Stanislaw Lem

A playful, witty, reflective memoir of childhood by the science fiction master Stanislaw Lem.With Highcastle, Stanislaw Lem offers a memoir of his childhood and youth in prewar Lvov. Reflective, artful, witty, playful-"I was a monster," he observes ruefully-this lively and charming book describes a youth spent reading voraciously (he was especially interested in medical texts and French novels), smashing toys, eating pastries, and being terrorized by insects. Often lonely, the young Lem believed that he could communicate with household objects-perhaps anticipating the sentient machines in the adult Lem's novels. Lem reveals his younger self to be a dreamer, driven by an unbridled imagination and boundless curiosity.In the course of his reminiscing, Lem also ponders the nature of memory, innocence, and the imagination. Highcastle (the title refers to a nearby ruin) offers the portrait of a writer in his formative years.

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, Stanislaw 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.

An astronaut returns to Earth after a ten-year mission and finds a society that he barely recognizes.Stanislaw Lem's Return from the Stars recounts the experiences of Hal Bregg, an astronaut who returns from an exploratory mission that lasted ten years—although because of time dilation, 127 years have passed on Earth. Bregg finds a society that he hardly recognizes, in which danger has been eradicated. Children are “betrizated” to remove all aggression and violence—a process that also removes all impulse to take risks and explore. The people of Earth view Bregg and his crew as “resuscitated Neanderthals,” and pressure them to undergo betrization. Bregg has serious difficulty in navigating the new social mores.While Lem's depiction of a risk-free society is bleak, he does not portray Bregg and his fellow astronauts as heroes. Indeed, faced with no opposition to his aggression, Bregg behaves abominably. He is faced with a choice: leave Earth again and hope to return to a different society in several hundred years, or stay on Earth and learn to be content. With Return from the Stars, Lem shows the shifting boundaries between utopia and dystopia.

Pervyj kontakt zemljan s vnezemnoj tsivilizatsiej. Kak povedet sebja chelovek pri stolknovenii s chuzhdym razumom? Chto vozmet verkh - ksenofobija (uvy, tak chasto prisuschaja predstaviteljam homo sapiens) ili stol zhe svojstvennyj cheloveku gumanizm?Velikij fantast proigryvaet raznye varianty razvitija situatsii - i v kazhdom sluchae poluchaet novye otvety na vopros...

Odno iz samykh ostroumnykh, tonkikh i ironichnykh proizvedenij Stanislava Lema, v kotorom ravno projavilis ego talanty pisatelja, filosofa i literaturnogo kritika. Sbornik bezuprechno sozdannykh retsenzij na vymyshlennye proizvedenija nikogda ne suschestvovavshikh avtorov: prozaikov, uchenykh i filosofov. Lem osoznanno izbral takuju neobychnuju formu, pozvolivshuju emu vmestit v etu malenkuju knizhku nastojaschuju entsiklopediju literaturnykh napravlenij i zhanrov, filosofskikh kontseptsij i nauchnykh idej.

Ijon Tichy is caught in a TIME LOOP.An NPR Best Book of the Year"... J Muth's hilarious and gentle masterpiece." -- Neil GaimanAlone in his broken spaceship-with no one there to help him-he could remain trapped in space indefinitely But soon something strange begins to happen: Tichy's past and future selves appear. And rather than helping one another, they bicker and fight as they crowd into the tiny vessel. Will Tichy stop fighting with himself long enough to save his own life?This sharply comical story by world-renowned science-fiction writer Stanislaw Lem has been adapted into a brilliant graphic novel by Caldecott Honor and Eisner Award-winning artist Jon J Muth.

From 'A giant of twentieth-century science fiction' (Guardian), the adventures of Pirx, a hapless everyman in outer space'By now he fancied himself something of a rocket jockey, a space ace, whose real home was among the planets'In a future where space travel has become routine and unremarkable, Pirx the pilot bumbles and daydreams his way through the solar system. These endearing tales follow his progress from cadet to captain. But, whether he is wrestling with a misbehaving spacesuit, feeling uncomfortable on a luxury space cruise ship or encountering a mysterious malfunctioning robot on a mission to Mars, the hapless Pirx just can't stop things from going terribly wrong.Translated by Louis Iribarne

Starejuschij astronavt-neudachnik, tak i ne osuschestvivshij svoju mechtu o polete na Mars, uchastvuet v opasnom eksperimente, chtoby raskryt seriju tainstvennykh ubijstv na italjanskom kurorte. Pogibshikh po neostorozhnosti i samoubijts, muzhchin srednikh let, kazalos by, nichto ne svjazyvaet - u nikh raznye privychki i pristrastija, vneshnost, mesto raboty. No kakaja-to zakonamernost vse zhe dolzhna suschestvovat - i byvshij astronavt, agent pod prikrytiem, shag za shagom povtorjaet put odnoj iz poslednikh zhertv iz Neapolja v Rim, ponimaja, chto smert dyshit emu v zatylok...

Roman "Vozvraschenie so zvezd" - odno iz samykh jarkikh, krasivykh i neobychnykh proizvedenij Stanislava Lema, smelo sochetajuschee v sebe cherty utopicheskoj i antiutopicheskoj NF. Sjuzhet ego, vneshne prostoj, pod genialnym perom pisatelja prevraschaetsja v izyskannuju i glubokuju filosofskuju pritchu o cheloveke, obladajuschem chetkim ponimaniem "normalnykh" moralno-eticheskikh predstavlenij - i okazavshemsja v mire, gde zapret na nasilie stal fakticheski zapretom na chelovechnost...

'There were two kinds of landscape characteristic of the inner planets of the Sun: the purposeful and the desolate.'The planet Quinta is pocked with ugly mounds and covered by a spiderweb-like network draped from spindly poles. It is a kingdom of phantoms and of a beauty afflicted by madness. The Earth spaceship Hermes arrives on Quinta with the best of intentions towards the humans' 'brothers in intelligence'. But something on the planet has gone terribly wrong...

'What use to a being that lives beneath a sun are jewels of gas and silver stars of ice?'From a giant of twentieth-century science fiction, these four miniature space epics feature crazy inventors, surreal worlds, robot kings and madcap machines.Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

Chem nado polivat luga, chtoby ot solnechnykh luchej iz travy obrazovyvalsja tvorog, i pochemu ne stoit prinimat ot neznakomykh devits predlozhenie "drjabnut v subbotu na pritirochku"? Kak oskorbil Ijona Tikhogo v luchshikh chuvstvakh professor Tarantoga i chem otlichaetsja "osedlyj" uchenyj ot "kochujuschego"? Pochemu ne stoit opasatsja robotov-mazurikov i kakov tekst potrjasajuschego khita "Lish kretiny i kanalii nenavidjat genitalii"? Kakov luchshij sposob borby s demograficheskim vzryvom - ugovory, sudebnye prigovory, deerotizatsija, prinuditelnaja tselibatizatsija, strogaja izoljatsija ili staraja dobraja kastratsija? I voobsche - chto den grjaduschij nam gotovit? Kniga, bez kotoroj ne suschestvovalo by trilogii "Matritsa". Kniga, vpervye opublikovannaja v dalekom 1971 godu i okazavshajasja pochti nepravdopodobno prorocheskoj.

Sbornik "Rasskazy o pilote Pirkse" -odna iz zhemchuzhin tvorcheskogo nasledija Stanislava Lema. Istorija prikljuchenij geroja, ponachalu - kursanta, a potom -uzhe opytnogo kosmicheskogo pilota, voskhischaet chitatelej ne tolko sjuzhetnym mnogoobraziem i uvlekatelnostju, no i firmennym "lemovskim" jumorom i tonkim, neozhidannym filosofskim podtekstom...

Hapless cosmonaut Ijon Tichy has been sent back to earth to attend the Eighth Futurological Congress in smog-bound, overpopulated Costa Rica, holed up with an assortment of scientists in a luxury hotel (fully equipped with tear gas sprinklers in case things get out of hand). But when an unfortunate incident occurs involving a revolution and hallucinogenic drugs in the water supply, Tichy finds himself shot, frozen and thawed out in a future beyond anything he could ever have imagined.

Pustynja Nevada - besplodnaja zemlja, kamni i pesok.I podzemnyj issledovatelskij tsentr - sekretnyj proekt Pentagona po rasshifrovke poslanija inoj tsivilizatsii.V komande spetsialistov, privlechennykh k rabote, vydajuschijsja matematik, professor Khogart, chelovek, prizvannyj sdvinut zavisshij proekt s mertvoj tochki. Kto zhe oni - te, chto zhivut za sotni i tysjachi svetovykh let ot nas? Sposobny li my ponjat POSLANIE, nichego ne znaja ob otpraviteljakh? I chto prineset chelovechestvu zagadochnaja substantsija, sozdannaja na osnove informatsii, "vychitannoj" iz zvezdnogo koda - neverojatnyj skachok progressa ili nevedomuju opasnost?

'A virtuoso storyteller ... a Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age' The New York Times'He was a robot-hypochondriac. On his squeaking cart he carried a complete set of spare parts.'A freighter pilot leads a manhunt across the Moon for a robot gone berserk; a shapeshifting assassin falls in love with the man she's programmed to kill; a paranoid King converts his kingdom into his artificial mind, but his dreams rebel. These stories range from surreal fables that satirically turn the fairy tale on its head, to longer works including the man vs. robot thriller, 'The Hunt', and possibly fiction's strangest love story, 'The Mask'. InMortal Engines Stanislaw Lem lays bare humanity's clash with machines, masterfully exploring science fiction's furthest frontiers.

A brilliantly crafted collection of stories from celebrated science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem. Trurl and Klaupacius are constructor robots who try to out-invent each other. Over the course of their adventures in The Cyberiad, they travel to the far corners of the cosmos to take on freelance problem-solving jobs, with dire consequences for their unsuspecting employers. Playfully written, and ranging from the prophetic to the surreal, these stories demonstrate Stanislaw Lem's vast talent and remarkable ability to blend meaning and magic into a wholly entertaining and captivating work.

When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface he is forced to confront a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others suffer from the same affliction and speculation rises among scientists that the Solaris ocean may be a massive brain that creates incarnate memories, but its purpose in doing so remains a mystery . . .Solaris raises a question that has been at the heart of human experience and literature for centuries: can we truly understand the universe around us without first understanding what lies within?

A Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age - The New York TimesStanislaw Lem's set of short stories, written over a period of twenty years, all feature the adventures of space traveller Ijon Tichy and recount him spinning in time-warps, spying on robots, encountering bizarre civilizations and creatures in space and being hopelessly lost in a forest of supernovae. This is a philosophical satire on technology, theology, intelligence and human nature from one of the greatest of science fiction writers

"Sredi zvezd nas zhdet neizvestnoe!" - fraza Lema, stavshaja krylatoj, imeet oschutimo gorkij privkus razocharovanija. Protsess poznanija neset v sebe jadovitoe jadro, i prisuschij chelovechestvu gumanizm okazyvaetsja bessilnym pri stolknovenii s chuzhdym inoplanetnym razumom na prekrasnoj i tainstvennoj planete Edem...Roman Stanislava Lema "Edem" - udivitelnyj splav dinamichnogo boevika, sotsialnoj dramy i zhestkoj antiutopii - mozhno smelo postavit v odin rjad s takimi klassicheskimi proizvedenijami nauchnoj fantastiki, kak "451 gradus po Farengejtu" Reja Bredberi i roman Dzhordzha Oruella "1984".