Eden is the title of two science fiction novels by Stanislaw Lem and Ken Wisman , respectively.

Lem's novel (1959)

A space ship and its crew of scientists explore the planet Eden. The inhabitants of Eden are not interested in having contacts with the off-world visitors. Compare to Lem's next book, Solaris, which shares the general theme of alien life that is hard for us to understand.

Eden can be read on several levels. Young science fiction fans who may be enthralled by the style of the better known Solaris, will probably enjoy the greater sense of exploration and going places that exists in Eden. Most readers of the English translation of Eden are dazzled by Lem's relentless depiction of an incomprehensible alien civilization, but the aliens in this case are more human-like than the alien life form in Solaris.

Eden can be read as a depiction of just how alien our own human future might be. Did Lem project human technological development (transhumanism, nanotechnology) a few hundred years into the future to produce this vision of man-made Eden?

Harvest Books; Reprint edition. (1991) ISBN 0156278065

Wisman's novel

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Publication Date: May 2004

Genre: Science Fiction

Book synopsis:

EDEN: The Novel tells two tales-one fact, the other fiction.

The fact: EDEN: The Novel contains a first person account of how, after being accidentally introduced to a hallucinogen, Wisman entered into a three-year period of experimentation and how the results became the stuff and substance of his fiction. In a series of author's notes Wisman describe how EDEN: The Novel, a work that took seven years, is the direct result of what he learned during his excursions into the unconscious and how the novel's ideas, characters, and images grew out of his insights and visions.

The fiction: The plot centers around a future bioengineering experiment gone terribly wrong. A group comprised of 100 scientists and seven artists gather to create a new Eden of artistically rendered animals and plants. All goes well until an individual in their group goes insane and concludes that what they are doing is against god and nature. He subsequently attacks the Eden group with bioengineered monsters, forcing the idealists to defend themselves with insects molded into bizarre engines of war all leading to an ending both poignant and transcendent.

ISBN 1418427411

External Links

• Interview with Wisman about Eden:The Novel [1].