Summary: An irritating but rewarding SETI novel
Review: A synthetic signal from outer space is detected.In Sagan's "Contact", the signalencodes plans for a spaceship; here it's not so simple. The signal seems to carry many levels of meaning, each one more bizarre and mind-boggling than the last. Lem, as always, weaves together ideas from the fringes of modern science. He also explores the human aspects of scientific research. This book is not light reading. Many parts require a mental effort like, say, that needed to play chess. This can be irritating, even infuriating. For readers are up to the task, however, the book rewards the effort many times over.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, scathing satire of science
Review: An oft-overlooked masterpiece of Lem's, this book portrays with astonishing acuity science's unflappably pompous tone. Confronted with an unfathomably alien message, the narrator and his colleagues are capable only of self-congratulation, having dispensed with ethics along the way.
Rating:
Summary: Proceed with Caution
Review: HMV is a very heavy read. Not in its weight but in its content.
This story reads more like philosophy than sci-fi so I can understand if people struggle with it. Another point is that nothing is really ever solved in HMV. Just like the scientists trying to understand the message from the stars, the reader is left with the same frustration because we are told the outcome in the first few pages of HMV; defeat. The message that Mankind has stumbled upon is an enigma so complex it would be like explaining the laws of physics to a baboon. The slight progress man does make is so subjective that it can't be considered true progress at all. I would recommend HMV only to avid Lem fan's and to the others I would point in the direction of Fiasco, Solaris, or The Invincible.
Rating:
Summary: Putting "science" in science-fiction.
Review: I cannot be counted among science fictions greatest fans. While I did get my share of fun out of the original Star Trek series in the late sixties and earlier seventies, I still think that most science fiction tends to degenerate in a redressing of "old imperial tales", without making any use of the extra possibilities that the many aspects of science could add to the writer's repertoire. Yet, while scanning the Amazon web pages for signals of intelligent life from distant galaxies, I came across this book that fully lives up to be called, let me rephrase define, science-fiction. A couple of years before the movie made it's way to a wider audience I read Sagan's Contact. While the decoding of the many levels of the "message" in this book went a long way in pleasing the Nerd in me, the story itself was flat as a pancake. Lem's HMV proceeds Contact by many years and reflects a sophistication from a civilization that is light-years ahead of the one that produced Sagan. Written in the sixties, during the Cold War, behind the Iron Curtain, HMV is a work that can be read on at least two levels. Firstly, it is a critique against Cold War politics, military and political decision making, and the conduct of science/scientist. In this respect the work could be regarded as an accurate Swiftian satire. Secondly and most importantly, however, HMV is a psychological and philosophical essay on the limitations of the human mind facing the truly unknown. This second layer is in my opinion the part that makes this book so unique. Earlier this year I wrestled my way through Foucault's "Order of Things" a post-modern classic of contemporary structuralist philosophy. Lem may not claim to be a philosopher, but by the middle of just the preface of HMV, he has encapsulated all of Foucault's arguments in one focused concise essay in clear language. Throughout the rest of the book Lem exposes the reader to many schools of philosophy, discussion of the possibilities and limitations of science and the extent to which the human mind is limited to the level of projecting itself in the analysis of an unknown subject. An argument could be made that Lem does little more than using the subtext of HMV to give a synopsis of 20+ centuries of philosophy. Yet, both the construction of this novel and the beautiful way in which Lem concludes Hogarth's account of man finding reason without answers in the post-Nietzschian world is truly impressive. The X-files always claims that the truth is out there. While it took me over thirty years, I have finally been able to recover the part that Lem's HMV contributed to it.
Rating:
Summary: an entertaining exercise for the mind
Review: I had to read this novel twice to be sure I 'got it'. This I was glad to do, for upon finishing it the first time, I felt that my mind (the rational portion of it) had experienced something akin to an epiphany (and after the second reading, I immediatley sought out the other novels he's written, and always hope for more). This is not the standard line on "first contact"; this is more of a tale of evesdropping by naughty children, with consequences. If you enjoy the way that Buckminster Fuller works with models, mental and physical, you'll love Lem. His commitment to staying within the boundaries of accepted science coupled with his readiness to tweak a few noses make for a most engaging read. I'd say that if "Fox Mulder" read Science Fiction, this book, and this author would be at the top of his list
Rating:
Summary: WHAT WILL REALLY HAPPEN IF CONTACT IS EVER MADE
Review: if it hasn't happened all ready... What James Morrow does to Theology in his books, Lem does to Science. The Emperor has no clothes...
Rating:
Summary: If "Contact" is kindergarten level, "HMV" is PhD level
Review: If you ever happened to watch the misfortune that is the movie "Contact" (I have to admit that I have not read Carl Sagan's book, but I do hope it was better than the movie), know that this book deals with many of the same topics. But, if "Contact" is a kindergarten-level treatment of the topics in question, "His Master"s Voice" is a PhD-level treatment. A must for anyone for who likes science fiction to be more than just badly written fantasy with a few techie terms thrown in.
Rating: 
Summary: As fiction it's dry, but worth the read nonetheless
Review: If you're familiar with Lem, you know he can dash off deep insights as asides. Now imagine his intellect focused on what it means to be human trying to understand the universe. A masterpiece. This is not his best science fiction (Fiasco gets that honor) nor his most revealing psychological work (ironically that's Cyberiad). It doesn't explore technology to the greatest extent (try the Golem lectures). However, it may stand as simply the most important work of fiction of the information age.
Rating:
Summary: Lem's greatest work. And that's saying a lot.
Review: If you're familiar with Lem, you know he can dash off deep insights as asides. Now imagine his intellect focused on what it means to be human trying to understand the universe. A masterpiece. This is not his best science fiction (Fiasco gets that honor) nor his most revealing psychological work (ironically that's Cyberiad). It doesn't explore technology to the greatest extent (try the Golem lectures). However, it may stand as simply the most important work of fiction of the information age.
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