Entertaining robot stories, both tongue-in-cheek and polemical
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A great book by Lem, with his usual, fascinating word-play; reading some of the stories is like having 'jewels in the mouth' (to quote Frank McCourt). I did find some of the tales, particularly those towards the end, got a bit laboured (similar plot ideas, etc), but the penultimate story (Altruizine)should be required reading in all schools. Basically it's about forcing happiness onto other civilisations and the horrible consequences that come from such a policy (Iraq, anyone). Those races that have reached HPLD (the Highest Possible Level of Development) think otherwise and basically sit around in the sand all day, completely indifferent to the fate of other peoples and other worlds, because they have reached the apex of their evolution, and through a millenia of making altruistic mistakes have come to the realisation that interfering in other cultures, espcially those still developing (as we see in Africa) ultimately produces more evil than good; ie. people must be allowed to learn from their own mistakes and hence develop accordingly. I think there's a lesson in 'Altruizine' for all those do-gooders out there who produce so much bad out of being good. Why do humanitarians often make such lousy humans? But the idea of telling people to look away when half of Africa is starving is simply something most people can't comprehend. Another poignant tale in The Cyberiad concerns a planet with such massive over-population that the value of its citizens effectively becomes zero, up to the point where they are even used as confetti at weddings. Perhaps the aesopic style of writing, which Lem, like Solzhenitsyn, frequently employs to get his difficult message across really does slip by many readers. I'm sure there are many who would read 'Altruizine' and not understand the full implications of what it is trying to say. A great, great, book, but its irrationality will be best appreciated by the rational among you.
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Slightly mad
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What an introduction to Stanislaw Lem, I think anybody's first reaction will be "What the hell is this?" Definitely not a book for everybody but I loved it, it's a fantastic mixture of all the strangest of Sci Fi with a little bit of madness tossed in. I don't recommend it because I know so many people will hate it.
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A book you can always dip into, again and again
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Like 'Mortal Engines', this collection of short stories is lovely. If you want to classify the genre, they're... bed-time stories for androids. The Cyberiad is probably the better of the two collections, but it's a close-run thing. The collection starts with the tale of an inventor who creates a machine which can make anything that starts with an 'n'. Everything goes well until a rival tells the machine to do 'nothing' and it starts deleting bits of reality... Futurist fairy tales, every one. Translation from the original Polish has been handled very well. Even the occasional poems still rhyme, and still feature clever puns.
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The work of a genius.
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This is the first of Lem's books I have read, it is compulsively readable, you cannot get bored of it. A fantastic set of short stories, even if you're not a fan of sci fi, once you get your mind around Lem's amazingly descriptive writing, you'll find something you enjoy. There's even a little moral behind each story.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to start reading Lem's work and don't know where to start, it'll give you a taster of his great skill and his fantastic imagination. To those of you who already read Lem - another piece of his work at it's best.
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Records the antics of two cosmic constructors
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I would almost say it's a collection of sci-fi childrens stories. It's surreal, it's hard to read, it has no plot. It's a series of logical puzzle stories with unlikely solutions.
I read the whole thing, so it gets 2 stars. I won't be reading another Lem book.
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