The Magellanic Cloud (Polish title: Obłok Magellana) is a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Stanisław Lem (1955). By this novel was inspired the Czech film Ikarie XB-1

Ikarie XB-1

Ikarie XB-1 is a 1963 Czechoslovak science fiction film directed by Jindřich Polák. It was also edited and dubbed into English for release in the USA, where it is known by its alternate title Voyage to the End of the Universe.-Plot:...

.

Plot summary

The novel is set in the Thirty-second Century, in a communistic

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 Utopian future. Humanity

Human Race

Human Race refers to the Human species.Human race may also refer to:*The Human Race, 79th episode of YuYu Hakusho* Human Race Theatre Company of Dayton Ohio* Human Race Machine, a computer graphics device...

 have colonized all of the Solar System

Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...

, and now have to attempt the first interstellar travel

Interstellar travel

Interstellar space travel is manned or unmanned travel between stars. The concept of interstellar travel in starships is a staple of science fiction. Interstellar travel is much more difficult than interplanetary travel. Intergalactic travel, or travel between different galaxies, is even more...

.

Aboard a vessel called Gaia, 227 men and women leave the Earth for the Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus...

 system.

After almost eight years of travel, they find signs of organic life on a planet orbiting around Proxima Centauri

Proxima Centauri

Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star about 4.2 light-years distant in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes, the Director of the Union Observatory in South Africa, and is the nearest known star to the Sun, although it is too faint to be seen with the naked eye...

, possibly coming from another planet within the Centauri system.

One of the planets orbiting Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus...

 turns to be inhabited by an advanced civilization

Civilization

Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...

...

The expedition meets a lifeless human ship of "Atlants", which turns out to be an old artificial war satellite of the USA and its NATO allies, carrying still active biological weapons and nuclear warheads, which had accidentally left the Earth orbit and got lost in space during the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

era.

Censorship and criticisms

When the novel was first published, some parts of it were censored by Communist authorities. Lem famously denounced the censored version, calling it too optimistic about Communism. At the time, this was a bold sign that demonstrated Lem's confidence in that his singular status as a Polish author of international renown would protect him from state repression. A full version was published in the 1990s after the fall of Communism.

External links

• Reviews of the novel (in Polish)
• Obłok Magellana at Library of Congress