This book is a wonderful story and I recommend it to everyone!

I'm a big fan of Lem but I have to admidt he has churned out some bad books. I have read all but two all of Lem's books and this is among his worst (along with Chain of Chance, Eden, the Investigation). Its boring, short, and no way worth [that much money] Instead start out with one of his 5-star books: His Master's Voice, Star Diaries, Fiasco, or Pirx the Pilot.

Lem's writes a great story. But more than that, he is different, I think, because of...well, because of something else. Something occuring below the surface of the narrative. Something hidden...something coded? I don't know. It is some thought-provoking something that gets you to put the book down to consider something new, or perhaps reconsider, anew, something you thought you knew.

Writers ought to attempt entertainment, I think. Of course, not every writer succeeds. But Lem does. Brilliantly, I should say. Moreso, though, Lem's work is made more thorough-going, more profound in effect, perhaps more three-dimensional, because of something powerfully nonverbal....some undiscovered, secret goings-on behind the words and phrases. Something at once present and indiscernable. Something, at times, even terrifying.

I can't explain it. I can't talk about Lem's technique or his uniqueness in plain language. His achievement itself aspires to the nonverbal. Just read "Memoirs", or "The Futurological Congress", or the "Cyberiad", and see for yourself how, the story, or what it becomes, manages to linger long after the book has been closed. Lem has been lingering in my mind for years.

Whatever that curious something is, though, a rarest of things, the thing you feel when you read Lem, but can't quite locate, I'm sure is something Lem the artist has somehow fashioned deliberatley. For this reason, I think, I can't say you should read Lem...but that you must.

Not for the casual reader, this devilishly complicated book will have you stumped in the end. So unless you wish to re-read it (in order to finally figure out what it was all about) don't bother with this one. But for those of you searching for that rare book that leaves you wondering and puzzled for days, weeks, years... well, this is it. From the brilliant mind of the best Polish sci-fi writer comes a satire and a comment on those wonderful societies of ours (take your pick: socialism, communism, etc.) and the methods of their tyranny.

The plot is simple: An innocent, foolishly loyal aspiring agent enters his new occupation only to find out that those in power have plans of their own (which he just can't discover). Searching the confines of a "Building", a futuristic military-like establishment hidden underground, he seeks his mission, his purpose and the meaning of his existence. Ultimately, all those disappear before his eyes and turn into code. This skillfully written tale where not one word lacks meaning or purpose (or does it?) attempts to understand methods of population control. Could it be that political systems have, are and will rule their population through skillful semantics-control? (think NEWSPEAK) Lem posits that political rhetoric color not only our judgment but also our ability to perceive the world around us. Concentrating on the cold war tension between the US and CCCP, Lem explores systems which convert all their resources and their entire populations to one task: the destruction of the enemy. To accomplish their goal, they convert the minds of their subject. Much like a child who learns to adhere to the principles of society through the careful teaching of parents, teachers, TV, and others, a member of these societies learns to relinquish to his superiors the ability to judge his surrounding.

The Building's plan is simple: Through a carefully planned mission, our hero learns to loose trust in himself, loose his ambition and the ability to choose how and to whom to be loyal. He learns that he is a tool. He discovers that his only responsibility is to the Building, and that the Building alone can think for him, tell him what, how, and why to think. He learns that he is a part of the Building and that his duty is to serve a predetermined function which he himself can't alter. He learns that he can only make sense of the insane world around him, if he unconditionally adapts the strategies of his surrounding.

In the end, he discovers that a system like the Building has developed into a new life-form (who smiles and leads a life of its own), an organism whom we humans must ultimately serve and whose survival we must guaranty if we ourselves wish to live on. If you can deal with an unorthodox plot (if there is one), and like your books heavy on ideas, this is the book for you. Otherwise, stick with Jordan or Simmons - they're good, too.

The Star Diaries by Stanislaw Lem are a fascinating combination of science fiction stories, cleverly disguised social criticism, and a unique sense of humor. It is one of the few books I never tire of reading, again and again.

My understanding is that the three books featuring space traveller Ijon Tichy were originally published in Polish in a single volume (THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS, THE STAR DIARIES, and MEMOIRS OF A SPACE TRAVELLER). If so, I would insist that that has to be one of the ten greatest science fiction books ever published. The highpoint of the Tichy tales is THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS, which is published as a separate book in English, but the stories in THE STAR DIARIES are very nearly as good (the remnants were published in the MEMOIRS). Essential reading. They come across as some demonic blend of Italo Calvino, Escher, and Groucho Marx. Most sci-fi writing is deeply derivative from previous writers, but Stanislaw Lem is possibly the most original sci-fi writer of the past forty years. I am one of those who believe that Lem should have received serious consideration for a Nobel Prize.

If you like Lem, this is one of his best. It's not really science fiction, it's the discharge of neurons in a fireworks display.

Short and bit outdated attempt to look into future of star travel and related consequences (including fate of the Earth). When you will check the date of first publication you will be amazed by the contents. For me it's like a classic work - it was one of books, which built foundation of my perception of the future. If you ever read anything of Lem, you definitely should check this one. If not, this book could be a perfect introduction into Lem's world (and possibly ours).

This is one of those books that you read, put down, read again and then find something that is scarily predictive of not the far future, but of recent times. Very odd indeed.

The plot of "Return from the Stars" is just that: space travelers from Earth return, but much time has passed. They are essentially visitors to their own future. But the Earth has taken trendy ideas such as non-violence and translated these ideas in ways no one could fathom. Man has not evolved, but society has evolved a way to tame Man; for example, when a man visits a woman, and the woman decides that no sexual intimacy should be the outcome of the encounter, she offers the man a drink of Britt. This substance, which is stocked in every young woman's refrigerator and looks like a bottle of milk, renders the man incapable of desire or acting upon that desire. How presumptive! Every man is a rapist. Yet, this book was written long before much radical feminist writing that asserted much the same idea.

Women dress oddly, painting their nostrils red and wearing bells in their shoes. The tiny details point out the fact that the returnees are foreigners to what was once their home and is now in no way their future, though it is their heritage.

Lem makes some interesting extrapolations. Some of them even came true in his own lifetime. This is actually one of the few Lem books that stuck with me, and it is a darn shame it is out of print. It is really a quiet masterpiece of speculative fiction.

This one is a page-turner that keeps you up till all hours of the night! It is not like some of Lem's more comedic novel(la)s but nonetheless it is still a great read. Great characterization and offers a philosophical look at the improvement of society and space travel, amongst other issues. It is precisely Lem's blending of cognitive, societal, moral, and scientific issues that leave other sci-fi writers in the dust... Without a doubt, Lem does credit to the genre.

...and not so much a novel as a collection of short stories, but most concerning the same two characters: rival inventors/scientists Trurl and Klapaucius. As such, it's a pretty scattershot collection; some stories being totally compelling, others leaving me bored and confused. Lem is a master of satirizing science (and scientific dogma) in its many forms. He also seems to revel in his own cleverness sometimes, which can be a bit over- bearing, but since he really IS clever most of the time, it's almost justified. Would I re-read it? Yes, but now I know the parts I'd prefer to skip over. Would I recommend it to others? Yes, but others would probably enjoy it more than I did (not that I didn't enjoy it). A special tip of the hat to translator Michael Kandel, he did a great job.

I am baffled at how the previous reviewer could reduce the Cyberiad to a collection of name puns and logarithms jokes. The Cyberiad was sophisticated, humorous, profound and utterly original. Witness the pastoral poem on love and tensor algebra (with a little topology and higher calculus): Come let us hasten to a higher plane/ Where dyads tread the fairy fields of Venn/ Their indices bedecked from one to n/ Commingled in an endless Markov chain." And even though Lem wrote the Cyberiad in Polish, the translation is excellent - there is no caveman like grammer! I'm a fan of the Herbert-Niven school of science fiction but the Cyberiad showed me that science fiction can be so much more than the ubermensch and space battles. I think the comparison to Swift is apt though Lem doesn't have Swift's um, bathroom humor. Some stories reminded me of the Canterbury Tales. I think Lem is a far superior humor writer than Douglas Adams (why is he so famous?) whose Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy is threadbare and juvenile compared to the Cyberiad. Anyway, to the point: dear reader, please purchase The Cyberiad, it is in a class of its own.

First, the Cyberiad is an absolute hoot. It works on the highest literary levels with humor and insight. My only complaint is that Lem didn't write more of these cyber fables (I've got almost everything he's written that's been translated over the years and he's written quite a lot in this vein and IT IS NOT ENOUGH - I WANT MORE! ). He's probably most famous for his book Solaris which I found an intriguing bore (personal taste only and could be a bad translation since I don't read in his native Polish). People who read Solaris as their first Lem book will find little in common with the Cyberiad. I avoided Lem for years because I pegged him as the author of Solaris and didn't realize what a virtuoso author he was. He will never win the Nobel because he's been stamped as a "Science Fiction" writer, sort of like Vonnegut, Le Guin, and Philip K. Dick are/were. He's different from all of them ... Read Solaris, The Invincible, and the Cyberiad and you'll see the range of his skills (good and bad). An aside: I was astounded when my 9 year old picked up the Cyberiad and read it (obviously not getting a lot of the finer points) and then asked if he could find more books about Trurl and friends. He thought it was one of the funniest things he's read (and he likes the Harry Potter books also). Now, I wouldn't recommend Lem to most 9 year olds ...

This is a new book by one of the most important authors in the 20th century, but the above review is too slick to be trusted. Indeed, die-hard Lem fans will be thrilled by a new book and will no doubt enjoy seeing Ijon Tichy again. But this book, though magnificent on speculation and satire, will not be the one to explain to all the non-Lem fans why we Lem fans go bonkers over him. This book is for people with an acquired taste for Lem. If that's not you, don't despair. Try "The Cyberiad" or "Solaris" (his most famous book) or "Fiasco".

Ijon Tichy, our favorite clutzy hero, who has been subjected to "benignimizers," time machines, insane robots and who was responsible for creating the universe, stays a little closer to home in this mind boggling little masterpiece. Lem, although unknowingly, created a strangely prophetic story for Y2K worry worts. The idea of our quest to become more advanced, no matter how idiotic the advancements, leads to our undoing; or for the optimist, a new beginning. I'm intentially being cryptic, as not to ruin the story, but this book is definitly worth its weight in LEM.

Though not as ample in the sheer fun category as Lem's earlier outings with Ijon Tichy, this book reunites us with one of the author's most endearing protagonists in a physiological and top-secret caper. The split brain/ double Tichy dilemna somehow does not fall flat, and will make you wonder what your left hand is doing while you're busy on that mouse....

This slim volume isn't as much an introduction as a motley collection of interviews with Stanislav Lem, through which the author attempts to expose Lem's personal ideology. There is an overview of Lem's works - courtesy of the author, a pair of interviews (1992 and 1994), and a short essay written by Lem about his futurological masterpiece, "Summa Technologiae" (1964, essay written in 1991). The first problem the book runs into is that it's not particularly informative. I really hoped for a deeper analysis of Lem's works. In the interviews, Lem merely uses them to exemplify his beliefs. Furthemore, Lem himself comes off a bit patronizing and self-promoting. He repeatedly makes smug comments about his literary competition, several movements in philosophy, and a particular Polish critic who wrote an unduly scathing review of "Summa." Lastly, a good deal of the interviews become redundant. Lem's responses run long, and he manages to bring most to the followings few conclusions: the world can never be perfectly understood, or even fathomed; moderation is the safest philosophy - tertium datur; truth is in the eye of the beholder; language compromises any attempts at hard analysis; anyone who fails to believe that is misguided. Now that I think about it, Lem sounds very much like his GOLEM XIV. Nevertheless, he manages to make several interesting points about himself and his works: he proudly reiterates that he is most certainly not the alpha and omega of the European, or even Polish philosophical society; that his magnitude as a futurologist and philosopher is (mistakenly) overstated; and that his works are largely testing grounds for his evolving ideology.

The interviews portray Lem's faith in mankind as slight. He finds humanity as somewhat vain, and currently degenerating. An especially hard-hitting forecast of his predicts a deluge of information that will drown civilization. This examination of Lem's repeatedly frustrated attempts to bring the cosmic forces of logic to crack the tough nut of the Western civilization made me aware of just what I want from Lem as a reader: I want a book where mankind is awed and humiliated in numbers sufficient to produce a positive effect. I want the cosmos to teach man a lesson. I want an emergency exit.

A lot of information for being approx. 150 pages as every single page contains pertinent content. (In other words, there is not one single wasted line or sentence.) Very strong writing with a nice flair as it focuses on the interdisciplinary side of Lem's novels, rather than being just an ordinary literary review. The interviews with Lem are also thought provoking; since it allows Lem's "voice" to be "heard". However, it is a little dense and at some points may be difficult to decipher exactly what the author or Lem is trying to say as both use vocabulary that is not quite "layman's terms". Still, overall it does give good insight to Lem and is a useful introduction to Lem's works. In addition, the author's focus (how literature interacts with science and society)is a breath of fresh air compared to what is usually circulating around in the guise of literary criticism!

Recommended to all Lem scholars, science-fiction fans, literature lovers, and people who like to look beyond literature. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it's not exactly Sunday reading.

For its greatest part, the book is about Ulam's encounter with other scientists. It's thus a must-have for all historian of science, with great details about the three important Ulam's acquaintances: Banach, Von Neumann and Fermi. However, it's not what is making this book an invaluable document.

Ulam was a pure mathematician, like Banach or ErdÆs, not like Dirac or Einstein. Yet he had the ability to escape from formal abstract considerations to think about how other sciences could show him a path to new mathematical considerations. In this regard, the Monte Carlo method and all his proposals to non-linear systems and usage of computers for exploring them may be are his greatest achievements (his H-bomb papers are classified, and I like to think Monte Carlo is still more useful).

For that matter, this book is of the greatest interest for he who wish to deepen his understanding of links between mathematics and physics, that are usually discussed by physicists often having very poor idea of what mathematics really are about. The chapter "random reflections" is a jewel which by itself makes worth buying the book, explaining for instance how practical problems can lead to new mathematical concepts, how mathematic theories link altogether, or advocating the use of computers to help mathematicians view new spaces of new objects. Many aside jokes or peculiar reflections--like how mathematics change according to what language one is exploring them with (English, Russian, French, German...)--make the book very entertaining, seldom boring. This "mathematician's mathematician"'s overview of this century's science (he also had some contributions to biology) is thus highly recommended.

(caution to purists: the book has been edited by Ulam's wife from recorded tapes, he didn't write it.)

The very first time I heared from Stanislaw Ulam was reading a book by Otto Robert Frisch (What little I remember). In this book he said that a polish mathematician called Ulam was doing mathematics for the Hydrogen Bomb but his maths were deviating so much from abstract that he even used numbers with decimals in his formulas. This funny comment opened my curiosity to know more about this guy doing maths. Well, years later I bought this book and surprisingly he mentioned the comment by O.R Frisch. What a coincidence! I liked the book. He details his life and other genius lives: John von Neuman, Paul Erdos, Fermi, etc. No necessity to know maths. No formula within the book. Easy to read. Stan Ulam was co-father of the Hydrogen Bomb but everybody knows Edward Teller but not him. He makes especial emphasis in Alamos times (Ulamos times). Enjoyable book.

Monte Carlo simulation was discovered by Stanislaus Ulam and today is used by millions in all walks of life. It is the basis for planning and decision making in for corporations and in all issues of public and private life.

Ulam says "The idea...occurred to me when I was playing solitaire during my illness. I noticed that it may be much more practical to get an idea of the probability of the successful outcome of a solitary game...by laying down the cards, or experimenting with the process merely noticing what proportion comes out successfully..."

The advent of computers removed the need for "hiring several hundred Chinese from Taiwan" and made the progress of rational thought ubiquitous.

It is the most striking example of the triumph of mathematics in real life.

Andrew Vazsonyi, Real-life mathematician

The first thing, which surprised me, about the novel was the copyright date. Lem wrote this in 1961, which predates Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (written in 1968). There are some similar themes. I don't know if Clarke was familiar with this book, or if reading this after reading the book or Kubrick's film has caused this sense of deja vu.

The story concerns a space station where the scientists are studying, and attempting to make contact with, the planet Solaris. Each character has to deal with his or her own internal doubts, but also has to interact with the other members of the crew. These doubts are more important than you may think on a first read.

In the story, there are long sections where Kris Kelvin is going through the library reading up on the research of Solaris and neutrinos. In the initial read, I thought that a lot of this could have been cut to keep the novel more concise. Since there is so much of it, I wondered if Lem intended for us to focus on this. I believe he did.

The research and the history of research give us a mirror of our own scientific community. It also questions the SETI project and our attempts to make contact. His statement about this seems to be that our endeavor to contact something non-human is flawed because we are approaching it from a human frame of mind.

This is a very good book, and I would highly recommend reading it.

This is the best book you'll find in the "sci-fi" section of the book store, and I'd argue that it's not really science fiction.

Solaris is primarily a human drama with a science fiction setting. The main character's conflict has more depth than most literary novels, let alone genre books. The sci-fi elements are there, however, sparse leaving the imagination to fill in the blanks - this keeps the story fresh because there are no outdated details. Also, Lem never answers the story's most intriguing questions, adding to the book's resonance.

This drama will engross anyone and I challenge those who wouldn't normally read "science fiction" to try this one out.

One note readers should know beforehand is that the version of Solaris available in English is a translation from Polish to French and then translated from the French into English. For some irresponsible and bizarre reason, publishing house Faber and Faber who own the license have not authorized a direct from Polish translation of Solaris. The good news is that despite this the translators from the French have a good sense of literary style and did a fine job of making it readable and enjoyable, though obviously not as accurate a translation as could be.

At first glance Solaris seems hard science fiction. Set in the future after man has explored many systems the main character arrives at the space station orbiting the planet Solaris. Lem lets us know several things up front, the planet is suspected of being an intelligent life form and there is a long history of exploration, strange happenings and accidents that have occurred. By the time Kelvin arrives after almost two hundred years of study only a small team is left to record and study the planet.

More than hard science is really at the heart of this novel. There are musings on alien contact and the nature of what is intelligence. Is man really the measure of everything? As events occur, Kelvin the rational scientist succumbs to those most irrational of feelings, love and longing. Ironically, Kelvin, the person sent to investigate the occurrences among the crew is the one who is emotionally effected the most by the visitors that accompany everyone.

The genius of the novel is that the visitors are reflections or copy's of each individual in each person's memory. Every character is touched (or disturbed) on a level much deeper than a more conventional alien contact approach. Few readers will fail to imagine who from their own memories would take the form of their own visitor.

This is one of the most intelligent science fiction novels I've read in a long time. The story ends up not being about science but about what makes us human, what is intelligence and what may separate us from another life form. Moving, well written and highly recommended.