[Leto Atreides II]

The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem. I can't believe this wasn't originally written in English, simply because the use of words is so amazing. I noticed Scrypt started posting again and this writing style reminded me of him. I've also read His Master's Voice, Fiasco, Eden, Solaris, and Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, all by Lem, but none of them prepared me for this. It's really fun science fiction that still has all the usual serious Lem hallmarks.

 

[Leto Atreides II]

Oh come on you damn illiterates.

 

[shafu]

Didn't he write Solaris? The Russian Sci-Fi author? Didn't like that book too much, but did have some interesting questions raised.

 

[Riordan]

hi leto,
i've read some lem (in german translation) in my teens and liked him a lot, but lost sight of him after the rather depressing 80's novel 'fiasco'. my favorites were his assorted robot fairy tales - is the cyberiad something like this?

he's polish actually, not russian, and has lived here in austria for awhile. there's definitely some mid/eastern european mixture of humor and darkness in lem... if franz kafka had written science fiction, my guess is it would have been similar

probably you know them already, but if not, i heartily recommend the brothers strugatzki (boris and arkadi) for any lem fan.

 

[cosmopragma]

My favorite is, damn I don't how it's named in english, maybe "The futurological congress".
From time to time there are interviews and essays with/from him published on the german internet mag telepolis, but nowadays he's very old, depressive and misanthropic, predicting doom for mankind.

 

[eyeteeth]

The Cyberiad has been sitting on my bookshelf untouched for 9 months. I had forgotten about it! In my defense my bookscase is large and cluttered. I have a Harcourt printing.

OK, it's in my hand and will accompany me on my journey later today.

 

[Flea Bag]

Hello Leto, let me just say that your avatar is very cute.

See you and that cute little thing around!

 

[Dixie Flatline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leto Atreides II The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem. I can't believe this wasn't originally written in English, simply because the use of words is so amazing. I noticed Scrypt started posting again and this writing style reminded me of him. I've also read His Master's Voice, Fiasco, Eden, Solaris, and Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, all by Lem, but none of them prepared me for this. It's really fun science fiction that still has all the usual serious Lem hallmarks.

The Cyberiad's my favorite of his, although Solaris and the various tales of Pirx the Pilot are good too. Lem's lucky to have a translator like Michael Kandel, who can bring the sparkling wordplay across the language divide. Although some of his other translators are good, they don't have Kandel's magic, and it's all too easy for a great writer to be dragged down by a pedestrian translation into English.