Description
Of these twelve short stories by science fiction master Stanislaw Lem only three have previously appeared in English making this the first new book of fiction by Lem since the late 1980s The stories display the full range of Lems intense curiosity about scientific ideas as well as his sardonic approach to human nature presenting as multifarious a collection of mad scientists as any reader could wish for Many of these stories feature artificial intelligences or artificial life forms long a Lem preoccupation some feature quite bizarre theories of cosmology or evolution All are thought provoking and scathingly funnyWritten from 1956 to 1993 the stories are arranged in chronological order In the title story The Truth a scientist in an insane asylum theorizes that the sun is alive The Journal appears to be an account by an omnipotent being describing the creation of infinite universesuntil in a classic Lem twist it turns out to be no such thing in An Enigma beings debate whether offspring can be created without advanced degrees and design templates Other stories feature a computer that can predict the future by 137 seconds matterdestroying spores a hunt in which the prey is a robot and an electronic brain eager to go on the lam These stories are peak Lem exploring ideas and themes that resonate throughout his writing
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