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Memoirs of a Space Traveler: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy by Stanislaw Lem. New York. 1982. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 0151588562. Translated from the Polish by Joel Stern and Maria Swiecicka-Ziemianek. Illustrated with drawings by the author. 153 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Robert Dale.  

DESCRIPTION - The adventures and encounters of Ijon Tichy, tourist of the universe and protagonist of the previously published Star Diaries, are Stanislaw Lem's satirical response to conventional science fiction. Tichy, the space traveler of future centuries, reveals that ‘out there’ isn’t so very different from ‘down here,’ since people are, after all, people everywhere. Thus, he is not amazed when he meets up with a galactic society presided over by the Plenum Moronicum, which appoints as ruler a ruthless Machine; the inhabitants, docilely cooperating in their own destruction, go by the name of he is not voyaging in space, Tichy is a magnet for eccentric unrecognized inventors of splenetic genius, whose spooky experiments are revealed to him with megalomaniacal pride. One has invented no less an object than the soul; another, on the island of Crete, has gone the full length of cybernetic evolution, with particularly gruesome results. In one episode, washing machines go through astounding transformations and absorb the functions of an army of human beings, laying the foundations for a new civilization, one that is totally electrified. Lem’s riotous imagination, with its impressive technical, sociological, and philosophical underpinnings, finds a singularly appropriate mouthpiece in Ijon Tichy, explorer and would-be Saviour of the Universe.

Stanislaw Lem (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world. In 1996, he received the prestigious Polish award, the Order of the White Eagle. His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humanity's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.

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The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem. New York. 1973. Seabury Press. 0816491232. Translated from the German Edition by Wendayne Ackerman. 183 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Richard Powers. Photo by Boleslaw Lutoslawski.

DESCRIPTION - In the grand tradition of science fiction narrative represented by the best of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, Stanislaw Lem describes the story of a space cruiser sent to an obscure planet to determine the fate of another ship whose communications with Earth have abruptly ceased. On Regis III, Navigator Rohan and the crew of the Invincible encounter the classic quandary: what course of action can man take once he has reached the limits of his knowledge? The question of the inexplicable, the bizarre, the problem that lies just beyond analytical reach are woven into a science-fiction plot that sustains excitement to the last. "Anybody who likes a tight, increasingly tense plot-line rising to a scene of dramatic violence will be satisfied. Anybody who likes a mystery will find it here  - and its solution." Ursula K. Le Guin

And in a more recent translation:

The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem. Cambridge. 2022. MIT Press. 9780262538473. Translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston. Foreword by N. Katherine Hayles. 219 pages. paperback. Cover art: Przemek Debowski.

  
DESCRIPTION - A space cruiser, in search of its sister ship, encounters beings descended from self-replicating machines. In the grand tradition of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, Stanisław Lem’s The Invincible tells the story of a space cruiser sent to an obscure planet to determine the fate of a sister spaceship whose communication with Earth has abruptly ceased. Landing on the planet Regis III, navigator Rohan and his crew discover a form of life that has apparently evolved from autonomous, self-replicating machines—perhaps the survivors of a “robot war.” Rohan and his men are forced to confront the classic quandary: what course of action can humanity take once it has reached the limits of its knowledge? In The Invincible, Lem has his characters confront the inexplicable and the bizarre: the problem that lies just beyond analytical reach.

Stanislaw Lem (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world. In 1996, he received the prestigious Polish award, the Order of the White Eagle. His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humanity's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.

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Microworlds by Stanislaw Lem. New York. 1985. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 0151594805. Translated by  Franz Rottensteiner and others. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book. Edited by Franz Rottensteiner. 256 pages. hardcover. Jacket photo: THE IMAGE BANK West/Dave Van Blair.

DESCRIPTION - A bold and controversial look at the past, present, and future of science fiction, by a master of the genre. In the ten extraordinary essays collected here, Stanislaw Lem expertly examines the scientific and literary premises of his own works and those of Lem believes that science fiction and fantasy should be a laboratory for attempting to discover what hasn't been thought or done before, a place for experiment on the cutting edge of human awareness. Lem writes with polemical passion about what he regards as science fiction's squandered potential: he sees it as bogged down in a rehash of myth and fairy tales. Too often, says Lem, science fiction resorts to well-worn patterns of primitive adventure literature, plays empty games with the tired devices of time travel and robots, and turns its back on time-honored cultural and intellectual values. This collection of critical essays is quintessential Lem—arch, incisive, and provocative.

Stanislaw Lem (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world. In 1996, he received the prestigious Polish award, the Order of the White Eagle. His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humanity's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.

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One Human Minute by Stanislaw Lem. New York. 1986. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 0151695504. Translated from the Polish by Catherine S. Leach. 128 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Vaughn Andrews. Jacket illustration by John Alfred Dorn III.

DESCRIPTION - In these three previews of the 21st century—actually reviews of not-yet-written books—Lem brings us startling news indeed. ‘One Human Minute’ describes a kind of super—World Almanac that summarizes what everyone on earth is doing during a single minute. We learn, for instance, that 34.2 million men and women make love every minute. During the same sixty seconds, however, only 0.0000001 person is killed by a falling meteor. Star Wars are a thing of the past for the author of Weapons Systems of the 21st Century, which Lem 'reviews’ next. Human beings, obsolete on the battlefield of the future, have been replaced by synthetic insects, or synsects, with mixed results: ‘YOU can hardly have a parade of stainless steel bugs,’ observes Lem. The human experience on our planet, Lem argues in ‘The World as Cataclysm,’ has been a chancy business—more the result of catastrophes in the sky than of orderly evolution. ‘The universe is a crooked roulette wheel,’ Lem concludes, and in the future the game is likely to be no less crooked. One Human Minute is one of Lem's wildest flights of fancy—blending thought-provoking philosophical reflection with the Polish master's usual out-of-this-world humor.

Stanislaw Lem (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world. In 1996, he received the prestigious Polish award, the Order of the White Eagle. His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humanity's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.

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A Perfect Vacuum: Prefect Reviews of Nonexistent Books by Stanislaw Lem. New York. 1978. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 0151716978. Translated from the Polish by Michael Kandel. 229 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Milton Glaser.

DESCRIPTION - Described by critics as zany, tremendously amusing, fantastically humorous, and one of the most popular science-fiction writers in the world, Stanislaw Lem here breaks away from the science-fiction mold. Exercising his satiric wit and sophisticated knowledge, he invents books through reviews, spoofing various literary trends and styles. These reviews of nonexistent books point up the absurdities of our alarming civilization, with its fads and escalating silliness. There is U-WRITE-IT, a literary erector set; SEXPLOSION, in which three giant corporations, General Sexotics, Cybordelics, and Intercourse International, meet ruin, with disastrous effects on the economy; ‘The New Cosmogony,’ purporting to be the address of a Nobel Prize winner—a waterfall of pseudo-erudition. Fantasy of the wildest kind informs every one of these hilarious explorations into that growing realm where mankind's insanity masquerades as intellect.

Stanislaw Lem (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world. In 1996, he received the prestigious Polish award, the Order of the White Eagle. His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humanity's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.

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More Tales of Pirx the Pilot by Stanislaw Lem. New York. 1982. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 0151621381. Translated by Louis Iribarne with the assistance of Magdalena Majcherczyk, and by Michael Kandel. 220 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Jean-Marie Troillard.

 
DESCRIPTION - Pirx, the bumbling astronaut who won widespread critical acclaim in Tales of Pirx the Pilot, here faces a new series of intriguing adventures - in which robots demonstrate some alarmingly human characteristics. These five stories, all deftly blending playfulness and suspense, reflect Lem's preoccupation with the technology of the future and his fascination with the artificial brain. The skeptical, commonsensical Pirx, one of the most endearing characters in Lem's universe, wrestles every step of the way with his mixed feelings about robots, beings that fill him with mounting suspicion and apprehension. One robot Pirx encounters in his interplanetary travels comes to grief by developing a human trait: gratitude. Another is so affected by the example of his human companions that he totally succumbs to the lure of mountain climbing and pays for it dearly. Pirx finds that it is indeed a fine line that separates a robot robot from a human robot. Or is there one? In Lem the cold and aloof technology of the future is studded with deep humanity and high lyricism. Each story, you might say, is a perfect constellation.

Stanislaw Lem (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world. In 1996, he received the prestigious Polish award, the Order of the White Eagle. His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humanity's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.

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The Cosmic Carnival: An Anthology of Entertaining Stories by the Modern Master of Science Fiction by Stanislaw Lem. New York. 1976. Continuum. 0826400434. Edited and with commentary by Michael Kandel.  Line Drawings By Lem. 272 pages. paperback. Cover illustration by Daniel Mroz.

  
DESCRIPTION - A dozen of Stanislaw Lem's unforgettable stories are collected here in a cosmic carnival of the real, the fantastic and the bizarre. Immensely rewarding and entertaining to read, these stories are prime specimens of the unsurpassed genius of Lem and his acclaimed portrayal of the delicate balance between humanity and technology, with a constant undertone of morose conviviality. In this volume Michael Kandel, whose translations of Lem's The Cyberiad and The Futurological Congress were nominated for a National Book Award, illuminates each group of stories with a brief essay and has also provided a general introduction to the volume that captures the spirit of Lem and justifies his place in the front ranks of science-fiction writers. Stanislaw Lem's many bestselling science fiction books include The Cyberiad, Mortal Engines, The Invincible, and Memoirs Found in a Bathtub. "A virtuoso storyteller and stylist. Put them together and they add up to genius. Lem is a master of science fiction - and more." -  - THEODORE SOLOTAROFF, The New York Times Book Review. "Imaginative and sophisticated. Laffs aplenty." - KURT VONNEGUT, The Nation. "Science fiction at its most majestic." - The Boston Globe.

Stanislaw Lem (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world. In 1996, he received the prestigious Polish award, the Order of the White Eagle. His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humanity's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.

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The Truth and Other Stories by Stanislaw Lem. Cambridge. 2021. MIT Press. 9780262046084. Translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Foreword by Kim Stanley Robinson. 326 pages. hardcover. Cover art: Przemek Debowski.

DESCRIPTION - Twelve stories by science fiction master Stanisław Lem, nine of them never before published in English. Of these twelve short stories by science fiction master Stanisław Lem, only three have previously appeared in English, making this the first "new" book of fiction by Lem since the late 1980s. The stories display the full range of Lem's intense curiosity about scientific ideas as well as his sardonic approach to human nature, presenting as multifarious a collection of mad scientists as any reader could wish for. Many of these stories feature artificial intelligences or artificial life forms, long a Lem preoccupation; some feature quite insane theories of cosmology or evolution. All are thought provoking and scathingly funny. Written from 1956 to 1993, the stories are arranged in chronological order. In the title story, "The Truth," a scientist in an insane asylum theorizes that the sun is alive; "The Journal" appears to be an account by an omnipotent being describing the creation of infinite universes--until, in a classic Lem twist, it turns out to be no such thing; in "An Enigma," beings debate whether offspring can be created without advanced degrees and design templates. Other stories feature a computer that can predict the future by 137 seconds, matter-destroying spores, a hunt in which the prey is a robot, and an electronic brain eager to go on the lam. These stories are peak Lem, exploring ideas and themes that resonate throughout his writing.

Stanislaw Lem (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world. In 1996, he received the prestigious Polish award, the Order of the White Eagle. His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humanity's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.

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Summa Technologiae by Stanislaw Lem. Minneapolis. 2013. University of Minnesota Press. 9780816675777. Translated from the Polish and with an introduction by Joanna Zylinska. Electronic Mediations Volume 40. 409 pages. paperback. Cover design by C. Davidson 4 CIVIC.

DESCRIPTION - The Polish writer Stanislaw Lem is best known to English-speaking readers as the author of the 1961 science fiction novel Solaris, adapted into a meditative film by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972 and remade in 2002 by Steven Soderbergh. Throughout his writings, comprising dozens of science fiction novels and short stories, Lem offered deeply philosophical and bitingly satirical reflections on the limitations of both science and humanity.In Summa Technologiae—his major work of nonfiction, first published in 1964 and now available in English for the first time—Lem produced an engaging and caustically logical philosophical treatise about human and nonhuman life in its past, present, and future forms. After five decades Summa Technologiae has lost none of its intellectual or critical significance. Indeed, many of Lem’s conjectures about future technologies have now come true: from artificial intelligence, bionics, and nanotechnology to the dangers of information overload, the concept underlying Internet search engines, and the idea of virtual reality. More important for its continued relevance, however, is Lem’s rigorous investigation into the parallel development of biological and technical evolution and his conclusion that technology will outlive humanity. Preceding Richard Dawkins’s understanding of evolution as a blind watchmaker by more than two decades, Lem posits evolution as opportunistic, shortsighted, extravagant, and illogical. Strikingly original and still timely, Summa Technologiae resonates with a wide range of contemporary debates about information and new media, the life sciences, and the emerging relationship between technology and humanity.

Stanislaw Lem (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world. In 1996, he received the prestigious Polish award, the Order of the White Eagle. His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humanity's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.

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Stanislaw Lem: Selected Letters to Michael Kandel by Stanislaw Lem. Liverpool. 2014. Liverpool University Press. 9781781380178. Edited, Translated, and with an introducion by Peter Swirski. 170 pages. hardcover. Front cover design by Alice K. L. Tse.

  
DESCRIPTION - Stanislaw Lem died on 26 March, 2006. No one can literally bring back his mortal engine to life. But his voice can be heard afresh for the benefit of all those who believe that, with his passing, a quintessential element of twentieth-century artistic and intellectual heritage has come to an end. Peter Swirski's edited and annotated translation of Lem's fifteen-year correspondence with his principal American translator offers an unparalleled testimony to the raw intellectual powers, smouldering literary passions, and abiding personal concerns from the central period of the writer's life and career. Even as they reposition Lem as a consummate litterateur and an intellectual oracle, the letters reveal tantalizing glimpses of the man behind the giant. Fighting depression, at times hitting the bottle, plagued by ill health, obsessed by his legacy, driven to distraction by lack of appreciation in the United States, Lem the arch-rationalist emerges here at his most human, vulnerable, and... likeable.

Stanislaw Lem (12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world. In 1996, he received the prestigious Polish award, the Order of the White Eagle. His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humanity's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.

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