I loved reading Stanislaw Lem‘s short stories when I was in high school, and this collection makes it easy to see why, as it’s full of big ideas with just enough plot and character to keep the pages turning. What Borges was to philosophy, what Dick was to psychedelia, what Lovecraft was to fear, Lem was to science. Though his novels and some of his stories (Fiasco, Solaris) did deal directly with human and/or alien psychology, much of the work I loved was little more than gleefully nerdy extrapolations from the grab bag of Curiosities of 20th Century Science. Time paradoxes, life transcending matter through information, and robots indistinguishable from living humans have all been grist for the sci-fi mill since day one, but few matched Lem for sheer geeky enthusiasm.
His satire is a little hard to understand, though – he was writing behind the Iron Curtain, but some of his dystopian worlds seem like unmistakable digs at Soviet-style totalitarianism. I’m curious to hear if anyone has any insight into this.
I don’t think I’d recommend this to anyone but the most hardcore fans or near-Asperger’s teens, but his other work is well worth pursuing.
one thing about lem: small head.