History Creator / JanuszZajdel

** A PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny [[InSpace on a space station]] where printed word has been made illegal in order for an automated censorship system to run smoothly in ''Paradyzja''.

* WholePlotReference: One of the short stories retells [[spoiler: TheBible]].

** And ''Paradyzja'' features a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System point system]] for assessing the citizens' "worth". If your score falls too low, you're temporarily reassigned to the mines on the planet of [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Tartar]], which Paradyzja is orbiting around.

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: [[Mohs/OneBigLie 4]] to [[Mohs/SpeculativeScience 5]]

** And ''Paradyzja'' features a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System point system]] for assessing the citizens' "worth". If your score falls too low, you're reassigned to the mines on the planet of [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Tartar]], which Paradyzja is orbiting around of.

** ''Limes Inferior'' also features a system in which there are three sorts of currency (or [[CallARabbitASmeerp points]]): red that everyone is paid just for existing (you can live using them only, but it's pretty bland), green you get for your intelligence level, yellow you get for working (these can buy the nice stuff). In RealLife, there are projects to pay people for just living. Note that in the novel, this doesn't actually change human nature.

A physicist in RealLife, his stories are [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness very scientifically accurate]], sometimes to the point of plot points like [[SchizoTech an ancient figurine being covered with technetium]] (Zajdel's specialty was [[WriteWhatYouKnow radioactivity and nuclear physics]]). The annual Polish Sci-Fi fandom award has been named for him, after Zajdel was awarded it posthumously (for the novel Paradyzja).

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: [[AvertedTrope Nope, not here]]. Except, maybe, ''Cylinder van Troffa''. [[Mohs/OneBigLie A bit]]. See below.

* BizarreAlienBiology: The [[spoiler: ''Wyjscie z cienia'']] aliens, who [[HumansThroughAlienEyes think humans are bizarre as anything]]. Not much of [[NoBiochemicalBarriers biochemical barriers]], though. In the short stories there are [[StarfishAliens weirder ones]], like sentient plants with completely unreliable sensory systems. Unless this was AllJustADream.

* TheCon: [[spoiler: ''Wyjscie z cienia'']] is basically about slightly StarfishAliens running one on humanity. We turn out to be [[TheMark pretty]] [[GullibleLemmings gullible]]... Various groups of alien conmen (conaliens?) also appear in short stories.
* ColdSleepColdFuture: The titular ''Cylinder van Troffa'' [[labelnote:translation]]Van Troff's cylinder[[/labelnote]] is, for all intents and purposes, a stasis chamber. The protagonist, along with his astronaut crew, has spent a good while in actual cold sleep, because their journey home has been delayed by a mechanical fault.

* DefyingTheCensors: Stuff [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar gets thrown past the (political) radar]] out of universe, but in ''Paradyzja'' there is the koalang - an ongoing poetry slam of {{Pun}}s, metaphors and {{Unusual Euphemism}}s designed to confuse the automated censorship system (which has [[BigBrotherIsWatching cameras and microphones hidden throughout the station]] and is very much capable of learning).

** Two for the price of one in ''Cylinder van Troffa'', where humanity had split into [[ChildlessDystopia earthlings]], [[AfterTheEnd who roam]] [[PollutedWasteland the ruined cities]] and [[PoliceState lunarians]], waiting for the earthlings to die out, so they can come back.
** An [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized attempt]] to create HumanAliens by the means of [[LostColony hijacking a space colonisation mission]] and making it CrapsackOnlyByComparison in ''Cała prawda o planecie Ksi''

* HumansAreFlawed: Even when aliens want to [[CrapsackWorld crapsack]] Earth, they don't have to work on it much. Humans are perfectly capable of opressing themselves. But humans who aren't evil dictators... are human.

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: The Zeroes in ''Limes Inferior'', not to mention Ones and Twos, who are mostly "lifted" (i.e. had their intelligence tests faked). Also happens in short stories - PlayedForDrama in ''Wszechwiedzący'' (''The All-knowing''), where a human working as a glorified data server suddenly discovers that humanity's knowledge is vast, compared to what he knows.

* {{Satire}}: Several of the short stories mock the living daylights out of various aspects of the system. Example - a society of HumanAliens trying to give themselves photosynthesis - some grow green and get a lot of perks for it, but [[spoiler: greenness is really due to paint]].
* ShoutOut: In ''Paradyzja'' there is a character named Nikor [[Creator/GeorgeOrwell Orley]] [[Literature/BraveNewworld Huxwell]].

'''Janusz Andrzej Zajdel''' (15 August 1938 - 19 July 1985) was a Polish ScienceFiction writer, mostly interested in how {{Dystopia}}e are built and work (or don't).

* DefyingTheCensors: Stuff [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar gets thrown past the (political) radar]] out of universe, but in "Paradyzja" there is the koalang - an ongoing poetry slam of {{Pun}}s, metaphors and {{Unusual Euphemism}}s designed to confuse the automated censorship system (which has [[BigBrotherIsWatching cameras and microphones hidden throughout the station]] and is very much capable of learning).

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: The Zeroes in "Limes Inferior". Also happens in short stories - PlayedForDrama in ''Wszechwiedzący'' (''The All-knowing''), where a human working as a glorified data server suddenly discovers that humanity's knowledge is vast, compared to what he knows.

* WholePlotReference: One of the short stories retells [[spoiler: The New Testament]].

His only English-translated work, the short story "Szczególnie trudny teren" (''Particularly Difficult Territory'') features in {{Creator/FrederikPohl}}'s ''Tales from the Planet Earth'' anthology.

* ApatheticCitizens: Of both GenreSavvy ("Paradyzja") and not-my-problem sorts. [[spoiler: The "Limes Inferior" aliens turn any other intelligence they can find into this before it goes space-faring, possibly in fear of competition.]]
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: [[AvertedTrope Nope, not here]]. Except, maybe, "Cylinder van Troffa". [[Mohs/OneBigLie A bit]]. See below.

* BizarreAlienBiology: The [[spoiler: "Wyjscie z cienia"]] aliens, who [[HumansThroughAlienEyes think humans are bizarre as anything]]. Not much of [[NoBiochemicalBarriers biochemical barriers]], though. In the short stories there are [[StarfishAliens weirder ones]], like sentient plants with completely unreliable sensory systems. Unless this was AllJustADream.

* TheCon: [[spoiler: "Wyjscie z cienia"]] is basically about slightly StarfishAliens running one on humanity. We turn out to be [[TheMark pretty]] [[GullibleLemmings gullible]]... Various groups of alien conmen (conaliens?) also appear in short stories.
* ColdSleepColdFuture: "Cylinder van Troffa" (Van Troff's cylinder) is, for all intents and purposes, a stasis chamber. The protagonist, along with his astronaut crew, has spent a good while in actual cold sleep, because their journey home has been delayed by a mechanical fault.

* DefyingTheCensors: Stuff [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar gets thrown past the (political) radar]] out of universe, but in "Paradyzja" there is the koalang - an ongoing poetry slam of {{Pun}}s, metaphors and {{UnusualEuphemism}}s designed to confuse the automated censorship system (which has [[BigBrotherIsWatching cameras and microphones hidden throughout the station]] and is very much capable of learning).

** The dystopiae in [[spoiler: "Wyjscie z cienia" and "Limes Inferior"]] are of alien design, not so horrible in the [[BenevolentAlienInvasion former]] (unless you'd like to, you know, do some science or space exploration), rather [[InscrutableAliens inscrutable]] in the latter.
** Two for the price of one in "Cylinder van Troffa", where humanity had split into [[ChildlessDystopia earthlings]], [[AfterTheEnd roaming]] [[PollutedWasteland the ruined cities]] and [[PoliceState lunarians]], waiting for the earthlings to die out, so they can come back.
** An [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized attempt]] to create HumanAliens by the means of [[LostColony hijacking a space colonisation mission]] and making it CrapsackOnlyByComparison in "Cała prawda o planecie Ksi"
** A PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny [[InSpace on a space station]] where printed word has been made illegal in order for an automated censorship system to run smoothly in "Paradyzja".

* InscrutableAliens: [[spoiler: "Wyjscie z cienia" and "Limes Inferior"]], the former remaining inscrutable to the human characters in the book, but we get a one-chapter [[{{Xenofiction}} peek into their ways of thinking]]. The short stories also feature HumanAliens, mostly dictated by RuleOfFunny.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: The Zeroes in "Limes Inferior". Also happens in short stories - PlayedForDrama in "Wszechwiedzący" ("The All-knowing"), where a human working as a glorified data server suddenly discovers that humanity's knowledge is vast, compared to what he knows.
* LifeImitatesArt: A completely flat device functioning as: an underground ticket, credit card, ID, door key... Smartphone? Nope, it's a Key from "Limes Inferior".

* SleeperStarship: Is a standard mode of interstellar travel, be it for [[SettlingTheFrontier colonisation]], pre-colonisation [[BoldExplorer exploration]], trade or [[ItsForABook research]]. In "Cała prawda o planecie Ksi" the protagonist, who, as [[OlderThanTheyLook a space pilot]], spends most of his time [[HumanPopsicle hibernated]] muses on the psychological and moral effects of living "a fragmented life".

His only English-translated work, the short story "Szczególnie trudny teren" (''Particularly Difficult Territory'') features in [[Creator/FrederikPohl]]'s ''Tales from the Planet Earth'' anthology.

Janusz Andrzej Zajdel (15 August 1938 - 19 July 1985) was a Polish ScienceFiction writer, mostly interested in how {{Dystopia}}e are built and work (or don't).

Some tropes found in Zajdel's work:

His only english-translated work, the short story "Szczególnie trudny teren" (''Particularly Difficult Territory'') features in [[Creator/FrederikPohl]]'s ''Tales from the Planet Earth'' anthology.

* TimeDilation: When appropiate.

* InscrutableAliens: [[spoiler: "Wyjscie z cienia" and "Limes Inferior"]], the former remaining inscrutable to the human characters in the book, but we get a one-chapter [[{{Xenofiction}} peek into their ways of thinking]]. The short stories also feature HumanAliens.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: The Zeroes in "Limes Inferior". Also happens in short stories.

* PowersThatBe: The actual top brass behind the dystopias is never seen, nor their motives revealed, to either the characters or the readers.

* Dystopia: Let me count the ways:

* MegaCity: Argoland (modeled on UsefulNotes/Chicago) and [[SpaceStation Paradyzja]].

* InscrutableAliens: [[spoiler: "Wyjscie z cienia" and "Limes Inferior"]], the former remaining inscrutable to the human characters in the book, but we get a one-chapter [[Xenofiction peek into their ways of thinking]]. The short stories also feature HumanAliens.