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Stanislaw Lem is probably my most favorite sci-fi author. He's very popular in Europe, but not so much in the US it seems. His works are hilariously funny, philosophical and have a certain magic to them. When I saw the robot I was almost certain that it had to be about him.

I don't know about the quality of the English translations of his books, but in German, they are fabulous. There are a lot of word plays that are hard to translate.

By the way, many will recommend Solaris in here because there were two films based on it, one by Tarkovsky and one by Soderbergh. While it's not a bad book it's probably not his best and not entirely exemplary of his other books.

This is a good introduction to his work: http://world.std.com/~mmcirvin/vitrifaxintro.html

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Lem is awesome, but avoid the ones that have come to english via a multihop route. Books translated by Kandel are fabulous.

Trurl invents an electronic bard. Klaupacius challenges it:

  "Have it compose a poem -- a poem about a haircut! But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter s!"

The electronic bard's response:

   Seduced, shaggy Samson snored.
   She scissored short. Sorely shorn,
   Soon shackled slave, Samson sighed,
   Silently scheming,
   Sightlessly seeking
   Some savage, spectacular suicide.

I can not agree emphatically enough.

If one wishes to see another excerpt indicating how amazing Lem was via Kandel, i posted one of my favorite poems of all time, also from the same short story here: http://blog.knowtheory.net/post/88490831/the-best-poem-ever-...

The poem has only one blemish, which is the assumption that "Euler" rhymes with "ruler".

A funny story - how I got my first Stanislaw Lem book from a Washington Square park bookseller..

Guy had a table with a wide range of second hand books mostly sci fi. I carefully picked over the pile and chose some of my favorite authors - some that were quite hard to get.

When I went to purchase about three books, the guy said "OK since you are obviously a man with taste in SF I'm gonna let you see my other 'special' stock" - and out came a small tray of books from under the table. Not previously on sale. Maybe it was just a clever marketing ploy - but this is how I found my first Stanislaw Lem book (which he recommended).

Since then I've always tried to buy Lem at SF second hand stores but actually very hard to come by (in English). I did buy a brand new copy of 'His Master's Voice' the other day and was not disappointed.

Don't think he actually wrote that many SF books - I think I have them all now but maybe I'm mistaken.

Don't think he actually wrote that many SF books - I think I have them all now but maybe I'm mistaken.

In my opinion, he wrote quite a lot of them -- almost 30 fiction books, half of them being novels, and other half collections of stories. Apart of that, he published over 20 non-fiction books, but they were rarely translated to English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisław_Lem#Works

maybe there's a startup sales model in there somewhere ;-) the next groupon?

Up-selling based on making the customer feel he's special, selected or privileged is not exactly a new model.

But it is patentable in the United States.

Special price for you mister! Only 25 dollars!

> Stanislaw Lem is probably my most favorite sci-fi author. He's very popular in Europe, but not so much in the US it seems. His works are hilariously funny, philosophical and have a certain magic to them.

I last read Lem 15 years ago, when I was in high-school, but it had such a huge effect on me that this doodle gave me goose-bumps when it first started, I cannot explain exactly why.

> I don't know about the quality of the English translations of his books

I don't know about the quality of the original Polish, but ... some of his heavier works are well, heavy in the English version. I'm thinking of "Solaris", "His Master's Voice", "Memoirs Found in a Bathtub". They are good books - but so are Dickens, Tolstoy etc. which require a bit of effort from the modern reader.

However the Cyberiad is an absolute pleasure to read. I read it when I was in my early teens and I ate it up - it challenged my mind, made me laugh and was very easy to read. Other lighter ones - "Tales of Pirx the Pilot", "The Futurological Congress", "A Perfect Vacuum" are easy to read too.

. some of his heavier works are well, heavy in the English version. I'm thinking of "Solaris", "His Master's Voice", "Memoirs Found in a Bathtub".

A case of bad translations. Those books are quite readable in the original language.

So are Dickens and Tolstoy.

Try "Star Diaries" and other stories with Ijon Tichy. I always liked those a lot - I read them first in Polish when I was 12.

I remember, years ago, reading him in German. A Polish medical student loaned/"foisted" Solaris on me. I rather enjoyed it.

Thanks about the "heads up" with regard to the issues with some of the English translations. I'd been thinking I should revisit it, but these days an English language text would be far more accessible.

Only Solaris is available for Kindle. I hate when that happens.

Update: Actually Solaris is not available either. I was misled because there is a Solaris 'Study Guide' available for Kindle.

Heh, the Tarkovsky film is actually the reason I read Solaris, but I rather liked it overall so would still recommend it.

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