Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Mariner Books (2017), Edition: 1, 314 pages
Description
Trurl and Klaupacius are constructor robots who try to out-invent each other. They travel to the far corners of the cosmos to take on freelance problem-solving jobs, with dire consequences for their employers. The most completely successful of his books... here Lem comes closest to inventing a real universe (Boston Globe). Illustrations by Daniel Mr z. Translated by Michael Kandel."
User reviews
LibraryThing member clong
The Cyberiad is quite a change of pace from other books I have read by Stanislaw Lem. It is a lighthearted series of stories, set in a universe populated by robots, telling of the exploits of the two master "constructors" Klapaucius and Trurl, inventive and egotistical robot engineers who build
This translation, by Daniel Mroz, seemed effective at capturing the playful tone of the original. I enjoyed it quite a bit, although it may a book that is best taken in small doses, rather than one you sit down and read cover to cover.
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fantastic machines to solve a variety of needs and challenges (although these machines frequently seem to create bigger problems than they solve). Several of the stories are very funny, and a few a less successful. Some are quite whimsical, others have more the biting tone of a Swift satire. My favorite was the one about a machine that writes poetry on command (e.g., "Let's have a love poem, lyrical, pastoral, and expressed in the language of pure mathematics. Tensor algebra mainly, with a little topology and higher calculus, if need be. But with feeling, you understand, and in the cybernetic spirit"). There is lots of wordplay, strings of made up nonsensical words that play on mathemetical terms, greek mythology, whatever. This translation, by Daniel Mroz, seemed effective at capturing the playful tone of the original. I enjoyed it quite a bit, although it may a book that is best taken in small doses, rather than one you sit down and read cover to cover.
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LibraryThing member littlegeek
Lem is awesome, and I've only read him in English. I can only surmise how many jokes I'm missing. None of the other reviews mention how deep these simple stories become. They touch on the very nature of consciousness, even ruminate on the moral quandaries of God. I love these robot gods, they have
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more soul than some people. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ling.Lass
The Cyberiad is a collection of stories about two inventors and the robots they devise. These robots are whimsical and philosophical in nature, more in the vein of Douglas Adams or Red Dwarf than the hyper humanoid versions seen in Asimov’s tales. The stories are all satirical, used to point out
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the pomposity behind such domains as small town politics, kings and their attendant dignitaries, competition in scholarly publishing, mastery of modern poetry, and the grandiose jargon and metaphor of mathematics. I first read this book over twenty-five years ago, and was pleased to find that these tales of rival constructors maintain their humorous zing in the 21st century. Show Less
LibraryThing member Count_Zero
I'd describe this book as being a sort of Science Fiction take on the Adventures of Baron Munchausen, but with the satire amped up some. This is a fun book which is definitely worth checking out.
LibraryThing member KJC__
It reminds me of the The Phantom Tollbooth.
I loved the mathematical references, especially the poem and the rant Trurl and Klapaucius go on when describing a battle between a theoretical machine they'll build and a king who enjoys hunting.
I can't imagine how hard it was to translate the original
Klapaucius also told a poetry machine Trurl built to write a poem with very specific requirements, precisely he told Trurl to "Have it compose a poem—a poem about a haircut! But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter s!!" To which the machine responded with
Seduced, shaggy Samson snored.
She scissored short. Sorely shorn,
Soon shackled slave, Samson sighed,
Silently scheming,
Sightlessly seeking
Some savage, spectacular suicide.
As I said, it must have been a nightmare to translate.
I loved the mathematical references, especially the poem and the rant Trurl and Klapaucius go on when describing a battle between a theoretical machine they'll build and a king who enjoys hunting.
I can't imagine how hard it was to translate the original
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Polish text into English, since—to say nothing of all the made-upw ords—there was a robot who could create anything into existence, but only if that thing started with the letter N. To challenge this machine Trurl threw at it obscure words starting with N, like "nimbuses, noodles, nuclei, neutrons, naphtha, noses, nymphs, naiads, and natrium."Klapaucius also told a poetry machine Trurl built to write a poem with very specific requirements, precisely he told Trurl to "Have it compose a poem—a poem about a haircut! But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter s!!" To which the machine responded with
Seduced, shaggy Samson snored.
She scissored short. Sorely shorn,
Soon shackled slave, Samson sighed,
Silently scheming,
Sightlessly seeking
Some savage, spectacular suicide.
As I said, it must have been a nightmare to translate.
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LibraryThing member sa54d
A must read for anyone in the library or information science professions. Satirical and highly intelligent, this series of stories covers the theoretical aspects of the work of an "information professional" better than any textbook ever could.
LibraryThing member tronella
Everyone should read this, especially if they are maths geeks, but everyone else should too. It's a series of short stories about these two "constructors" (they make robots and machines), Trurl and Klapaucius. Everyone in this book is a robot, but it's somehow very steampunk. This book is, I
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believe, translated from Polish, and it's a very good translation from what I can tell. It's full of wordplay and mathematical jokes, and it's just really fun to read. Show Less
LibraryThing member pauliharman
An amusing collection of stories, brilliantly translated into English. Similarities to the works of Douglas Adams and Dr Seuss, if you can imagine it... An interesting read overall, but the style (particlarly paragraphs that last several pages) can be a little off-putting at times, and the
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collection loses its punchiness towards the end. Nevertheless, a worthwhile read. Show Less
LibraryThing member SChant
best read in small chunks - it's a bit too whimsical all in one go.
LibraryThing member greeniezona
Let me just start out by saying that I far prefer Lem's novels to his short stories. That said, I loved the higher math & quantum mechanics, probability humor throughout these stories. You probably wouldn't have to be a crazy quantum geek like me to appreciate it, but it would certainly help.
Anyway, these are tales of a pair of constructor robots in a universe of robots and their exploits. They create the perfect generator of poetry, massive computers who can't do math, the perfect "prey" for a safari obsessed king, etc. They "the most advanced civilization" in the universe, after meeting the robot who discovered them (and was promptly beaten up and teleported away).
There are a lot of interesting ideas here, but for those new to Lem, I would recommend starting with Peace on Earth instead.
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;)Anyway, these are tales of a pair of constructor robots in a universe of robots and their exploits. They create the perfect generator of poetry, massive computers who can't do math, the perfect "prey" for a safari obsessed king, etc. They "the most advanced civilization" in the universe, after meeting the robot who discovered them (and was promptly beaten up and teleported away).
There are a lot of interesting ideas here, but for those new to Lem, I would recommend starting with Peace on Earth instead.
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LibraryThing member WilHowitt
Wonderful lighthearted but thoughtful romp through the possibilities of artificial intelligence.
LibraryThing member Schlyne
Read some of these for a college English class that was basically a history of science fiction. Keep in mind that the original author writes all of these in polish and then he has a translator. It is mind blowing how well these are done.
LibraryThing member KateSherrod
Imagine Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo roaming the galaxy at will, enacting vast Platonic thought experiments while exercising nearly godlike creative powers. Toss in a whole lot of whimsy and wordplay and just a dash of dizzying scientific speculation and you might have some idea of what Trurl and
The book is utterly charming.
There is not an overarching narrative per se; rather a series of "sallies" in which the duo enact different fictional tropes and plots, some of them bewilderingly recursive. The irresistible allure of certain fantasy princesses is a common element -- Lem's version of our mechanical descendants do have sex lives -- as is speculating about whether those mushy, gushy, sloppy, gloppy organic things they call "palefaces" created the glorious robot race, the inheritors of the universe, or vice-versa.
It's a lot of great, head-scratchy fun. I would particularly recommend it to fans of Walter Moers' Zamoria books, which Lem surely must have inspired and influenced (and if you haven't read any of those yet, I envy you the treat of experiencing them -- and this -- for the first time. Books like these are why it's fun to be smart!)
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Klapaucius, the weird heroes of Stanislaw Lem's Cyberiad are like.The book is utterly charming.
There is not an overarching narrative per se; rather a series of "sallies" in which the duo enact different fictional tropes and plots, some of them bewilderingly recursive. The irresistible allure of certain fantasy princesses is a common element -- Lem's version of our mechanical descendants do have sex lives -- as is speculating about whether those mushy, gushy, sloppy, gloppy organic things they call "palefaces" created the glorious robot race, the inheritors of the universe, or vice-versa.
It's a lot of great, head-scratchy fun. I would particularly recommend it to fans of Walter Moers' Zamoria books, which Lem surely must have inspired and influenced (and if you haven't read any of those yet, I envy you the treat of experiencing them -- and this -- for the first time. Books like these are why it's fun to be smart!)
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LibraryThing member questbird
A set of nested and interconnected tales of Constructors Trurl and Klapaucius. The stories are told in a fairy-tale or fable-like way but with technical and science-fictional terms and amusing wordplay. There are stories within stories, as in the Arabian Nights. Most of the protagonists are robots.
LibraryThing member antao
(Original Review, 1980)
Some people’s complaint about "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is reminiscent of a friend's complaint about Stanislaw Lem's "Cyberiad: Tales for a Cybernetic Age". He thought it was just a series of disconnected tales that were "everything that sf is ridiculed as
P.S. I should warn that none of the other four books of his I've read have even come close, and most aren't even worth buying (though the intro to "Memoirs Found in a Bathtub" is quite good). If you've been disappointed by his other works, don't let that stop you from reading "Cyberiad".
P.P.S. The story about the electronic bard is probably the best.
[2018 EDIT: This review was written at the time as I was running my own personal BBS server. Much of the language of this and other reviews written in 1980 reflect a very particular kind of language: what I call now in retrospect a “BBS language”.]
Some people’s complaint about "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is reminiscent of a friend's complaint about Stanislaw Lem's "Cyberiad: Tales for a Cybernetic Age". He thought it was just a series of disconnected tales that were "everything that sf is ridiculed as
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being", petty, and demeaning. Then one day I snuck up on him and read him the start of the story on Dragons and Probability, and he burst out laughing. Then he reread the book and enjoyed it immensely. All this is presented for just two reasons: (1) Maybe me friend was looking for too much or something the book was not intended to be (I found the little I've read of it to be rather humorous), and; (2) This seemed like a splendid opportunity to plug a great book. The only book I know of which makes jokes about the Laws of Thermodynamics, computers, robotics, atomic physics, and still is funny and very philosophical politically (Stanislaw Lem is a Polish author whose works are translated into English brilliantly).P.S. I should warn that none of the other four books of his I've read have even come close, and most aren't even worth buying (though the intro to "Memoirs Found in a Bathtub" is quite good). If you've been disappointed by his other works, don't let that stop you from reading "Cyberiad".
P.P.S. The story about the electronic bard is probably the best.
[2018 EDIT: This review was written at the time as I was running my own personal BBS server. Much of the language of this and other reviews written in 1980 reflect a very particular kind of language: what I call now in retrospect a “BBS language”.]
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LibraryThing member stompro
Very Enjoyable, has a sort of fairytale feel to it. The book is about two robotic constructors that can construct anything. The go on various adventures, helping and hindering each other and various kingdoms.
LibraryThing member AliceaP
Now The Cyberiad completely got me back on board the Stanislaw Lem fan train. It was absolutely hysterical. This is a collection of short stories all about the adventures (or rather misadventures) of 2 (in)famous constructors as they make their way across the universe. (These journeys are called
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sallies which is a detail I adore.) Our heroes, Klapaucius and Trurl, are constantly trying to one-up each other not only with their creations but also with their status as constructors and benefactors to the cosmos. These robots are constructed for all kinds of constructive and inane reasons like storytelling, poetry, making war, etc. And the words that Lem makes up! I'm trying to think of a better word than delightful to describe my reading experience but honestly it was a treat to read a bit of this every night before bed. (If you don't laugh at the depiction of 'palefaces' i.e. humans then you have no sense of humor at all.) An absolute 10/10 for me. (And wait til you read the twist. O_O) Show Less
LibraryThing member eldang
I didn't end up finishing this book. For about a third of the way through I found it utterly charming--the old sci-fi clunkiness, cheesy puns and the fairy-tale style--then the second third got more and more repetitive, and then I decided I'd read enough. I'd recommend any one or two of the stories
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in this, but it really didn't have enough ideas to sustain it through the whole collection. Show Less
LibraryThing member NaleagDeco
This is one of the best books I've ever read, encapsulating so much of what I love about speculative fiction and perhaps a highlighting what I miss about the transition into "science fiction" as we currently understand it.
It's hard to talk about this book without giving away its most beautiful
As you can imagine from its name, the book is to be read like the epics of a civilization, possibly a civilization long in the past ... except that in this case, the civilization is that of robots that have spread themselves across space, making this possible a post-human future.
The stories centre themselves around two "constructors", Trurl and Klapaucius. We don't know much about them, except that they seem to to be hardware engineers who can build basically any contraption and they are highly revered.
These characters are not particularly noble, but very few beings in Lem's universe are in our modern sense. Their constructions are flawed, but then the problems being solved are themselves the kind that are probably best not solved with technological approaches.
This book would probably frustrate the reader who expects every word in the fiction to be scientifically feasible; this book is more like Dune, using an envisioned future universe to explore the humanity of today rather than exploring the ins and outs of some technology in detail. But that's the fascinating bit ... what if a post-human culture was so advanced compared to us that it didn't really know how it spread across galaxies? What if our future was so ancient to them that it could only be expressed in myth? What would the myths of mechanical successors to humans be like?
I cannot tell if it was purposeful or not, but there's something about Trul and Klapaucius's non-hero antics and personality that I enjoy from a software developer point of view, even though I'd argue they are more hardware engineers. It evokes something that feels to me (admittedly someone who never lived it) like the tales of computing during the 60s and 70s. I wonder how a TV series of this book would, if presented properly, compare to the mythologies we watch in the form of "Silicon Valley" and "Halt and Catch Fire". Would we find similarities in the characters?
If you're the kind of person who likes Dune, or you're the kind of person who really enjoyed the Simillarion, or you're the kind of person who reads the epics of Gilgamesh and/or Homer or I don't know enjoys the bible or other religious texts as a narrative of a people, I highly highly highly recommend this book.
Kudos to the translator for making the english version as full of life and wit as the Polish version must have been; I cannot imagine that having taken anything but a lot of work and care.
It's hard to talk about this book without giving away its most beautiful
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moments, for Stanislaw Lem has written a book which unwraps itself with most beautiful coordination.As you can imagine from its name, the book is to be read like the epics of a civilization, possibly a civilization long in the past ... except that in this case, the civilization is that of robots that have spread themselves across space, making this possible a post-human future.
The stories centre themselves around two "constructors", Trurl and Klapaucius. We don't know much about them, except that they seem to to be hardware engineers who can build basically any contraption and they are highly revered.
These characters are not particularly noble, but very few beings in Lem's universe are in our modern sense. Their constructions are flawed, but then the problems being solved are themselves the kind that are probably best not solved with technological approaches.
This book would probably frustrate the reader who expects every word in the fiction to be scientifically feasible; this book is more like Dune, using an envisioned future universe to explore the humanity of today rather than exploring the ins and outs of some technology in detail. But that's the fascinating bit ... what if a post-human culture was so advanced compared to us that it didn't really know how it spread across galaxies? What if our future was so ancient to them that it could only be expressed in myth? What would the myths of mechanical successors to humans be like?
I cannot tell if it was purposeful or not, but there's something about Trul and Klapaucius's non-hero antics and personality that I enjoy from a software developer point of view, even though I'd argue they are more hardware engineers. It evokes something that feels to me (admittedly someone who never lived it) like the tales of computing during the 60s and 70s. I wonder how a TV series of this book would, if presented properly, compare to the mythologies we watch in the form of "Silicon Valley" and "Halt and Catch Fire". Would we find similarities in the characters?
If you're the kind of person who likes Dune, or you're the kind of person who really enjoyed the Simillarion, or you're the kind of person who reads the epics of Gilgamesh and/or Homer or I don't know enjoys the bible or other religious texts as a narrative of a people, I highly highly highly recommend this book.
Kudos to the translator for making the english version as full of life and wit as the Polish version must have been; I cannot imagine that having taken anything but a lot of work and care.
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LibraryThing member Paul_S
Very silly in the cleverest way possible. The word play is at a level I wasn't aware was possible in Polish. I pity all the translators, that must've taken years to translate.
The stories are more about philosophical allegories than futuristic visions like pilot pirx. I loved the nested stories and
The stories are more about philosophical allegories than futuristic visions like pilot pirx. I loved the nested stories and
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the returning themes of happiness and world design. And basically everything else. Show Less
LibraryThing member GridCube
Wow, this book. This book is great. The stories within are imaginative and bizarre, they are fun and captivating, and they are hard and complex to follow.
I loved it.
I loved it.
LibraryThing member hailelib
This book may not be for everyone but by reading it in small doses I enjoyed most of the stories. But there were a few places that I found myself skimming rather than reading all the made up technical terms used by Trurl and his friend Klapaucius. The two constructors traveled the cosmos taking on
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various jobs and often getting into trouble before finding a solution to their problems. I doubt that I would ever reread it but I might try another of Lem's books at some point. Show Less
LibraryThing member VoodooYeager
A very interesting take on folklore and fables. I am a avid reader of fables, folklore, and myths and this was something completely out of left park. I loved it. It was so different that the run-of-the-mill storytelling. I enjoyed that the author used cybernetic robots and AI characters as the main
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characters to tell stories of the creation of a universe where robots were the "Creators" and we were just meat-sacks. Only issue is that he used a LOT of mathematics and algorithms in his descriptions and story-telling, but once you got the hang of the rhythm, it flowed very nicely. Show Less
LibraryThing member automatthias
It starts off as a series of cute and amusing stories featuring ridiculously human robots. But soon, you realize you're reading and thinking, what is happiness?
When you progress through the book, stories become longer and more involved.
I really like the tension between Trurl and Klapaucius, who are
When you progress through the book, stories become longer and more involved.
I really like the tension between Trurl and Klapaucius, who are
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both brilliant constructors and friends, but who compete against each other. Show Less
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Awards
Language
Original publication date
1965