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Product Description
Trurl and Klapaucius are the archrival constructor robots, who, ransacking myth, technology and the secrets of cybernetic generation, race to create an invention even more improbable than the last.
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First Sentence
When the Universe was not so out of whack as it is today, and all the stars were lined up in their proper places, so you could easily count them from left to right, or top to bottom, and the larger and bluer ones were set apart, and the smaller, yellowing types pushed off to the corners as bodies of a lower grade, when there was not a speck of dust to be found in outer space, nor any nebular debris-in those good old days it was the custom for constructors, once they had received their Diploma of Perpetual Omnipotence with distinction, to sally forth ofttimes and bring to distant lands the benefit of their expertise. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
When the Universe was not so out of whack as it is today, and all the stars were lined up in their proper places, so you could easily count them from left to right, or top to bottom, and the larger and bluer ones were set apart, and the smaller, yellowing types pushed off to the corners as bodies of a lower grade, when there was not a speck of dust to be found in outer space, nor any nebular debris-in those good old days it was the custom for constructors, once they had received their Diploma of Perpetual Omnipotence with distinction, to sally forth ofttimes and bring to distant lands the benefit of their expertise. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like 'Mortal Engines', this collection of short stories is lovely. If you want to classify the genre, they're... bed-time stories for androids. The Cyberiad is probably the better of the two collections, but it's a close-run thing. The collection starts with the tale of an inventor who creates a machine which can make anything that starts with an 'n'. Everything goes well until a rival tells the machine to do 'nothing' and it starts deleting bits of reality... Futurist fairy tales, every one. Translation from the original Polish has been handled very well. Even the occasional poems still rhyme, and still feature clever puns.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I first read this wonderful book many years ago but reread it recently and enjoyed it even more. It's a collection of short stories set in a distant future (or possibly a distant past) where all the characters are robots and only ancient legends tell of the horrible slimy 'protoplasmic goo' people who came before (i.e. humans). They are comic fairy tales, poking fun at computers, maths and science in general. The two heroes are 'constructors' , 'Trurl' and 'Klapaucius' who can create almost anything, from a machine which composes poetry 'two hundred and twenty, to three hundred and forty seven times better' than the best poets to one which can make anything beginning with the letter 'N'. The stories are all philosophically absurd and very funny as a result! I agree with previous posters that the translation is excellent (particularly on the poetry - I can't imagine what it was like in Polish but it is brilliant in English!) I rather like the story where Trurl constructs an eight-storey thinking machine which refuses to admit that 2 and 2 is not 7. Why does this remind me of work? (I'm a computer programmer!)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
There is no book in my mind that covers the whole of the
universe like this. Humans and machines alike are given
a humorous treatment, during which you will be tickled
pink by Lem's ingenuous twists of imagination, and after
which you no longer can take humans or machines too
seriously. The translation from Polish is a work of art in
its own right - witty, concise, elegant, and fluent.
Lem is a great thinker, and the depth of his writing only
hits one after a few moments. Read this book and let its
gentle humor move you. You'll never regret it.
universe like this. Humans and machines alike are given
a humorous treatment, during which you will be tickled
pink by Lem's ingenuous twists of imagination, and after
which you no longer can take humans or machines too
seriously. The translation from Polish is a work of art in
its own right - witty, concise, elegant, and fluent.
Lem is a great thinker, and the depth of his writing only
hits one after a few moments. Read this book and let its
gentle humor move you. You'll never regret it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
uncommon sci-fi pour the ages
I was relatively surprised when I saw Lem's name popping up around me, and intrigued at the sights of the reviews I bought this book.
I was blown out. Read more
I was blown out. Read more
Published 3 months ago by a_reader
Lord Dunsany meets Futurama
Cosmologist Sean Carroll nominated this as a "lost sc-fi classic" in "New Scientist" magazine last year. Read more
Published 12 months ago by DB
Set phasers to FUN!
Exquisite tales of cybernetic adventurers Klaupacius and Trurl, and their slapstick antics across the galaxies, inventing fantastical machines, beguiling pernicious rogues, and... Read more
Published 24 months ago by H. Coull
Every other reviewer is right about this book
I only bother posting a review if I feel I have something constructive to add. In this case, I think that most of the other reviewers accurately described the book - whether they... Read more
Published 24 months ago by C. Greenaway
First of his books to disappoint
I consider Stanislaw Lem to be one of my favorite SF author (only second to Cordwainer Smith). And it was a slap in the face to (try to) read 'The Cyberiad'. Read more
Published on 16 Nov 2009 by Finn Ekberg Christiansen
Comic tales for the cybernetic age
The blurb on my copy of this book waffles on about the stories being about rival inventors vying with each other to create ever more ludicrous machines to carry out ever more... Read more
Published on 21 Oct 2009 by Blackhorse47
One of the great books
A wonderful book - full of brilliant wit and humour.
It is translated from the original Polish and you will have to read it to realise that the translation is a work of genius... Read more
It is translated from the original Polish and you will have to read it to realise that the translation is a work of genius... Read more
Published on 21 July 2009 by D. Wilson
Entertaining robot stories, both tongue-in-cheek and polemical
A great book by Lem, with his usual, fascinating word-play; reading some of the stories is like having 'jewels in the mouth' (to quote Frank McCourt). Read more
Published on 9 July 2007 by ANON
Slightly mad
What an introduction to Stanislaw Lem, I think anybody's first reaction will be "What the hell is this? Read more
Published on 14 Jun 2005
The work of a genius.
This is the first of Lem's books I have read, it is compulsively readable, you cannot get bored of it. Read more
Published on 8 May 2004 by "at_a_glance666"
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