From the author of Solaris, this novel of an encounter with an alien intelligence creates "a terrifyingly plausible picture of a world gone mad" ( Kirkus Reviews).Six explorers—the Captain, Doctor, Engineer, Chemist, Physicist, and Cyberneticist—crash land on a beautiful but strange planet, fourth from another sun. The landscape is bizarre, hosting acrid deserts, hissing trees, and thick spiderlike vegetation. But it is the signs of humanity that a...

The Franz Kafka Prize-winning author invites you to a doped-up dystopia. " Nobody can really know the future. But few could imagine it better than Lem. " — The Paris ReviewBringing his twin gifts of scientific speculation and scathing satire to bear on that hapless planet, Earth, Polish author Stanislaw Lem sends his unlucky cosmonaut, Ijon Tichy, to the Eighth Futurological Congress in C...

The absurdly brilliant far-future satire from "the Borges of scientific culture" ( Time).The year is 3149, and a vast paper destroying blight—papyralysis—has obliterated much of the planet's written history. Fortunately, these rare memoirs, preserved for centuries in a volcanic rock, record the strange life of a man trapped in a hermetically sealed underground community . . .From the Kafka Prize–winning author of Solaris, this is an entert...

"A stunningly inventive fantasy about cosmic travel" from the Kafka Prize–winning author of Solaris ( The New York Times).The Hermes explorer ship represents the epitome of Earth's excellence: a peaceful mission sent forth to make first contact with an alien civilization, and to use the expansive space technology developed by humanity to seek new worlds, friendships, and alliances. But what its crew discovers on the planet Quinta...

Brilliant stories of a bumbling astronaut, and the human desire to discover the unknown, by the much-loved author of Solaris.Set in the not-too-distant future, when space flight has evolved to the point where humanity is ready to colonize the solar system, Tales of Pirx the Pilot follows one somewhat-hapless explorer as he struggles though his training as a cadet, his career as a pilot, and his tenure as captain of a merchant ship.In these...

A space cruiser encounters beings descended from self-replicating machines in this classic science fiction novel with echoes of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.“A giant of mid-20th-century science fiction, in a league with Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Philip K. Dick.” —The New York TimesStanisław Lem’s The Invincible tells the story of a space cruiser sent to an obscure planet to determine the fate of a sister spaceship ...

An ex-astronaut investigates a string of potential murders in this novel by the Kafka Prize–winning author of Solaris.Vacation is supposed to be relaxing. But while traveling in Naples, several American tourists die in a most macabre and unusual way: committing suicide in a fit of madness. The cases are too similar to be coincidental, and the prevailing theory soon assumes that a serial poisoner is on the loose.Called in to investigate, and stem the...

An eerie and offbeat mystery by a Kafka Prize–winning author.The case confronting Lieutenant Gregory is not one that a man of Scotland Yard would expect. In fact, it is not one any sane man would care to entertain. Bodies are disappearing. The initial assumption is that a grave robber is roaming London and defiling local morgues. But upon further examination, it seems the deceased are, in fact, resurrecting.As Gregory stumbles his way through the tangled clu...

The author of Solaris critiques science fiction in a collection of provocative essays.Celebrated science fiction master Stanislaw Lem turns his always sharp and insightful pen to criticism in this bold and controversial analysis of the genre for which he is most known. In this collection of ten essays—ranging from an introspective examination of his own biographical and literary history to biting scrutiny of fellow authors and their works—Lem takes a keen l...

Ijon Tichy encounters bizarre civilizations and creatures in space, satirizing science, the rational mind, theology, and other icons of human pride.A space explorer travels undercover to a robot world, joining an organization to clean up world history through time travel. The universe may never be the same . . ."Tichy bumbles and stumbles around the cosmos running out of gas between stars, sneaking around in cybernetic drag on a planet of mad robots...

Essays by the author of Solaris: "Lem's delightful sense of humor accentuates his essential seriousness about humanity's possible fate" ( Publishers Weekly).In One Human Minute, Stanislaw Lem takes a hard look at our world and technology—what it means now and what dire implications it could have for the future—in satirical, wise, and biting prose.With this collection of three essays, Lem targets some of the most pressing issues hum...

Robot armies, an arms race in space, and a brain at war with itself add up to "a futuristic version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" ( The Boston Phoenix).Anxious to avoid a war that would destroy the entire planet, the major powers of Earth have come to an ingenious compromise. Each country sends a force of adaptable, self-programming robots to the surface of the moon to play out the conflict there and, hopefully, reach a mutually agreeable stalemate. But when...