Last month I decided to reread my Lem collection. Started Solaris yesterday. (I've read it three or four times before.)
Memoirs Found in a Bathtub is one of my favorite books ever. It's Lem's sci-fi retelling of Kafka's The Castle.
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
11 points (100.0% liked)
Literature
5418 readers
1 users here now
Pretty straightforward: books and literature of all stripes can be discussed here.
If you're interested in posting your own writing, formal or informal, check out the Writing community!
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I've never read any of his stuff. Clearly, you'd recommend them. Are they all standalone, and readable in any order?
All standalone. Lem wrote in two styles: half of his books are serious & dense, the other half are lighthearted and a bit absurdist. (Arguably, Douglas Adams got the idea for the improbability drive from a Lem story.)
I think "The Futurological Congress" is a really good starting point. Funny & absurd at times, a little more serious in other sections. If you're looking for more straight "hard SF" then I'd recommend "The Invincible".
I read plenty of hard sci-fi already,so I'd probably go for other half of his writing to start. I love Douglas Adams, so if it's good enough for him it's good enough for me 👍
The story with the improbability generator is in the short story collection "The Cyberiad".
Adams said something to the effect of: I'm certainly aware of that story now, but I wasn't when I wrote HHGTTG, it was a coincidence.
I’ve only read Solaris. Thanks for these.