PENGUIN-CLASSICS-Best-sci-fi-classics_1262x752_Penguin

Reading lists

Must-read sci-fi classics

Fables for the Cybernetic Age

The Cyberiad

'A giant of twentieth-century science fiction' Guardian 
 
One of the world's most beloved science fiction writers, Stanislaw Lem was famed for his wryly comic, outlandish imaginings of the relationship between humans and technology. In this playful cosmic fantasia, two 'constructors' compete to dream up ever-more ingenious inventions in a universe beyond reality. 
 
'A Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age, who plays with every concept of philosophy and physics' The New York Times

The linguistic inventiveness is extraordinary ... Lem has created a curious world in which robots and rockets rub shoulders with kings, dragons, witches and pirates

Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006) was born in Lviv, then part of Poland. He is probably the most original and influential European science-fiction writer since H.G. Wells. Best known in the West for Tarkovsky's film of his novel Solaris, Lem wrote novels and stories that have been published all over the world. He is credited with anticipating in his writing artificial reality, e-books and nano-technology. His most famous works include The Cyberiad, Mortal Engines, The Star Diaries, The Futurological Congress, Tales of Pirx the Pilot and Solaris.

Stanislaw Lem is perhaps the most original and influential European science-fiction writer of the twentieth century. 
The Cyberiad, one of Lem's most beloved works, follows the exploits of the Trurl and Klapaucius, two ingenious 'constructors'. In their adventures through a strange medieval universe they encounter a machine capable of creating anything that starts with the letter 'N'; kings who oppress their people with parlour games; and PhD pirates who demand ransom in knowledge rather than gold. It is a world where UFOs land silently on lawns at dawn, and where even the stars can be re-arranged for advertising purposes.

Tales of Pirx the Pilot

<a href="https://shop.penguin.co.uk/collections/book-bundles-modern-classics/?&amp;utm_source=Penguin.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=Linked_text&amp;utm_campaign=Penguin_Modern_Classics_Series_26_06">Choose 3 timeless classics for only £21 over on the Penguin Shop</a>

From 'A giant of twentieth-century science fiction' (Guardian), the adventures of Pirx, a hapless everyman in outer space 
 
'By now he fancied himself something of a rocket jockey, a space ace, whose real home was among the planets' 
 
In a future where space travel has become routine and unremarkable, Pirx the pilot bumbles and daydreams his way through the solar system. These endearing tales follow his progress from cadet to captain. But, whether he is wrestling with a misbehaving spacesuit, feeling uncomfortable on a luxury space cruise ship or encountering a mysterious malfunctioning robot on a mission to Mars, the hapless Pirx just can't stop things from going terribly wrong. 
 
Translated by Louis Iribarne

Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006) was born in Lviv, then part of Poland. He is probably the most original and influential European science-fiction writer since H.G. Wells. Best known in the West for Tarkovsky's film of his novel Solaris, Lem wrote novels and stories that have been published all over the world. He is credited with anticipating in his writing artificial reality, e-books and nano-technology. His most famous works include The Cyberiad, Mortal Engines, The Star Diaries, The Futurological Congress, Tales of Pirx the Pilot and Solaris.

Mission: vertical launch at half booster power. Ascent to ellipsis B68. Correction to stable oriental path, with orbital period of four hours and twenty-six minutes. Proceed to rendezvous with shuttlecraft vehicles of the JO-2 type. There await further instructions. 
 
Tales of Pirx the Pilot imagines a world in which space travel has become routine and boring - an unremarkable aspect of the human condition. Pirx graduates through a series of stories from cadet to captain. He is regaled with anecdotes of the glory days, when space travel was dangerous and thrilling. And yet, even as he sits at the controls cursing that his little puzzle toy won't work in zero-gravity conditions or as he makes himself comfy on the luxury space cruise ship Intergalactic, things keep going terribly wrong. As the cyberneticist Professor Taurov sighs: 'We have no choice but to trust to our technology. Without it we would never have set foot on the Moon. But. . . sometimes we have to pay a high price for that trust.'

Fiasco

'There were two kinds of landscape characteristic of the inner planets of the Sun: the purposeful and the desolate.' 
 
The planet Quinta is pocked with ugly mounds and covered by a spiderweb-like network draped from spindly poles. It is a kingdom of phantoms and of a beauty afflicted by madness. The Earth spaceship Hermes arrives on Quinta with the best of intentions towards the humans' 'brothers in intelligence'. But something on the planet has gone terribly wrong...

The Three Electroknights

'What use to a being that lives beneath a sun are jewels of gas and silver stars of ice?' 
 
From a giant of twentieth-century science fiction, these four miniature space epics feature crazy inventors, surreal worlds, robot kings and madcap machines. 
 
Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

The Futurological Congress

'A giant of twentieth-century science fiction' Guardian 
 
'This Room Guaranteed BOMB-FREE. From the Management' 
 
Hapless cosmonaut Ijon Tichy has been sent back to earth to attend the Eighth Futurological Congress in smog-bound, overpopulated Costa Rica, holed up with an assortment of scientists in a luxury hotel (fully equipped with tear gas sprinklers in case things get out of hand). But when an unfortunate incident occurs involving a revolution and hallucinogenic drugs in the water supply, Tichy finds himself shot, frozen and thawed out in a future beyond anything he could ever have imagined.

"This Room Guaranteed BOMB-FREE. From the Management". 
 
Both gruesome and very funny, The Futurological Congress is the story of an ill-fated gathering of scientists who meet in a vast luxury hotel in the smog-bound, chronically over-populated Costa Rica of the future. Caught up in a revolution, the congress ends in a shambles as the authorities try to quell discontent by pouring hallucinogenic drugs into the water-supply. The beleaguered hero, Ijon Tichy (well-known to readers of Lem's The Star Diaries) is shot, frozen and thawed out years later, to find the Earth he had known changed in entirely unexpected ways.

Five BBC radio full-cast dramatisations

Classic Radio Sci-Fi: BBC Drama Collection

Five seminal science fiction classics are brought vividly to life in these gripping BBC Radio dramatisations.

Five seminal science fiction classics are brought vividly to life in these gripping BBC Radio dramatisations, with casts including Robert Glenister, William Gaunt, Carleton Hobbs and Joanne Froggatt. "Frankenstein" (1994) is adapted from one of the first science fiction novels, Mary Shelley's tale of a scientist who tries to play God and creates a monster. "The Time Machine" (2009) dramatises one of the first stories to feature time travel, HG Wells' thrilling tale of an inventor who discovers a dystopian future. "The Lost World" (1975) is based on a classic fantasy adventure story by Arthur Conan Doyle's, whose notion of dinosaurs roaming our world was the inspiration for Jurassic Park. "R.U.R." (1989) is a radio production of Karel Capek's thought-provoking play which introduced the word 'robot' to the English language. "Solaris" (2007) dramatises Stanislaw Lem's pioneering ghost story set in space, both a suspenseful thriller and a philosophical meditation on guilt and the human condition. Accompanying this collection is a bonus PDF file featuring extensive sleeve notes by Andrew Pixley. Duration: 10 hours approx.

Stanislaw Lem

Journey into space with Polish scifi master Stanislaw Lem. The whimsical time-loops of Ijon Tichy’s cosmic adventure ‘The Seventh Voyage’ are reminiscent of Douglas Adams, while the spectral whispers haunting Pirx the Pilot as he navigates his spaceship to Mars in ‘Terminus’, echo the author’s masterpiece Solaris. Then ‘The Mask’ introduces a perfect robot assassin and asks, can AI fall in love or refuse its programming? What if the target of its affections is also its prey?

Stanislaw Lem

Books by Stanislaw Lem

Series by Stanislaw Lem

Classic Radio Sci-Fi9 Books

Penguin Archive90 Books

Articles featuring Stanislaw Lem

Must-read sci-fi classics

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter