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

The Franz Kafka Prize-winning author invites you to a doped-up dystopia. " Nobody can really know the future. But few could imagine it better than Lem. " — The Paris ReviewBringing 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 C...

"The computer may ultimately be right. But for the time being, in Imaginary Magnitude , an entertaining and intelligent mortal has the first word." —Paul Gray, TimeSatirizing the human mind at its most abstract, 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-g...

Ijon Tichy encounters bizarre civilizations and creatures in space, satirizing science, the rational mind, theology, and other icons of human pride.A space explorer travels undercover to a robot world, joining an organization to clean up world history through time travel. The universe may never be the same . . ."Tichy bumbles and stumbles around the cosmos running out of gas between stars, sneaking around in cybernetic drag on a planet of mad robots...

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—ranging from an introspective examination of his own biographical and literary history to biting scrutiny of fellow authors and their works—Lem takes a keen l...

"A stunningly inventive fantasy about cosmic travel" from the Kafka Prize–winning author of Solaris ( The New York Times).The Hermes explorer ship represents the epitome of Earth'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...

Robot armies, an arms race in space, and a brain at war with itself add up to "a futuristic version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" ( 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 ...

From the author of Solaris, this novel of an encounter with an alien intelligence creates "a terrifyingly plausible picture of a world gone mad" ( Kirkus Reviews).Six explorers—the Captain, Doctor, Engineer, Chemist, Physicist, and Cyberneticist—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 a...

Ingenious essays from "a Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age, who plays in earnest with every concept . . . from free will to probability theory" ( 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—or even written—he just made them up.These sixteen satiri...

An eerie and offbeat mystery by a Kafka Prize–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 clu...

Essays by the author of Solaris: "Lem's delightful sense of humor accentuates his essential seriousness about humanity's possible fate" ( Publishers Weekly).In One Human Minute, Stanislaw Lem takes a hard look at our world and technology—what it means now and what dire implications it could have for the future—in satirical, wise, and biting prose.With this collection of three essays, Lem targets some of the most pressing issues hum...

The absurdly brilliant far-future satire from "the Borges of scientific culture" ( Time).The year is 3149, and a vast paper destroying blight—papyralysis—has obliterated much of the planet'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–winning author of Solaris, this is an entert...