Eden by Stanisław Lem

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️ Lem is a great writer. Not only are the plots and characters interesting, but his novels are also packed with so much food for thought. People often say that one of Lem’s main concerns is the nature of knowledge, and the search for it, and if you read this book with that in mind, there’s a lot to take away. 

Eden reminded me of The Invincible (by Lem too), in that both stories involve a spaceship landing/crashing on a strange planet and trying to understand what they encounter. But in both cases, the characters inevitably try to make sense of the unknown through their own human paradigms and assumptions, which is precisely where things become so interesting.

The Star Diaries by Stanisław Lem

👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽✊️ A mixed bag as most short story compilations are. I'd say I liked 70% of the stories, so the balance is positive. Ijon Tichy is a space traveller who flies in his rocket to far away planets for work, or leisure. Most of his adventures are fun and interesting, from a science fiction point of view, my favourite being the 2 time travel tales, and a tale about robots. The seventh voyage - Ijon Tichy passes through a time vortex and finds a version of his future self trying to wake him up. After several time vortexes Tichy finds his rocket crowded with future versions of himself. The Eleventh Voyage - Tichy is sent to a planet governed by an evil computer. This planet is inhabited by robots who hate humans. To get there, Tichy has to wear a disguise, a kind of robot costume which is a bit uncomfortable. In addition, the traveller is instructed not to sneeze or cough as that would give himself away. The Twentieth Voyage - Tichy is visited by a future version of himself who asks him to travel to the future to take a job as Teleotelechronistic Historical Engineering to lead projects to regulate the past. 👍

Invincible by Stanisław Lem

 Short but thought-provoking. Philosophical, powerful story telling. Discusses automatons and inanimate evolution: this last idea blew my mind. It means, more or less, evolution of mechanical devices/ of self-organising metal systems. (Pseudo) Brains, non sentient mechanical things. The alien in this novel is one of my favourites not because of what it does but because of what it is. Halfway through the book there is a mindblowing conversation between the commander of spaceship The Invincible and a scientist in which the latter explains his theory about the origin of the alien they find on planet Regis III. This was the big revelation of the book to me and there is not much more in terms of twist, climax or another epic revelation until the end. But it didn't matter because the story was so good I couldn't stop reading. Another interesting point to me was the main character's reflection about the need to defeat and conquer. He couldn't understand why they had to fight the aliens and not leave them alone.

His Master's Voice by Stanisław Lem

How would humanity’s best minds do to decode a message sent from outer space? What would they do with the information they decode? Is it even a message? Lem approaches these questions from a philosophical perspective, exploring existential and cosmological themes with a satirical touch. A bit of a dense read in parts but a novel worth reading if you are interested in first contact, decoding and seeing great minds working (or not) together.

The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem

It starts with a cosmonaut attending a Futurological Congress in a bomb free hotel in Costa Rica. Weird things happen in and outside the hotel. There is man plotting to kill the pope and in another floor a banquet for Literated Literature, attended by degenerate folks. Gases and hallucinations. Police and bombs. The cosmonaut ends up trying to escape the chaos but gets injured. When he wakes up, he is in the future and the world is even weirder than before.

This is a serious satire, with humour and absurdities. Political and social commentary. A philosophical novel raising questions about the nature of reality, technology and the use of drugs. It reminded me of Philip K Dick, as reality becomes a layered puzzle.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (4🌟)

Solaris is a science fiction novel. It is considered a classic of its genre. Originally published in Polish in 1961. It was translated to English by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox.

The story follows Kelvin, a psychologist who arrives at a space station orbiting Solaris. He finds the crew suffering from hallucinations or so he thinks. After one day or so Kelvin is visited by a a woman who resembles his wife. Only his wife has been dead for over a decade.

Throughout the story we see Kelvin's state of mind deteriorate while at the same time he does some research to understand what's going on on the planet. However I do not consider this novel a character study but an exploration of ideas.

This novel not only explores the emotional and psychological effects planet Solaris has on humans but also the strange ocean-like organism which seems to be the only inhabitant of the planet. There is also a fair amount of historical scientific accounts of in situ exploration and theories about the nature of the Solarian ocean. Is it sentient? Is it alive?

My edition is a paperback published by Faber and Faber in 2016. 214 pages.