Lem at Amazon
„The Magellan Nebula” - Lem's main science fiction work of the first half of the 50s, had not been reissued for years upon Author's request, although from the political point of view there aren't that many charges that can be brought against it. If we forgive its mandatory didactism, it remains an interesting reading as a first story of cosmic exploration and the adventure of Contact with such a complete picture of technology and psychology of crew members.
I consider Oblok Magellana to be a rather poor work especially because of its language. I still can recall that I used to carry a notebook in which I scribbled down "beautiful expressions" I just invented. At that time I was under a strong influence of the German poet Rilke, hence my style was remotely related to this poet's. In addition the plot was way too "sweet" - so in the end The Magellan Nebula was an extract of the times of socialist realism. There are people who say one cannot criticize this book so much, since it is a fairy-tale utopia. So maybe my current evaluation is biased - because of bad experiences with socialist realism.