blog/content/reviews/books/the-cyberiad.md

+++
title = "The Cyberiad - Stanisław Lem"
date = 2018-09-14
updated = 2021-02-12

[taxonomies]
tags = ["books", "stanislaw lem", "reviews", "scifi", "stars:3",
"published:1965"]
+++

[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18194.The_Cyberiad):
A brilliantly funny collection of stories for the next age, from the
celebrated author of Solaris. Ranging from the prophetic to the surreal, these
stories demonstrate Stanislaw Lem's vast talent and remarkable ability to
blend meaning and magic into a wholly entertaining and captivating work.

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{{ stars(stars=3) }}

What would happen if _Isaac Asimov_ and _Douglas Adams_ had a child? Stanislaw
Lem.

Ok, maybe I'm pushing the story a bit too far, 'cause that's the only book
I've read from Lem so far, but the stories in this book really do seem a mix
between what Asimov wrote with the nonsensical humour of Adams.

The book revolves around stories of two "constructors", Trurl and Klaupacius
and their adventures. And I put "constructores" with quotes 'cause, only by
reading the synopsis is that I got that they were robots -- a thing the book
never transpires, in a way that I thought, till now, that they were humans in
a world were robots and humans live along. Good, bad? I can't say it.

While the humour is there -- and I truly appreciate Adams style and reckon the
hard work of the translators -- some pieces get too long and too nonsensical
to be actually funny. It becomes a chore, sometimes, to read very long
paragraphs, with a bunch of weird words (cause there is a bunch of made up
words, like mixing "sarcastic" and "transistor" into a single word).

It's fun overall, but not Adams fun.