The Game “The Invincible” compared to Stanisław Lem’s novel — How accurate is it?

The Invincible

“The Invincible” is probably Stanisław Lem’s most famous novel after “Solaris.” It certainly is my favourite among his books. Together with you I am about to explore the similarities and differences between the computer game and the written original.

The landing star cruiser “Invincible”. Screenshot from “The Invincible” by author

First let us discuss the name of the novel. The name “the Invincible” always refers to the star cruiser that arrives at Regis III to look for the missing sister ship Condor. Only the last sentence in the novel uses the word “invincible” separately and as a mere adjective, describing the sheer majesty of the starship, so “that it truly seemed invincible,” but thus also questioning its actual invincibility.

In the Polish original the gender-neutral word “invincible” is in the masculine form (niezwyciężony). There is also the masculine form for the word cloud — “obłok,” so that it could also indirectly refer to the microbots.

But since it is never mentioned in this context, the invincibility of the Cloud can only be alluded from the story. Other than that, it is first and foremost the ship itself, the star cruiser “Invincible” that is, more or less, defeated by the artificial lifeforms of Regis III.

In the end, the irony of the name also alludes to mankind itself. The people from Earth are anything…