My favourite Lem's book
 

Covers

Fiasco

Earthly expedition tries to communicate with the civilization of the remote planet Quinta, however these attempts fail because Quintians avoid contact at all cost. Lem ingeniously equipped his Astronauts with adequate technology, but it did not help them realize the everlasting dream of humanity of exchanging experiences with brothers in reason.  Hence strangeness remains  - as always with Lem – inscrutable, and people remain wrapped for eternity in their mythologies.  "Fiasco", the last novel by Lem, bitter and pessimistic, summarizes the most important traits of his writing.

 

Balloon to Solaris

The 1960s and 1970s were the era of one writer. Lem set the boundaries of the genre; Lem defined the genre; all young writers reflected Lem and competed with Lem. How could one author so completely dominate an entire literary category? It’s simple: he was quite simply a genius, with a mind that could fully display its powers precisely within the domain of science fiction.

T. Kolodziejczak "Words Without Borders"

 

Stanislaw Lem 1921 - 2006

image The Polish writer Stanislaw Lem is both a polymath and a virtuoso storyteller and stylist. Put them together and they add up to a genius... He has been steadily producing fiction that follows the arcs and depths of his learning and a bewildering labyrinth of moods and attitudes. Like his protagonists, loners virtually to a man, his fiction seems at a distance from the daily cares and passions, and conveys the sense of a mind hovering above the boundaries of the human condition: now mordant, now droll, now arcane, now folksy, now skeptical, now haunted and always paradoxical. Yet his imagination is so powerful and pure that no matter what world he creates it is immediately convincing because of its concreteness and plentitude, the intimacy and authority with which it is occupied... read Lem for yourself. He is a major writer, and one of the deep spirits of our age.

"The New York Times Review of Books"

 

Gravity-Related Tantrums

Apocalypse in Numbers

Photos

Mroz drawings

Lem's drawings

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