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The Cosmic Carnival: An Anthology of Entertaining Stories by the Modern Master of Science Fiction
Book by Stanislaw Lem
271 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
37 people want to read
About the author
Stanisław Lem
369 books4,524 followersStanisław Lem (staˈɲiswaf lɛm) was a Polish science fiction, philosophical and satirical writer of Jewish descent. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is perhaps best known as the author of Solaris, which has twice been made into a feature film. In 1976, Theodore Sturgeon claimed that Lem was the most widely read science-fiction writer in the world.
His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humankind's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult and multiple translated versions of his works exist.
Lem became truly productive after 1956, when the de-Stalinization period led to the "Polish October", when Poland experienced an increase in freedom of speech. Between 1956 and 1968, Lem authored 17 books. His works were widely translated abroad (although mostly in the Eastern Bloc countries). In 1957 he published his first non-fiction, philosophical book, Dialogi (Dialogues), one of his two most famous philosophical texts along with Summa Technologiae (1964). The Summa is notable for being a unique analysis of prospective social, cybernetic, and biological advances. In this work, Lem discusses philosophical implications of technologies that were completely in the realm of science fiction then, but are gaining importance today—like, for instance, virtual reality and nanotechnology. Over the next few decades, he published many books, both science fiction and philosophical/futurological, although from the 1980s onwards he tended to concentrate on philosophical texts and essays.
He gained international fame for The Cyberiad, a series of humorous short stories from a mechanical universe ruled by robots, first published in English in 1974. His best-known novels include Solaris (1961), His Master's Voice (Głos pana, 1968), and the late Fiasco (Fiasko, 1987), expressing most strongly his major theme of the futility of mankind's attempts to comprehend the truly alien. Solaris was made into a film in 1972 by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972; in 2002, Steven Soderbergh directed a Hollywood remake starring George Clooney.
He was the cousin of poet Marian Hemar.
His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humankind's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult and multiple translated versions of his works exist.
Lem became truly productive after 1956, when the de-Stalinization period led to the "Polish October", when Poland experienced an increase in freedom of speech. Between 1956 and 1968, Lem authored 17 books. His works were widely translated abroad (although mostly in the Eastern Bloc countries). In 1957 he published his first non-fiction, philosophical book, Dialogi (Dialogues), one of his two most famous philosophical texts along with Summa Technologiae (1964). The Summa is notable for being a unique analysis of prospective social, cybernetic, and biological advances. In this work, Lem discusses philosophical implications of technologies that were completely in the realm of science fiction then, but are gaining importance today—like, for instance, virtual reality and nanotechnology. Over the next few decades, he published many books, both science fiction and philosophical/futurological, although from the 1980s onwards he tended to concentrate on philosophical texts and essays.
He gained international fame for The Cyberiad, a series of humorous short stories from a mechanical universe ruled by robots, first published in English in 1974. His best-known novels include Solaris (1961), His Master's Voice (Głos pana, 1968), and the late Fiasco (Fiasko, 1987), expressing most strongly his major theme of the futility of mankind's attempts to comprehend the truly alien. Solaris was made into a film in 1972 by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972; in 2002, Steven Soderbergh directed a Hollywood remake starring George Clooney.
He was the cousin of poet Marian Hemar.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 18, 2009
Grabbed this off my shelf because I was in the mood for some Lem after reading a bunch of (Russian) Soviet sci-fi, and that's exactly what it was: some Lem. Lem's most well-known English translator (Michael Kandel) chose segments of some novels and chapters out of Lem's "episodic" books and grouped them by theme with short introductions to place them in context with Lem's overall work. I've read most of the original source material, so I had the context for the snippets, but Kandel does a very good job of selecting bits that can stand on their own without much introduction, and at the same time serve to illustrate the themes and ideas that Lem wrote about most often. I was a little disappointed that the few detective stories weren't featured, but those are harder to take out of context given the genre.
I think this anthology's intended audience is sci-fi fans who have heard of Lem but don't know where to start. For those readers it would serve its purpose very well. Coming at it as a long-time fan of Lem's, very familiar with his style and vision, it was an entertaining refresher course on a beloved subject.
I think this anthology's intended audience is sci-fi fans who have heard of Lem but don't know where to start. For those readers it would serve its purpose very well. Coming at it as a long-time fan of Lem's, very familiar with his style and vision, it was an entertaining refresher course on a beloved subject.
April 23, 2013
Good stuff...but several "stories" were exerpts from novels so, they were frustratingly incomplete and somewhat pointless on their own. These are also mostly translations of translations (i.e. Polish to French to English.)so, I wonder how true to the original they are.
June 13, 2024
"Lem is a humanist who detests the human race by virtue of the fact that the human race is insufficiently human." -translator/editor Michael Kandel from "The Cybernetic Fairy Tale"
The most versatile scifi writer I've ever encountered, Lem is said to be 'many different authors in one', and I believe this anthology is the best representation for every SF literary phase of my fave SF author of all time with this collection of excerpts from his other works. A chapter is taken each from "Solaris", "The Invincible", "The Futurological Congress" and "Return From the Stars" so you can see the breadth and scope of concepts he's tackled. Also, a short story from "Tales of Pirx the Pilot" (Pirx's most hilarious scifi short story before his 'adventures' turn into something more serious), and a handful from "Mortal Engines" and "The Star Diaries". Finally, one review from "A Perfect Vacuum" for a nonexistent/fictitious book, which discusses one of his more accessible philosophical humanist concepts.
In short, this is the perfect intro to the genius, another way of experiencing his ideas as a totality, an interweaving of philosophy, hard scifi and adventure!
The most versatile scifi writer I've ever encountered, Lem is said to be 'many different authors in one', and I believe this anthology is the best representation for every SF literary phase of my fave SF author of all time with this collection of excerpts from his other works. A chapter is taken each from "Solaris", "The Invincible", "The Futurological Congress" and "Return From the Stars" so you can see the breadth and scope of concepts he's tackled. Also, a short story from "Tales of Pirx the Pilot" (Pirx's most hilarious scifi short story before his 'adventures' turn into something more serious), and a handful from "Mortal Engines" and "The Star Diaries". Finally, one review from "A Perfect Vacuum" for a nonexistent/fictitious book, which discusses one of his more accessible philosophical humanist concepts.
In short, this is the perfect intro to the genius, another way of experiencing his ideas as a totality, an interweaving of philosophy, hard scifi and adventure!
January 13, 2008
He's a better writer than Ray Bradbury.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews