Fiasko

Fiasco (Polish: Fiasko) is a science fiction novel by Polish author Stanisław Lem, first published in a German translation in 1986. The book, published in Poland the following year and translated into English by Michael Kandel in the same year, is a further elaboration of Lem's skepticism: in Lem's opinion, the difficulty in communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (the main theme of the novel) is more likely cultural disparity rather than spatial distance. It was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. The novel was written on order from publisher S. Fischer Verlag around the time Lem was emigrating from Poland due to the introduction of martial law. Lem stated that this was the only occasion he wrote something upon publisher's request, accepting an advance for a nonexistent novel.