Liverpool University Press Stanislaw LEM: Philosopher of the Future (Liverpool Science Fiction Texts & Studies): 51

Stanislaw Lem: Philosopher of the Future brings a welter of unknown elements of Lem's life, career, and literary legacy to light. Part One traces the context of his cultural influence, telling the story of one of the greatest writers and thinkers of the century. It includes a comprehensive critical overview of Lem's literary and philosophical oeuvre which comprises not only the classics like Solaris, but his untranslated first novels, realistic prose, experimental works, volumes of nonfiction, latter-day metafiction, as well as the final twenty years of polemics and essays. The critical and interpretive Part Two examines a range of Lem's novels with a view to examining the intellectual vistas they open up before us. It focuses on several of Lem's major but less studied books. Game, Set, Lem uses game theory to shed light on his arguably most surreal novel, the Kafkaesque and claustrophobic Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (1961). Betrization Is the Worst Solution...Except for All Others takes a close look at the quasi-utopia of Return From the Stars (1961) and at the concept of ethical cleansing and mandatory de-aggression. Errare Humanum Est focuses on the popular science thriller The Invincible (1964) in the context of evolution. A Beachbook for Intellectuals is a critical fugue on Lem's medical thriller cum crime mystery, The Chain of Chance (1976). Stanislaw Lem: Philosopher of the Future closes with a two-part coda. Fiasco recapitulates and reflects on the literary and cognitive themes of Lem's farewell novel and Happy End of the World! reviews The Blink of an Eye, Lem's farewell book of analyses and prognoses from the cusp of our millennium. Review An indispensable contribution to Lem studies. No critic is ever likely to do a better job of summarizing Lem's entire oeuvre and meting out cognitive justice to this philosopher of the future than Swirski. --Professor Nicholas RuddickA worthy addition to Lem criticism. Divided in three parts, a biographical section, essays on Lem's work and a coda, and featuring eleven photographs, the work offers a panoramic view of Lem's oeuvre and ideas. --The International Review of Science FictionPeter Swirski's book is impressive: it demonstrates a grasp of a very large body of knowledge... Swirski conveys Lem thoroughly yet in the most entertaining way. This marriage of the heavy and the light, the profound and the playful, is a great achievement and mirrors the Polish master. --Michael Kandel, translator of major works of Stanislaw Lem including Fiasco, His Master's Voice, and The Cyberiad About the Author Peter Swirski is Distinguished Professor of American Studies & Literature at Sun Yat-sen University and Professor of American Literature & Culture at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. His books include 'Stanislaw Lem: Selected Letters to Michael Kandel' (LUP, 2014).