I grew up with Lem's works as a kid, teenager and young adult in West Germany in the 80's. Lem spoke German so he was involved with the translations and there wasn't anything he wrote that didn't get translated to German. Not least because East Germany, together with Poland, was part of the Soviet block.

I read 'Eden' when I was in 3rd grade -- my dad left it laying on the table in our living room. It had the world 'alien' as part of the subtitle so I was hooked.

When my dad found out, about a year later, that I read and grokked the book he read my three years younger brother and me the 'The Invincible' as a bedtime story over many nights. My poor little brother. :)

I think it was 'Eden' that thus set the standard for my expectations of sci-fi (aka: hard sci-fi).

It was probably also the reason that I am forever disappointed by the pale vision of blockbuster and series sci-fi. Or most sci-fi in general, written or filmed.

And I often have deja-vus when I read contemporary sci-fi because of my exposure to Lem. When I e.g. read Watt's 'Blindsight' I couldn't help comparing it to Lem's 'Fiasko'.

I never understood the public's focus on 'Solaris' and even less how both movies missed the core theme of the book so badly.

And lastly: there is unfortunately a substantial body of shorter works from Lem that has still not been translated to English.

Stanislaw Lem is one of my favorite authors. "His Masters Voice" is one of my favorite books.

"Cyberiad" and "Mortal Engines" are also great books but much more playful and probably geared towards a younger audience, even if some of the subject matter is philosophically deep.

I think Stanislaw Lem kind of suffered from the same fate as Gibson's work in that there have been a few attempts at making them into movies but they haven't ever really took off or translated well.

I do wish his books were in the public domain, though.

I got a 404, so I did a quick Google search. This seems to be the article in question —> https://onezero.medium.com/the-case-for-stanislaw-lem-one-of...

I am excited to read it. I just finished reading Solaris for the first time, and it was mind-changing. I highly recommend it to any of you who haven’t read it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(novel)

Lem was a brilliant writer and I’d recommend his books to anyone, not just science fiction fans.

The author of this article seems to have an ideological axe to grind though. Lem himself was never so humorless and hamfisted. In fact his books are often very funny.

I wish Janusz Zajdel had more recognition abroad. I believe only a few of his works were ever translated to English and you can draw interesting parallels between them and Lem's books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Zajdel

Stanislaw Lem is a brilliant writer. It is unfortunate that the article tells about him through the lens of the Golden Age and modern progressive views, which hardly relate to him.

As many other authors behind the Iron Curtain, he was largely isolated from the contemporary Western cultural influence. His biography and the vibrant Polish surrealism scene would give a much better background.

One of Lem's translators, Michael Kandel, wrote a few good books of his own. I really liked _Strange Invasion_ and _Panda Ray_.

"Summa Technologiae" is also quite excellent and incredibly prophetic.

Lem's Ijon Tichy stories are surprisingly funny. He has a reputation for seriousness (because of "Solaris", I assume), but they're among the funniest sci-fi stories I've ever read.

I am a huge fan of Lem and it is good to see these books are getting new translations and editions. I also like the cool 50s sci fi covers.

But something is really annoying me -- why did they spell the name of the author in Polish? You have to decide whether the book is in English or Polish and if you have an English book you should have an English cover, otherwise you are just going to confuse your customers. If you print the largest writing on the cover in Polish a lot of people looking at the cover will quite understandably think the entire book is in Polish.

I know the Polish has a cool looking L and all but that is not sufficient to cause confusion.

Also the guy deserves to have his name correctly pronounced by people who read him, as much as practical for people with a foreign language, and the Polish W is pronounced as a V. Thus, for an English speaker it is better to just write Stanislav.

I love Stanislaw Lem's work. I particularly enjoyed Futurological Congress. It was so absurd but I loved how it explored how it is never possible to be 100% sure that what you are experience is "real". The trippiness of all of the drugs and absurd situations was hilarious. Highly recommend.

Good selection. 'Return from the Stars' is more relevant today than it was when it was written. Its a story about sociocultural evolution and Lem clearly has a deep insight.

(the book has tablet computers and e-paper too).

Among film adaptations of Lem’s works I like “Inquest of Pilot Pirx” from 1979 the best. It is rather off from the story, but at least it portrayed Pirx close to how I imagined him.

Off topic:

>he was was in peak form during the ’60s and ’70s

Is this usage correct? Or is the second “was” a typo?

I am not a native English speaker so forgive if this is something very basic.

Another interesting read: Memoirs Found in a Bathtub.

It’s a bit dark, but a fun jump down the post apocalyptic bureaucratic wormhole where everyone is spying on everyone and nothing is safe.

For fans of crime/detective novels, I would not hesitate to recommend 'The Chain of Chance'.

Utterly gripping, fascinating, and a gateway to Lem's sci-fi works.

Lem was a great author of real imaginative fiction. His novels shaped my world view more than any other SF author. I hope more of his stuff gets republished.

As long as they don't make a machine that can make anything, provided it starts with the letter "N", I'm all for it.

I absolutely love Lem. He is a giant in my eyes. Very nice to know that MIT has decided to reprint some of his work.

Lem explains “the human problem”