Lemistry

In this odd but engaging celebration of Polish SF great Stanislaw Lem (1921–2006), the editors have brought together three of Lem’s previously untranslated fictions, ably translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones; 13 short stories written by others in imitation of Lem; and essays by noted critic Andy Sawyer and scientists Steve Furber, Sarah Davies, and Hod Lipson. Among the highlights are Lem’s own “Darkness and Mildew,” in which an elderly man has a dreamlike, chilling interaction with nanotechnology; Sarah Schofield’s “Traces Remain,” which concerns the takeover of a ruined Earth’s moon colonies by their android servants; Ian Watson’s “The Tale of Trurl and the Great TanGent,” a satirical piece about two godlike entities who are hired to get rid of a sentient interstellar cloud of laughing gas; and Trevor Hoyle’s drily witty “The 5-Sigma Certainty,” in which a journalist asks a paranoid Philip K. Dick whether Lem is actually a committee. Lem has never been particularly popular in the U.S., in part for political reasons described in the book’s introduction, but those who love his work will find much to admire. (Feb.)