Introductions

"Eden", written in 1959, opens the period of Lem's mature science-fiction.  What makes us read this book with interest today? Certainly author's exceptional imagination plays an important role here; rich visions of planetary culture and nature are presented with just the right amount of suspense.  Hence, we get to know the mysterious planet step by step – with a tension that naturally accompanies all real history of exploration. Political system of the planet must have reminded readers of Orwell's visions, particularly in the 1950s. Yet the most important issue seems the skepticism with respect to the possibility of mutual comprehension: the very difference of respective technologies prevents newcomers and locals from understanding each other.

"Solaris" is the most famous of Lem's novels.  It had been reviewed many times in various countries and in various languages.  It belongs – probably as no other Polish literary work – to the core of its genre, to the canon: a novel about contact with aliens cannot be omitted  in discussions of world science fiction.  Why has "Solaris" achieved this status?  Probably because the book not only present the most original vision of the alien world known to science fiction, but in the most interesting and emotional way present the drama of cognition and its entanglement in literature, in telling stories that is so inseparable for human culture.