Limes inferior ( 1982) remains Zajdel's most popular work and, along with Paradyzja ( 1983) is believed to be his best. More importantly, employing established tropes, such as alien Invasion or Colonization of Other Worlds, as a veneer for sociopolitical criticism of totalitarianism became characteristic of all his following works.

Zajdel's prose here becomes more allegorical, attempting to single out some degenerating consequences of a depraved social system by means of a future-society camouflage. A team of astronomers who return to our solar system after a two-century-long expedition are captured by the seemingly devolved (see Devolution) inhabitants of the Moon, who dwell Underground: Earth itself has become uninhabitable. However, a principal shift of paradigm can be observed in his third novel, Cylinder Van Troffa ( 1980), in which the traditional science-fictional tropes and gadgets (return from a long space voyage, Overpopulation, a time capsule, and Clones) are juxtaposed with sociological observations drawn from life in a communist country. The majority of his short fiction as well as his early novels of this period – the Young-Adult Lalande 21185 ( 1966) and Prawo do powrotu ( 1975) – may seem mostly Optimistic towards science and progress, constructive and didactic in the Campbellian manner, dealing with the conquest of space, Alien civilizations, Conceptual Breakthroughs or groundbreaking Inventions that would change the life of a whole civilization, but they frequently showed Zajdel's sensibility to the civilizational perils of Technology when in the hands of irresponsible or malevolent individuals, of social manipulation, and of human behaviour under oppression. By 1982 he had published four more collections: Przejście przez lustro (coll 1975), Iluzyt (coll 1976), Feniks (coll 1981) and Ogon diabła (coll 1982). His first Genre SF story was published in Młody Technik in 1961 soon followed by his first collection, Jad mantezji (coll 1965). He studied nuclear physics at The University of Warsaw and worked as a specialist in radiation protection, writing articles, handbooks of safety regulations, and scripts for educational documentaries. (1938-1985) Polish author, one of the three most important figures in Polish science fiction of the post-war era, who partly recognized, partly created and defined, and eventually occupied a literary territory that allowed him, along with some other writers, to create social Dystopias critical of the gross perversions and pathologies of the Polish communist state, and by extension totalitarianism in general, without exposing himself to the closer attention of the authorities and his work to vicious censorship.

Felicitas by Janusz A. Zajdel