EN
The article compares three science-fiction novels written by Polish writers representing three successive generations — Stanisław Lem’s Return from the Stars (1959), Adam Wiśniewski-Snerg’s Robot (1973), and Marek S. Huberath’s Nest of Worlds (1998)—that utilize the time dilation phenomenon as a basis for the plot. In each novel, time dilation serves also as a building block for a higher layer of meaning. In Lem’s—as a grim prediction about the fate of real-world astronautics at its birth; in Snerg’s—as association with his ‘theory of superbeings’; and in Huberath’s—as a part of solipsistic construction of the author’s own multiverse permeated with Christian themes to which the author often refers to in his other texts. This proves not only the unwavering popularity of the motif itself but also its flexibility which allows to adapt it to different needs and aesthetics that the evolution of the genre imposes.