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When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean
that covers its surface he is forced to confront a painful,
hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the physical likeness of a
long-dead lover. Others suffer from the same affliction and
speculation rises among scientists that the Solaris ocean may be a
massive brain that creates incarnate memories, but its purpose in
doing so remains a mystery . . . Solaris raises a question that has
been at the heart of human experience and literature for centuries:
can we truly understand the universe around us without first
understanding what lies within?
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Return from the Stars (Paperback)
Stanislaw Lem; Foreword by Simon Ings; Translated by Barbara Marszal, Frank Simpson
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R325
R260
Discovery Miles 2 600
Save R65 (20%)
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In Stock
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An astronaut returns to Earth after a ten-year mission and finds a
society that he barely recognizes. Stanislaw Lem's Return from the
Stars recounts the experiences of Hal Bregg, an astronaut who
returns from an exploratory mission that lasted ten years-although
because of time dilation, 127 years have passed on Earth. Bregg
finds a society that he hardly recognizes, in which danger has been
eradicated. Children are "betrizated" to remove all aggression and
violence-a process that also removes all impulse to take risks and
explore. The people of Earth view Bregg and his crew as
"resuscitated Neanderthals," and pressure them to undergo
betrization. Bregg has serious difficulty in navigating the new
social mores. While Lem's depiction of a risk-free society is
bleak, he does not portray Bregg and his fellow astronauts as
heroes. Indeed, faced with no opposition to his aggression, Bregg
behaves abominably. He is faced with a choice: leave Earth again
and hope to return to a different society in several hundred years,
or stay on Earth and learn to be content. With Return from the
Stars, Lem shows the shifting boundaries between utopia and
dystopia.
Who's testing whom? When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris
to study the ocean that covers its surface, he is forced to
confront a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the
living physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others examining the
planet, Kelvin learns, are plagued with their own repressed and
newly corporeal memories. Scientists speculate that the Solaris
ocean may be a massive brain that creates these incarnate memories,
its purpose in doing so unknown.
The first of Lem's novels to be published in America and now
considered a classic, SOLARIS raises a question: Can we truly
understand the universe around us without first understanding what
lies within?
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The Invincible (Paperback)
Stanislaw Lem; Foreword by N. Katherine Hayles; Translated by Bill Johnston
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R462
R380
Discovery Miles 3 800
Save R82 (18%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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A space cruiser, in search of its sister ship, encounters beings
descended from self-replicating machines. In the grand tradition of
H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, Stanislaw Lem's The Invincible tells
the story of a space cruiser sent to an obscure planet to determine
the fate of a sister spaceship whose communication with Earth has
abruptly ceased. Landing on the planet Regis III, navigator Rohan
and his crew discover a form of life that has apparently evolved
from autonomous, self-replicating machines-perhaps the survivors of
a "robot war." Rohan and his men are forced to confront the classic
quandary: what course of action can humanity take once it has
reached the limits of its knowledge? In The Invincible, Lem has his
characters confront the inexplicable and the bizarre: the problem
that lies just beyond analytical reach.
Stanislaw Lem died on 26 March, 2006 but in this book his voice can
be heard afresh for the benefit of all those who believe that, with
his passing, a quintessential element of twentieth-century artistic
and intellectual heritage has come to an end. Peter Swirski's
edited and annotated translation of Lem's fifteen-year
correspondence with his principal American translator offers an
unparalleled testimony to the raw intellectual powers, smouldering
literary passions, and abiding personal concerns from the central
period of the writer's life and career. Even as they reposition Lem
as a consummate litterateur and an intellectual oracle, the letters
reveal tantalizing glimpses of the man behind the giant. Fighting
depression, at times hitting the bottle, plagued by ill health,
obsessed by his legacy, driven to distraction by lack of
appreciation in the United States, Lem the arch-rationalist emerges
here at his most human, vulnerable, and... likeable.
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His Master's Voice (Paperback)
Stanislaw Lem; Foreword by Seth Shostak; Translated by Michael Kandel
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R487
R405
Discovery Miles 4 050
Save R82 (17%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Scientists attempt to decode what may be a message from intelligent
beings in outer space. By pure chance, scientists detect a signal
from space that may be communication from rational beings. How can
people of Earth understand this message, knowing nothing about the
senders-even whether or not they exist? Written as the memoir of a
mathematician who participates in the government project (code
name: His Master's Voice) attempting to decode what seems to be a
message from outer space, this classic novel shows scientists
grappling with fundamental questions about the nature of reality,
the confines of knowledge, the limitations of the human mind, and
the ethics of military-sponsored scientific research.
'A giant of twentieth-century science fiction' Guardian One of the
world's most beloved science fiction writers, Stanislaw Lem was
famed for his wryly comic, outlandish imaginings of the
relationship between humans and technology. In this playful cosmic
fantasia, two 'constructors' compete to dream up ever-more
ingenious inventions in a universe beyond reality. 'A Jorge Luis
Borges for the Space Age, who plays with every concept of
philosophy and physics' The New York Times
An early realist novel by Stanislaw Lem, taking place in a Polish
psychiatric hospital during World War II. Taking place within the
confines of a psychiatric hospital, Stanislaw Lem's The Hospital of
the Transfiguration tells the story of a young doctor working in a
Polish asylum during World War II. At first the asylum seems like a
bucolic refuge, but a series of sinister encounters and incidents
reveal an underlying brutality. The doctor begins to seek relief in
the strange conversation of the poet Sekulowski, who is posing as a
patient in a bid for safety from the occupying German forces.
Meanwhile, Resistance fighters stockpile weapons in the surrounding
woods. A very early work by Lem, The Hospital of the
Transfiguration is partly autobiographical, drawing on the author's
experiences as a medical student. Written in 1948, it was
suppressed by Polish censors and not published until 1955. The
censorship of this realist novel is partly what led Lem to focus on
science fiction and nonfiction for the rest of his career.
The travels of Ijon Tichy, a Gulliver of the space age, who
encounters faulty time machines, intelligent washing machines,
suicidal potatoes, and other puzzling phenomena. Memoirs of a Space
Traveler follows the adventures of Ijon Tichy, a Gulliver of the
space age, who leads readers through strange experiments involving,
among other puzzling phenomena, faulty time machines, intelligent
washing machines, and suicidal potatoes. The scientists Tichy
encounters make plans that are grandiose, and strike bargains that
are Faustian. They pursue humanity's greatest and most ancient
obsessions: immortality, artificial intelligence, and
top-of-the-line consumer items. By turns satirical, philosophical,
and absurd, these stories express the most starkly original and
prescient notions of a master of speculative fiction.
'What use to a being that lives beneath a sun are jewels of gas and
silver stars of ice?' From a giant of twentieth-century science
fiction, these four miniature space epics feature crazy inventors,
surreal worlds, robot kings and madcap machines. Penguin Modern:
fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic
Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a
concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here
are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman
Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson;
essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories
surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern
Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of
outer space.
From 'A giant of twentieth-century science fiction' (Guardian), the
adventures of Pirx, a hapless everyman in outer space 'By now he
fancied himself something of a rocket jockey, a space ace, whose
real home was among the planets' In a future where space travel has
become routine and unremarkable, Pirx the pilot bumbles and
daydreams his way through the solar system. These endearing tales
follow his progress from cadet to captain. But, whether he is
wrestling with a misbehaving spacesuit, feeling uncomfortable on a
luxury space cruise ship or encountering a mysterious
malfunctioning robot on a mission to Mars, the hapless Pirx just
can't stop things from going terribly wrong. Translated by Louis
Iribarne
'A giant of twentieth-century science fiction' Guardian 'This Room
Guaranteed BOMB-FREE. From the Management' Hapless cosmonaut Ijon
Tichy has been sent back to earth to attend the Eighth
Futurological Congress in smog-bound, overpopulated Costa Rica,
holed up with an assortment of scientists in a luxury hotel (fully
equipped with tear gas sprinklers in case things get out of hand).
But when an unfortunate incident occurs involving a revolution and
hallucinogenic drugs in the water supply, Tichy finds himself shot,
frozen and thawed out in a future beyond anything he could ever
have imagined.
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Fiasco (Paperback)
Stanislaw Lem
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R487
R433
Discovery Miles 4 330
Save R54 (11%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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The planet Quinta is pocked by ugly mounds and covered by a
spiderweb-like network. It is a kingdom of phantoms and of a beauty
afflicted by madness. In stark contrast, the crew of the spaceship
Hermes represents a knowledge-seeking Earth. As they approach
Quinta, a dark poetry takes over and leads them into a nightmare of
misunderstanding. Translated by Michael Kandel. A Helen and Kurt
Wolff Book
'A virtuoso storyteller ... a Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age'
The New York Times 'He was a robot-hypochondriac. On his squeaking
cart he carried a complete set of spare parts.' A freighter pilot
leads a manhunt across the Moon for a robot gone berserk; a
shapeshifting assassin falls in love with the man she's programmed
to kill; a paranoid King converts his kingdom into his artificial
mind, but his dreams rebel. These stories range from surreal fables
that satirically turn the fairy tale on its head, to longer works
including the man vs. robot thriller, 'The Hunt', and possibly
fiction's strangest love story, 'The Mask'. InMortal Engines
Stanislaw Lem lays bare humanity's clash with machines, masterfully
exploring science fiction's furthest frontiers.
A playful, witty, reflective memoir of childhood by the science
fiction master Stanislaw Lem. With Highcastle, Stanislaw Lem offers
a memoir of his childhood and youth in prewar Lvov. Reflective,
artful, witty, playful-"I was a monster," he observes ruefully-this
lively and charming book describes a youth spent reading
voraciously (he was especially interested in medical texts and
French novels), smashing toys, eating pastries, and being
terrorized by insects. Often lonely, the young Lem believed that he
could communicate with household objects-perhaps anticipating the
sentient machines in the adult Lem's novels. Lem reveals his
younger self to be a dreamer, driven by an unbridled imagination
and boundless curiosity. In the course of his reminiscing, Lem also
ponders the nature of memory, innocence, and the imagination.
Highcastle (the title refers to a nearby ruin) offers the portrait
of a writer in his formative years.
This third appearance for imperturbable astronaut Ijon Tichy
extends the horrifying notions on future weapons and warfare that
Lem advanced in One Human Minute. The governments of Earth have
banished the arms race to the moon, where miniaturized,
self-replicating weapons equipped with artificial instincts were
provided the means to evolve and compete in utter secrecy - the
intended outcome being a self-adjusted stalemate. However...
In Pilot Pirx, Lem has created an irresistibly likable character:
an astronaut who gives the impression of still navigating by the
seat of his pants-a bumbler but an inspired one. By investing Pirx
with a range of human foibles, Lem offers a wonderful vision of the
audacity, childlike curiosity, and intuition that can give humans
the courage to confront outer space. Translated by Louis Iribarne.
A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
Contains three essays--"One Human Minute," "The Upside-Down
Revolution," and "The World as Cataclysm"--from science fiction
master Stanislaw Lem.
The year is 3149, and a vast paper destroying
blight-papyralysis-has obliterated much of the planet's written
history. However, these rare memoirs, preserved for centuries in a
volcanic rock, record the strange life of a man trapped in a
hermetically sealed underground community. Translated by Michael
Kandel and Christine Rose.
These wickedly authentic introductions to twenty-first-century
books preface tomes on teaching English to bacteria, using animated
X-rays to create "pornograms," and analyzing computer-generated
literature through the science of "bitistics." "Lem, a science
fiction Bach, plays in this book a googleplex of variations on his
basic themes" (New York Times Book Review). Translated by Marc E.
Heine. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
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Dialogues (Paperback)
Stanislaw Lem, Peter Butko
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R1,092
R861
Discovery Miles 8 610
Save R231 (21%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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A charming, mind-bending and anarchic book of imagined
civilizations 'Most cosmic civilizations long for things, in the
depths of their souls, they would never openly admit to...' Trurl
and Klapaucius are 'constructors' - they travel around the universe
creating machines of astonishing inventiveness and power and
visiting a bewildering variety of violent, peculiar and morose
civilizations. The Cyberiad is oddly reminiscent of Gulliver's
Travels, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Phantom
Tollbooth and Alice in Wonderland. Charming, mind-bending and
anarchic, it is perhaps Lem's greatest work. This edition includes
all of Daniel Mroz's hallucinatory original illustrations.
A Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age - The New York Times
Stanislaw Lem's set of short stories, written over a period of
twenty years, all feature the adventures of space traveller Ijon
Tichy and recount him spinning in time-warps, spying on robots,
encountering bizarre civilizations and creatures in space and being
hopelessly lost in a forest of supernovae. This is a philosophical
satire on technology, theology, intelligence and human nature from
one of the greatest of science fiction writers
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Fiasco (Paperback)
Stanislaw Lem
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R313
R255
Discovery Miles 2 550
Save R58 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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'There were two kinds of landscape characteristic of the inner
planets of the Sun: the purposeful and the desolate.' The planet
Quinta is pocked with ugly mounds and covered by a spiderweb-like
network draped from spindly poles. It is a kingdom of phantoms and
of a beauty afflicted by madness. The Earth spaceship Hermes
arrives on Quinta with the best of intentions towards the humans'
'brothers in intelligence'. But something on the planet has gone
terribly wrong...
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