<div>Ijon Tichy, Lem's Candide of the Cosmos, encounters bizarre civilizations and creatures in space that serve to satirize science, the rational mind, theology, and other icons of human pride. Line drawings by the Author. Translated by Michael Kandel. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book </div>

The Star Diaries

<div>These wickedly authentic introductions to twenty-first-century books preface tomes on teaching English to bacteria, using animated X-rays to create "pornograms," and analyzing computer-generated literature through the science of "bitistics." "Lem, a science fiction Bach, plays in this book a googleplex of variations on his basic themes" (New York Times Book Review). Translated by Marc E. Heine. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book </div>

Imaginary Magnitude

<div>Commander Pirx, who drives space vehicles for a living in the galaxy of the future, here faces a new series of intriguing adventures in which robots demonstrate some alarmingly human characteristics. Translated by Louis Iribarne, assisted by Magdalena Majcherczyk and Michael Kandel. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book </div>

More Tales of Pirx The Pilot

<div>Ingenious essays from &ldquo;a Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age, who plays in earnest with every concept . . . from free will to probability theory&rdquo; (The New York Times Book Review). In A Perfect Vacuum, Stanislaw Lem steps outside of his fictional comfort zone to try his hand at reviewing the literature of others. The only catch is this: None of these books have actually been published&mdash;or even written&mdash;he just made them up. These sixteen satirical and brilliantly insidious commentaries on non-existent books cover the gamut of unconventional writing techniques: from a Joycean review that doggedly dissects every word to a critique that is written entirely in negatives to an analysis presented in fragments for the reader to assemble as he or she likes. Along the way, Lem presents his trademark examinations on topics ranging from modern art to computer technology to philosophy. At once a disarming delight and a clever mental exercise, A Perfect Vacuum lends credence to the assertion that Lem is &ldquo;Harpo Marx and Franz Kafka and Isaac Asimov rolled up into one and down the white rabbit&rsquo;s hole&rdquo; (Detroit News).</div>

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A Perfect Vacuum

<div>Robot armies, an arms race in space, and a brain at war with itself add up to &ldquo;a futuristic version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde&rdquo; (The Boston Phoenix). Anxious to avoid a war that would destroy the entire planet, the major powers of Earth have come to an ingenious compromise. Each country sends a force of adaptable, self-programming robots to the surface of the moon to play out the conflict there and, hopefully, reach a mutually agreeable stalemate. But when the robots stop responding, it is up to Ijon Tichy to travel to the lunar war zone and discover what went wrong. Tichy finds what he needs to know, but falls victim to an attack that severs the left and right sides of his brain: one of which knows nothing about the status of the moon, the other of which isn&rsquo;t telling. Now Tichy finds himself at the center of a new sort of war of attrition, with each world power clamoring for his knowledge and each half of his stubborn brain clamoring for control. Wry and action-packed in equal measure, Stanislaw Lem&rsquo;s absurd, insightful sendup of the Cold War is required reading for any fan of science fiction. Here, &ldquo;humor and a breathless pace create a delightful and thought-provoking read&rdquo; (Publishers Weekly).</div>

Peace on Earth

<div>&ldquo;A stunningly inventive fantasy about cosmic travel&rdquo; from the Kafka Prize&ndash;winning author of Solaris (The New York Times). The Hermes explorer ship represents the epitome of Earth&rsquo;s excellence: a peaceful mission sent forth to make first contact with an alien civilization, and to use the expansive space technology developed by humanity to seek new worlds, friendships, and alliances. But what its crew discovers on the planet Quinta is nothing like they had hoped. Locked in a seemingly endless cold war among themselves, the Quintans are uncommunicative and violent, refusing any discourse&mdash;except for the firing of deadly weapons. The crew of the Hermes is determined to accomplish what they had set out to do. But the cost of learning the secrets hidden on the silent surface of Quinta may be grave. Stark, startling, and insightful, Fiasco has been praised by Publishers Weekly as &ldquo;one of Lem&rsquo;s best novels.&rdquo; It is classic, thought-provoking hard science fiction, as prescient today as when it was first written.</div>

Fiasco

<div>An eerie and offbeat mystery by a Kafka Prize&ndash;winning author. The case confronting Lieutenant Gregory is not one that a man of Scotland Yard would expect. In fact, it is not one any sane man would care to entertain. Bodies are disappearing. The initial assumption is that a grave robber is roaming London and defiling local morgues. But upon further examination, it seems the deceased are, in fact, resurrecting. As Gregory stumbles his way through the tangled clues, seeking advice from scientific, philosophical, and theological experts alike, he finds himself tossed into a baffling metaphysical puzzle of incomprehensible truths and unbelievable realities. Hailed by Kirkus Reviews as &ldquo;closer to Kafka than the police precinct house,&rdquo; Lem&rsquo;s intelligent and puzzling foray into the mystery genre offers an appealing combination of disturbance and delight.</div>

The Investigation

<div>From the author of Solaris, this novel of an encounter with an alien intelligence creates &ldquo;a terrifyingly plausible picture of a world gone mad&rdquo; (Kirkus Reviews). Six explorers&mdash;the Captain, Doctor, Engineer, Chemist, Physicist, and Cyberneticist&mdash;crash land on a beautiful but strange planet, fourth from another sun. The landscape is bizarre, hosting acrid deserts, hissing trees, and thick spiderlike vegetation. But it is the signs of humanity that are most puzzling. In a labyrinth of plant-shaped buildings are dead ends, passageways, domes, vaulted ceilings, and giant statues. And everywhere there are images of death: mass graves, bodies in ditches and wells, clusters of egglike structures filled with skeletons. Something is wrong with the inhabitants of Eden. But as the crew unlocks the secrets of this twisted society, the most haunting fact they must face is how similar it is to their own. The Chicago Tribune lauded Stanislaw Lem as &ldquo;not only a marvelous spinner of tales of the fantastic but also a challenging philosopher of the meanings and ramifications of technology.&rdquo; Eden stands as a timeless and powerful examination of the conflict between human nature, human discovery, and all-too-human flaws.</div>

Eden

<div>The author of Solaris critiques science fiction in a collection of provocative essays. Celebrated science fiction master Stanislaw Lem turns his always sharp and insightful pen to criticism in this bold and controversial analysis of the genre for which he is most known. In this collection of ten essays&mdash;ranging from an introspective examination of his own biographical and literary history to biting scrutiny of fellow authors and their works&mdash;Lem takes a keen look at the influence, shortcomings, merit, and importance of science fiction, touching on topics from Philip K. Dick (&ldquo;a genius among the charlatans&rdquo;) to time travel, cosmology, and Jorge Luis Borges. Whether deriding the genre&rsquo;s tendency to adhere to well-worn patterns of adventure or lauding its ability to, when executed correctly, discover ideas that have not been thought of or done before, Lem&rsquo;s quick wit, razor tongue, and impeccable insights make Microworlds a master class of scientific and literary analysis from one of the undisputed legends of science fiction.</div>

Microworlds

<div>Essays by the author of Solaris: &ldquo;Lem&rsquo;s delightful sense of humor accentuates his essential seriousness about humanity&rsquo;s possible fate&rdquo; (Publishers Weekly). In One Human Minute, Stanislaw Lem takes a hard look at our world and technology&mdash;what it means now and what dire implications it could have for the future&mdash;in satirical, wise, and biting prose. With this collection of three essays, Lem targets some of the most pressing issues humanity faces, from our unsettling origins to the cybernetic future of our weaponry. &ldquo;The Upside-Down Evolution&rdquo; chronicles the Earth&rsquo;s military evolution from nuclear stockpiles to deadly, robotic microweapons. &ldquo;The World as Cataclysm&rdquo; examines how humankind&rsquo;s dominance on Earth is the result of the extermination of another species just as qualified to rule the world. And the title essay presents a disturbing and fascinating snapshot of every single thing happening on the planet in a sixty-second span. Effortlessly blurring the lines between fiction and nonfiction, scientific essay and fantastical short story, cynical reproach and wry humor, Lem&rsquo;s One Human Minute combines the best elements of the renowned science fiction author and Kafka Prize winner&rsquo;s writing into one irreverent and intellectually stimulating package.</div>

One Human Minute

<div>Brilliant stories of a bumbling astronaut, and the human desire to discover the unknown, by the much-loved author of Solaris. Set in the not-too-distant future, when space flight has evolved to the point where humanity is ready to colonize the solar system, Tales of Pirx the Pilot follows one somewhat-hapless explorer as he struggles though his training as a cadet, his career as a pilot, and his tenure as captain of a merchant ship. In these collected stories, Pirx stumbles his way through various exploits: traveling to the moon; battling mechanical malfunctions; encountering robots; and confronting questions of ambition, evolution, exploration, experimentation, and the nature of humanity itself. And in classic Pirx fashion, he faces down each dilemma with charm, curiosity, courage, and intuition. These early works by revered speculative fiction author Stanislaw Lem are filled with both the sharp insight for which he is known and a childlike innocence, making them an entertaining and thought-provoking read for science fiction fans of all ages.</div>

Tales of Pirx the Pilot

<div>&ldquo;Lem has an almost Dickensian genius for vividly realizing the tragedy and comedy of future machines.&rdquo; &mdash;The New York Times Book Review These are the stories of Trurl and Klapaucius, master inventors and engineers known as &ldquo;constructors,&rdquo; who have created marvels for kingdoms. Friends and rivals, they are constantly outdoing and challenging each other to reveal the next great evolution in cybernetics, and the exploits of these brilliant men are nothing short of incredible. From tales of love, in which a robotic prince must woo a robotic princess enchanted by pleasures of true flesh, to epics of battle, in which the heroic constructors must use their considerable wit to outsmart a monarch obsessed with hunting, to examinations of humanity, wherein Trurl and Klapaucius must confront the limits of their skills and the meaning of true perfection, these stories are rich with profound questions, unimaginable marvels, and remarkable feats. Hailed as &ldquo;the most completely successful of [Lem&rsquo;s] books,&rdquo; The Cyberiad is an outrageously funny and incomparably wise collection of short stories, taking an insightful look at mechanics, technology, invention, and human ambition (The Boston Globe).</div>

The Cyberiad

<div>An ex-astronaut investigates a string of potential murders in this novel by the Kafka Prize&ndash;winning author of Solaris. Vacation is supposed to be relaxing. But while traveling in Naples, several American tourists die in a most macabre and unusual way: committing suicide in a fit of madness. The cases are too similar to be coincidental, and the prevailing theory soon assumes that a serial poisoner is on the loose. Called in to investigate, and stem the rash of death before it becomes an epidemic, is a former astronaut from the States. As he follows the path of the last victim, he is confronted with a mystery that proves the truth is always stranger than fiction&mdash;and that we are all casualties of fortune in the end. Called &ldquo;a Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age, who plays in earnest with every concept of philosophy and physics, from free will to probability theory,&rdquo; Stanislaw Lem now tackles the suspense genre with his famed intensity and intelligence, weaving a taut and enigmatic tale as only a great novelist can (The New York Times Book Review).</div>

The Chain of Chance

<div>The absurdly brilliant far-future satire from &ldquo;the Borges of scientific culture&rdquo; (Time). The year is 3149, and a vast paper destroying blight&mdash;papyralysis&mdash;has obliterated much of the planet&rsquo;s written history. Fortunately, these rare memoirs, preserved for centuries in a volcanic rock, record the strange life of a man trapped in a hermetically sealed underground community . . . From the Kafka Prize&ndash;winning author of Solaris, this is an entertaining and thought-provoking blend of politics, philosophy, humor, and science fiction. Translated by Michael Kandel and Christine Rose </div>

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub

<div>The Franz Kafka Prize-winning author invites you to a doped-up dystopia. &ldquo;Nobody can really know the future. But few could imagine it better than Lem.&rdquo; &mdash;The Paris Review Bringing his twin gifts of scientific speculation and scathing satire to bear on that hapless planet, Earth, Polish author Stanislaw Lem sends his unlucky cosmonaut, Ijon Tichy, to the Eighth Futurological Congress in Costa Rica to discuss the overpopulation problem. Caught up in local revolution, Tichy is shot and so critically wounded that he is flashfrozen to await a cure. But when he awakens in 2039, he is faced with a future unlike any that the Congress could have ever imagined. Translated by Michael Kandel. &ldquo;A vision of Earth&rsquo;s future where the authorities dose the population with &lsquo;psychemicals&rsquo; to make life in a desperately over-populated world worth living.&rdquo; &mdash;The Boston Globe &ldquo;Lem&rsquo;s view of the overcrowded future is original and disturbing. A pessimistic, mordantly funny book.&rdquo; &mdash;Kirkus Reviews &ldquo;Lem writes with a humor underlined by his commentary on the way the world is.&rdquo; &mdash;SF Site</div>

Stanislaw Lem
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Books By Stanislaw Lem (15 Books)