The Truth and Other Stories (First Edition)

Lem, Stanislaw (author)

ISBN 10: 0262046083 / ISBN 13: 9780262046084

Published by The MIT Press, 2021

About this Item

First edition. First printing (with full number line including 1). Hardbound. Fine in a fine jacket. A clean tight copy, with red dot on lower edge. Comes with archival-quality mylar jacket protector. Smoke-free. Twelve stories by science fiction master Stanislaw Lem, nine of them never before published in English. Of these twelve short stories by science fiction master Stanislaw Lem, only three have previously appeared in English, making this the first book of fiction by Lem since the late 1980s. Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Foreword by Kim Stanley Robinson. Rear Copies.

Seller Inventory # Fiction-Lem

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Truth and Other Stories (First Edition)
• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262046083
• ISBN 13: 9780262046084
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Twelve stories by science fiction master Stanisław Lem, nine of them never before published in English.

Of these twelve short stories by science fiction master Stanisław 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 Lem's 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 insane theories of cosmology or evolution. All are thought provoking and scathingly funny.
 
Written 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 universes--until, 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, matter-destroying 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.

About the Author

Stanisław Lem (1921-2006), a writer called "worthy of the Nobel Prize" by the New York Times, was an internationally renowned author of novels, short stories, literary criticism, and philosophical essays. His books have been translated into forty-four languages and have sold more than thirty million copies.