The Chain of Chance

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The Chain of Chance (original Polish title: Katar, literally, "Rhinitis"/Catarrh) is a science fiction/detective novel by the Polish writer Stanisław Lem, published in 1976. Lem's treatment of the detective genre introduces many nontraditional elements. The reader is prompted not only to consider various suspects as possible culprits in a series of murders, but also the possibility that "there's no such thing as a mysterious event" and they have all happened purely by chance (hence the English title). In this way, the natural laws of probability and chaos theory play the role of suspects and characters in a murder mystery, lending elements of science fiction to the novel. The underlying philosophical idea is expanded on by Lem in his major essay The Philosophy of Chance.^[1]