The Cyberiad - Stanislaw Lem
The Cyberiad is one of those novels that it's dangerous to do anything but give five glowing stars to. There are people who are avid fans of this book who feel a dark rage if even the slightest hint of imperfection is offered.I adore sci-fi novels. I was recommended this book by friends who also adore sci-fi. So I came into reading this with an appreciation of sci-fi and fantasy. I adore Philip K. Dick. I'm happy with books that are quirky and strange. So this was - theoretically - right up my alley.
The main thought that ran through my head while reading this collection of short stories was that the translator must have been amazing. The book was initially written in Polish, and a great deal of it involves complex word play. There's a six line rhyming poem where all words begin with the letter S. There's all sorts of fascinating descriptions. I would love to read an entire book about the translator and how much he directly translated and how much he had to extrapolate. Surely, for example, the poem couldn't have been directly translated and retained its beauty.
In terms of the book, though, maybe given the other books I've read my bar was simply raised too high. Certainly the book is *fun*. The two main characters have a rivalry and go gallivanting all over the universe to have adventures. But I wouldn't call them sci-fi adventures. They seem quite securely in the fantasy camp. The use of scientifically based words is often quite random and thrown out in piles of gobbly-gook. The two show up on a planet, they do something unseen in a back room, and then they pop out with a perfect solution.
Sometimes you have to wade through an entire page of fairly meaningless word piles to get back to the plot, and I did find that a bit tedious after a while. I enjoy word play but when it has a purpose, like with Douglas Adams, not when it's just noun after noun after noun.
I completely understand how some people see great insight in some of these story lines. There are stories that deal with how we handle pleasure, how we handle stress, how we handle boredom. They're told in a fun way. Still, I think the stories fall short of a glowing level of perfection. They're fun - but they can become meandering. They're fantasy - but there was such amazing potential there for the "science fiction" part that was missed out on. A story can catch you up and then something happens which makes you stop and think, "that makes no sense at all." It seems in many cases that the author wasn't sure how to make something work out logically so he pulled a twist out of a hat and changed the rules. Why use those cheats?
We are certainly not at a loss for fantastic science fiction books out there. There are stacks and stacks of them on our shelves. If we want books that delve into the nature of relationships, into the intricacy of emotions, we have those books. The Cyberiad is fun, but I wouldn't put it in the high perfection category of some of those other books.
Fantasy Book Reviews
Top Selling Books of All Time