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Product Description
Product Description
Very late in the 20th century, the narrator, Tichy, accidentally sets out on a journey of discovery that will peel away successive layers of illusion on a nightmare voyage to the core of reality.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A brilliant novel that is at once hillarious, disturbing, and thought provoking. This book is both philosophy, recalling Plato's parable of the cave, and satire, commenting on our prescription drug-obsessed society, told with Lem's trademark punnery and absurdity. My favorite novel by Lem. Highly, highly recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
My first acquaintance with Lem was via The Cyberiad, which unlike any other non-Lem book had me laughing out loud almost once per page. While The Futurological Congress is also satirical, in that Lem tells the tale with just the right amount of insincerity to make the story credible in its framework, it also takes the genre of "psychological sci-fi" to an extreme. Picture Philip K. Dick to the nth power. I was incredibly amused, bemused, and provoked by this novel and would recommend it to absolutely everyone. (Also any other Lem book.)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Stanislaw Lem is a fascinating writer, preoccupied with the questions of how people perceive reality, and what future the war-like human race has in store for itself. Ijon Tichy, frozen and then defrosted, is thrown into a bizarre world he can barely comprehend; but is it real, a delusion, or is the delusion even aware there might be another delusion beneath? Lem creates a brilliantly observed world, almost recognisable, almost believable, totally unnerving. Tichy is a great guide, bewildered, yet non-judgemental; who in trying to understand, gets closer and closer to the truth of a human race enslaved by itself and its creations. Visionary, and highly unusual.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Found it at last!
I have been searching for this book and another I bought at the same time for years, and it has only just come back in to print. Well worth anybody's time to read! Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr. R. D. P. Lakin
A novel of great ideas
The futurological congress is a think tank for the foremost minds of the age. They meet for a conference against a back drop of a totalitarian government and drugged masses idling... Read more
Published on 1 May 2009 by Blackhorse47
The Futurological Congress
I first read this book about a few years ago and have periodically come back to it over and over again, finding myself never to get bored or irritated (as one review states). Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2009 by Flish
Bleaky Humourous, Disturbingly Prophetic
This 1971 offering from Polish author Stanislaw Lem mixes black humour, absurdism, and social satire brilliantly in a short novel that will make you laugh at times, and make you... Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2008 by Mr. T. Berriman
Profound and at times frightening
Because so many (from Star Trek onwards) have essentially plagiarised (knowingly or unknowingly) many of the ideas in Lem's 1967 seminal work, one can see where all the ideas for... Read more
Published on 18 Jun 2007 by ANON
Plotless and Irritating
Lem may have written some great books, but this is not one of them. It starts with a couple of amusing pages and quickly descends into farce, based on the idea that drugs can alter... Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2003
Five stars is not enough
It is impossible to say how highly i recommend this book . It is by turns exciting, thought provoking and above all funny ; but i think that its constantant questioning of our... Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2000
Very Interesting Idea With Poor Execution
I didn't enjoy this book so much as admire its premise. Luckily, it wasn't too long.
Published on 14 Jun 1999
Pulp Fiction Made Smart
I don't what made me pick this up when I was nineteen, but I've never been the same since. Lem takes some of the hoariest cliches in the genre and rethinks them, never falling... Read more
Published on 2 Sep 1998
One of my favorite sci-fi novels.
This was my introduction to Lem, and in my opinion, nothing else of his quite lives up to it. The seemingly farcical tale turns into an intellectual puzzle before your very eyes. Read more
Published on 12 May 1998
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