Memoirs of a space traveler : further reminiscences of Ijon Tichy

"The best science fiction writer working today in any language." -- Newsweek In this widely acclaimed sequel to The Star Diaries, Ijon Tichy, space traveler of future centuries, discovers that "out there" isn't very different from "down here." Especially when he finds a galactic society over which the Plenum Moronicum presides, which appoints as ruler a ruthless Machine; the inhabitants, docilely cooperating in their own destruction, go by the name of Phools. Tichy seems to attract inventors of splenetic genius, such as the madman who has invented the soul, or another who invents kitchen appliances so good at their jobs they might as well be wives or slaves. Throughout these nine wild adventures, surprise follows witty surprise for the discerning reader of riotously imaginative fiction. STANISLAW LEM, who "knows science well enough to be playful about it" (Time), lives in Poland and is the author of books translated into nearly thirty languages, including Tales of Plrx the Pilot and His Master's Voice. ϡ쯦랠 "Ijon Tichy is an ordinary space traveler who always follows his extraordinary curiosity, especially when it leads him to scientists working on the fringes of knowledge. Their plans are grandiose, and the bargains they make too often Faustian, for the ends they pursue concern humanity's greatest obsessions: immortality, artificial intelligence, and consumer goods. By turn philosophical, satirical, and absurd, Lem's stories find Tichy both a participant in and an observer of strange experiments, One scientist has created artificial consciousness in black boxes, fooling machines into thinking they're human; another has created a gelatinous substance that shows disturbing signs of free will; still another has fallen victim to his own doppelganger. But there are triumphs, however temporary. The revolution in laundry brought on by rival manufacturers of intelligent washing machines gives way to chaos as ever more sophisticated machines seduce their owners or turn to crime. Faulty time machines, intergalactic tourists, intelligent (but suicidal) potatoes--Ijon Tichy navigates them all with common sense and resourcefulness and in so doing shows why he endures as one of Lem's most popular characters." -- Publisher The adventures and encounters of Ijon Tichy, tourist of the universe. Tichy reveals that "out there" is not so different from "down here," since people are people everywhere. When not traveling in space, he is a magnet for eccentric unrecognized inventors of spenetic genius, whose spooky experiments are revealed to him with megalomaniacal pride. The expedition I want to write about now was, in its consequences and scale, the greatest of my life.