I see it's a short book, but Goodreads is displaying "short stories" in the genres tag Is this a collection of short stories, or is it a single novel? Ryan Dash It's a collection of short stories, though they all feature the same main character. Each is self-contained.
See 1 question about The Star Diaries…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. The Star Diaries , a series of interplanetary adventures ranging in size from mere vignette to long novella, was written over a period of twenty years, and therefore--no surprise!
Although these stories are remarkably original, they also show a clear progression of influences. The Star Diaries contains excellent examples of each type of story. If you love science fiction, you must read this book. It is a classic of the genre, crowded with invention and full of ideas.
View all 4 comments. Sep 24, Glenn Russell added it. Are we talking here about another Flash Gordon or Hans Solo? Ijon is more like your prototypical college math instructor with his skinny tie, wrinkled shirt, corduroy pants, scuffed up loafers and nerd eyeglasses held together by tape. But, it must be admitted, Ijon Tichy keeps a level head as he deals with a string of challenges bizarre and Borges-like. The Star Diaries recounts a dozen separate kooky, bugged out, way-out voyages of our undaunted explorer.
That night, while asleep, a slightly familiar looking man shakes Ijon and demands he get out of bed and join him in repairing the rocket. Ijon knows he's flying solo and tells the intruder he's nothing more than a dream.
The next morning Ijon consults textbooks and maps to calculate his present location since his damaged rocket has veered off course. Looks like he could be ensnared in a heap of trouble - he's in a mysterious gravitational vortex with incalculable relativistic effects.
A misty human shape cooking an omelet appears at the stove in his kitchen and just as quickly vanishes. Mystified, Ijon consults another book on the General Theory of Relativity that explains how in certain gravitational vortices there can be a complete reversal of time causing a duplication of the present. Following a trip to the engine room to produce a slight change in the rocket's direction, Ijon returns only to see himself asleep in bed.
His Monday self gruffly informs him that he is only a dream. The time loop expands over the next fourteen pages in ways of duplication and multiplication only Stanislaw Lem could imagine apologies to Jorges Luis Borges but with this fictional doozy Lem outpaces the Argentine man of letters.
One of the most zany, convoluted and imaginative tales a reader will ever encounter. A true psychic quantum leap! The ingenious professor will quickly put a number of psychiatrists and counselors out of business. Men and women will be able to live in the present without having to rehash all those times when they were slapped around by an abusive parent or picked on by the schoolyard bully or traumatized in a war zone or a thousand other painful experiences.
Our stupendous astrozoologist invents a time machine Ijon can take on his next voyage to planet Amauropia. Along the way beyond the Milky Way, explorer Tichy encounters the Gypsonians who roam around the cosmos ever since they destroyed their own planet by continuous strip mining, turning the entire surface into one vast pit. I Tichy to the rescue! Ijon obtains a secondhand moon, fixes it up and, thanks to his stellar connections no pun intended , upgrades it to the status of a planet.
The Gypsonians are elated but it remains to be seen if they learned their lesson about greed and natural resources. Once on Amauropia Ijon encounters a race of Microcephalids crawling around on all fours. Using his time machine, Ijon propels their evolution to tool using hunter gatherers and then to agrarian civilization. Of course, accelerated evolution contains both pros and cons - the Microcephalds alternately worship Ijon and send him off to be tortured.
Ah, civilized society! At one point Ijon escapes and begins preaching love and universal brotherhood. Not long thereafter, a cult forms around his teachings. Predictably, the king and his royal court despise Ijon's revolutionary ideas and demand his Earthly blood. By the skin of his astronomical teeth, Ijon blasts off, leaving the planet far behind but his time on Amauropia provides Stanislaw Lem oodles of opportunities to make piquant philosophical observations about the universal tendencies of politics and religion, war and peace, customs and ideologies.
As an elderly Pantan pontificates,"we have completely eliminated individuality on behalf of the society. On our planet there are no entities - only the collective. Ijon asks more questions and the elderly one is more than happy to provide answers, even how on his planet the reality of death has been transcended via the absence of individual identity. I'm sure you sense Stanislaw Lem poking a long, sharp satirical needle at the prevailing s Communist states.
Ijon is present as a room filled with wise, peace-loving alien life forms from all over the cosmos debate if humans from planet Earth should be admitted to the solar assembly. After once speaker portrays homo sapiens as a species of monsters wallowing in an ocean of blood - massacres, wars, pogroms, crusades, genocide, torture - looks like the vote might be a mighty "NO.
All look toward Ijon Tichy. Can our outer orbit Odysseus come through for us? All written with a light, comical touch. Thanks, Stanislaw. Stanislaw Lem, View all 8 comments. I need to reread this to review the book properly, but I know I liked it a lot, and even made a view spoiler [Tichy family tree hide spoiler ] out of one story, just for fun.
Since I read it first in Finnish, the English reading experience will no doubt feel different : I need to reread this to review the book properly, but I know I liked it a lot, and even made a view spoiler [Tichy family tree hide spoiler ] out of one story, just for fun. Since I read it first in Finnish, the English reading experience will no doubt feel different Aug 29, Susan Budd rated it really liked it Shelves: polish-literature. Stanislaw Lem is an author I should have discovered decades ago.
Then last year I discovered Lem and he single-handedly renewed my interest in sci-fi. The others are in orde Stanislaw Lem is an author I should have discovered decades ago. The Futurological Congress and Solaris are absolute genius.
Eden is interesting as a prototype of Solaris. Return From the Stars , like The Futurological Congress , describes a futuristic Earth, but without the satirical word-play and absurdity that made The Futurological Congress such fun. It had its moments, but overall it was my least favorite. Although the theme of the alien from Solaris and Eden is present in The Star Diaries , the aliens in these stories are not truly alien to the reader. Like much sci-fi, the aliens encountered by Tichy are all-too-human once you get past their odd shapes and peculiar appendages.
Instead, these stories are written in the witty style of The Futurological Congress. This is the first story in the book, and the funniest. This story also includes a lesson in human evolution very different from the one we learned here on Earth. I liked the concept, but the story was not one of his best. But this story, unlike those, delves into philosophy as Tichy meets a people who have completely rejected individuality.
I like Lem best when he is philosophical and this story resembles the Teletransporter thought experiment in philosophy. Tichy goes to the future to fix the past. What could possibly go wrong with that? A missionary brings religion to an alien world, only to find his congregation all too eager to practice what he preached.
It is like the Teletransporter from the thought experiment, or more familiarly, the transporter from Star Trek. Tichy was persuaded to give it a try.
This story lampoons physicalists, semanticists, neopositivists, Thomists, and neo-Kantians alike. What could be better than that? View all 5 comments. Also available on the WondrousBooks blog. What a fantastic book! One of the best ones that I have read this year!!! If you have not read it, and I assume that is the situation, I highly recommend it! Feb 03, L. Popovich rated it liked it Shelves: 3-star , , science-fiction , poland , audiobook-greats. I totally got this mixed up with memoirs Found in a Bathtub when I first posted my review.
Only happened because I listened to the audiobook. Which form I recommend for this. Lem's comedic sensibility is occasionally reminiscent of the Strugatsky's. In this well-framed, light-hearted set of tales, the wordplay and quirky charm are ever-present, though some gags and concepts overstay their welcome.
I preferred the couple other mind-altering books I've thus far read by the Polish s-f master thus fa I totally got this mixed up with memoirs Found in a Bathtub when I first posted my review.
I preferred the couple other mind-altering books I've thus far read by the Polish s-f master thus far. There is an old fashioned Golden Age feel to many of the scenarios he describes. For a few of the Easter eggs, you'll want to pay attention - for instance, fixing a rudder on a spaceship.
A rudder. It took me till half-way through the story to get it. Lem's framing device allows for many liberties to be taken with science in the pursuit of humor. Lem is always clever, and works in time travel scenarios like a pro. Far-fetched in the extreme, but his satirical schemes are always relatable.
I am still figuring out what gives Lem's work that timeless quality. More so than the Strugatsky's or even Heinlein, Lem seems to rise above his own time, and to speculate in logical ways. View 2 comments. Jan 31, Jamie rated it liked it. Some of these stories I found wonderfully amusing and inventive, many being absurdist satire of government, religion and human ineptitude in general.
Yet, while all have amusing and ridiculous premises, the longer stories in particular felt like a fire hose of wit and absurdity coupled with ceaseless speculation on philosophy, science, etc and endless diversions that became fatiguing and difficult to keep straight.
These are probably best digested in small bites, rather than consumed all at once Some of these stories I found wonderfully amusing and inventive, many being absurdist satire of government, religion and human ineptitude in general.
These are probably best digested in small bites, rather than consumed all at once as I did. While enjoyable on the whole, I've had better success with Lem's longer works, particularly Solaris and The Invincible.
Feb 01, Charles Dee Mitchell rated it really liked it Shelves: mid-century-sf. When I put it down, I felt like I had over-indulged at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Tichy is a freelance space explorer who takes his rundown spaceship out of storage whenever the mood for adventure hits him. Usually he is intrigued by reports of some far distant galaxy, but along the way he is frequently blown off course and finds himself in comically dire straits with aliens who may celebrate his arrival or toss him jail or both.
TIchy is dragged into the 27th century to work on cleaning up history. This is a vast, bureaucratic enterprise where the punishment for screwing things up is to be stranded in the past. B Most things work out. On one planet, Tichy encounters a civilization facing a serious problem of rising ocean levels.
The government solution is that people learn to breath underwater. A scientist explains to Tichy The upshot was…that what was to be controlled, controlled us. No one, however, would admit this, and of course the next logical step was the declaration that things were exactly the way they ought to be.
The published diaries are the recovered fragments of a larger work. In this book there are twelve voyages with numbers ranging from seven to twenty-eight. The numerical order does not reflect the order in which Lem wrote them. When looked at chronologically, you see Lem moving from knockabout space comedy, to more pointed satire, to philosophical speculation. The last-written and longest story, Voyage Twenty-One, is almost entirely a philosophical discussion between Tichy and a priest on a planet where things have gone horribly wrong.
I confess I never made it through this one, but skipping to the end I found that Lem finished his tales on a serious down note. View all 3 comments. This was good fun. I read "Solaris", saw the two versions of the movie, one Russian and the other, American starring Mr. My impression based on that was that he was serious, very philosophical and very trippy as well.
This book was initially unexpected as it was very humorous, but yet, it had all the elements mentioned about Solaris. It is a different type satirical humour than that of Vonnagut Jr. This book was equally smart, clever, very funny and introspective all at once This was good fun. This book was equally smart, clever, very funny and introspective all at once.
I didn't enjoy it as much as expected. Maybe I read it too late. Maybe what was original, witty, creative and imaginative at the time of the book's writing is now part of your ordinary modern sci-fi menu.
Most of them are meant to be comical and satirize prevalent sci-fi tropes like time travel. Despi I didn't enjoy it as much as expected. Despite his undeniable wit, I think comedy is not Lem's strongest point and the best story in the book is the 21st Voyage, where he's more serious and you get a lot of truly interesting theological and ethical speculation. The Star Diaries really defy comparison with anything I have read before.
Although the dry humor I expect from Eastern European fiction is there, the story lines and philosophical wanderings are idiosyncratic in the extreme. Lem's diarist Ijon Tichy is a starship pilot, galactic explorer and self-styled diplomat whose adventures around the universe lead him into frequent philosophical and religious discussions and even more frequent menace to his strange-by-comparison-to-aliens earthling body, me The Star Diaries really defy comparison with anything I have read before.
Lem's diarist Ijon Tichy is a starship pilot, galactic explorer and self-styled diplomat whose adventures around the universe lead him into frequent philosophical and religious discussions and even more frequent menace to his strange-by-comparison-to-aliens earthling body, menace mostly avoided by laying low and making quick exits.
Tichy is no starship trooper. His various voyages range from the prosaic to the profound. In one he loses a penknife and can't find his way back to the planet where he lost it thanks to an appallingly disorganized planetary system. In another, he visits monks still preserving their faith in a world where the lines between organic and inorganic, mechanical and natural have been utterly obliterated as in the "furniture grove" where armchairs and desks are grown from specially designed seed.
On yet another voyage, Tichy directs a bungling future bureaucracy charged with improving earth history by traveling into its past and inadvertently causes natural and human disasters from the extinction of the dinosaurs to the Spanish Inquisition. The book is illustrated with Lem's simple sketches of some of the stranger body shapes and technological gadgets of the future. Although some of the stories tend to get a little wordy, the themes are still shockingly fresh, an amazing accomplishment for science fiction written in Lem's very best stories feature time travel and Ijon Tichy's best moments come when he fights with his own self, literally, in the flesh, caught in a time loop.
After all, aren't we all our own worst enemies? I had seen "Solaris" waaay back in college I think. Beautiful, but slowly paced, and this was a time that I slept through bits of a lot of movies. So I was thinking that this series of "journeys" of Ijon Tichy written by the author of Solaris which I haven't read would be serious and dry. I was right and wrong. The subject matter of spaceship navigator Tichy's voyages are plenty serious and related with the driest of humor.
Many of the convolutions of time and space involve Tichy, full well kno I had seen "Solaris" waaay back in college I think.
Many of the convolutions of time and space involve Tichy, full well knowing the consequences or potential result, punching his future or past self in the nose. His encounters with different societies explore the extremes of philosophy and religion, particularly Christianity.
His view of earth society as seen from an alien perspective is very funny though also pessimistic. What a foolish bunch we are: in shape, in cultural practices, in evolution, in government, in thought. Kind of makes me want to read Douglas Adams or Vonnegut. Mar 08, Chris Fellows rated it it was amazing. Before Arthur Dent, there was Ijon Tichy. Before our civilisation disappeared into its own navel, there were the Dichoticans.
And before we started to prattle about 'Singularities' the robot monks of Dichotica had already looked unflinchingly into that abyss. Before we ceased to create science fiction, there was this book showing us the sort of thing we could be creating instead. Dec 31, Myk rated it it was ok Shelves: couldn-t-finish. I have decided that I can't finish this book, I got about half-way through. Though it is slightly funny, the science is just wrong and it bugs me to much. It is broken up into twelve voyages that have nothing to do with each other and I don't care what happens.
View 1 comment. More titles may be available to you. Sign in to see the full collection. Ijon Tichy, Lem's Candide of the Cosmos, encounters bizarre civilizations and creatures in space that serve to satirize science, the rational mind, theology, and other icons of human pride. Line drawings by the Author. Translated by Michael Kandel. Fiction Science Fiction Short Stories.
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