Stanislaw Lem

[pogopossum]

Lem has perhaps the widest repute and following of any non-English language science fiction author.
Personally Ihave only read a couple of his books, Solaris and Roadside Picnic and those decades ago.
His better known works verge on the philisophical and are widely thought tocomment on human relations and attitudes here.
I do not love his work, but for those who do or who might wonder about where and how he came to his content there is a long article in the current New Yorker issue of 1/17/2022.
Notable are the described influences of his surviving the Holocaust in Poland and the subsequent state regulation in Poland.
LINK

 

[Rodders]

I don't think Roadside Picnic is Lem (It's the Strugatski Brothers).

I haven't seen either of the Solaris adaptations. I have heard that he is a highly regarded science fiction writer and must read one or two of his books. (I want to read more classic SF this year, so perhaps now is the time.)

 

[worldofmutes]

He’s great. Solaris is one of my all time favorites.
I also like his more philosophical dialogue,
Imaginary Magnitude.

 

[AllanR]

I'd put Jules Verne up there for non English sci-fi.... (probably more non sci-fi readers have heard of Verne over Lem)

 

[pogopossum]

I don't think Roadside Picnic is Lem (It's the Strugatski Brothers).

I haven't seen either of the Solaris adaptations. I have heard that he is a highly regarded science fiction writer and must read one or two of his books. (I want to read more classic SF this year, so perhaps now is the time.)

Yup. Shows how many decades ago that I read it. (Also failing memory?) Thanks Rod.

And AllanR. Your comment is true of course. Both for readership and impact. I thought of who might compare with Lem, but did not think of someone who last wrote 116 years ago.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

I've read "Solaris," "Fiasco" (a brutally satirical first-contact novel) and "The Cyberiad" (a collection of silly stories about a pair of dimwitted aliens). Three very different books!

 

[hitmouse]

I recommend the Pirx the Pilot stories. Terriffic fun.

 

[worldofmutes]

Sidenote, I spent several years studying Polish. It’s like a second language to me, and I can understand it rather well. But don’t ask me to recite phrases from memory… ha…
Was in Warszawa in 2018 and might go back within a few years.

 

[Astro Pen]

I recommend the Pirx the Pilot stories. Terriffic fun.

And The Cyberiad

 

[worldofmutes]

I nearly forgot about this one, and one my his greatest works. They made a movie about it.
Hospital of the Transfiguration
A WW2 novel about patients of a sanatarium on the brink of being liquidated and sent to the concentration camps. Truly a great book and movie.

 

[Vertigo]

I read Solaris about 3 years ago and I didn't really find it to be the classic I expected; all seemed a bit muddled to me. Whereas I read Invincible just a week ago and I really quite liked that. A remarkable vision of self evolved technology that is almost nano-tech but thought up in the mid sixties! He looses a couple of prescient points though for still having slide rules on board his starship!

 

[hitmouse]

I read Solaris about 3 years ago and I didn't really find it to be the classic I expected; all seemed a bit muddled to me. Whereas I read Invincible just a week ago and I really quite liked that. A remarkable vision of self evolved technology that is almost nano-tech but thought up in the mid sixties! He looses a couple of prescient points though for still having slide rules on board his starship!

It is interesting to think about. Heinlein had slide rules in lots of his stories. Most people today have never handled one. It takes quite a lot of practise and skill to use one quickly and well. They were something of a badge and a totem of scientific aptitude back in the day, in a way a scientific calculator has never been.
An ideal prop for a brainy SF character.

These lovely pieces of precision equipment go for peanuts on ebay.

 

[Vertigo]

It is interesting to think about. Heinlein had slide rules in lots of his stories. Most people today have never handled one. It takes quite a lot of practise and skill to use one quickly and well. They were something of a badge and a totem of scientific aptitude back in the day, in a way a scientific calculator has never been.
An ideal prop for a brainy SF character.

These lovely pieces of precision equipment go for peanuts on ebay.

Sadly I've long since lost both of mine. I had one 12" one for accurate stuff and a 6" one for handy quick stuff. I think I could even still remember how to do the basic multiplication and division with them. Not so sure about more complex stuff. That such brilliantly simply devices could do such complex stuff always amazed me!

 

[JimC]

I've still got a couple that I bought 60 years ago.