Imaginary Magnitude [Paperback]

Stanislaw Lem (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Harcourt Brace, NY; First Edition Thus edition (1984)
• ASIN: B001DJSUZ4
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Stanislaw Lem is the most widely translated and best known science fiction author writing outside of the English language. Winner of the Kafka Prize, he is a contributor to many magazines, including the New Yorker, and he is the author of numerous works, including Solaris.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars As amusing as it is thought-provoking, September 4, 1998

By 

Jeffrey S. Bennion "Professional dilettante" (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Imaginary Magnitude (Paperback)

This book was my introduction to Stanislaw Lem, which is ironic, because this is a book consisting only of introductions of other (imaginary) books. I found it completely by accident on the bargain rack, and I don't know why I bought it. But I did, and I'm certainly glad. When I started reading him, I said to myself, "What *is* this?" and found it all very bizarre. But Lem is one of those rare writers who makes you feel smarter just for having read him. For all that, this book is not only fascinating, but surprisingly funny at times. (How do you write an introduction to a book of introductions?) And for being so fanciful, Lem's discussions are surprisingly relevant.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LEM: CAPTAIN OF SCIENCE FICTION, March 2, 2006

By 

Alex Kroll (Port Chester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Imaginary Magnitude (Hardcover)

"Imaginary Magnitudes" is a forceful, blackly humorous introduction to the irreducible mystery that powers Stanislaw Lem's work. Composed of introductions to works of non-fiction and literature to appear sometime in the coming century, one can only marvel at the breadth of imagination involved as well as the smoothness and cleverness of the translation from the Polish. The lectures of GOLEM XIV are the diadem of this collection, adumbrating most of the earlier prefaces in one vast, misanthropic razz of humankind by a very advanced (but still very humanlike), very disillusioned defense-management computer -- sort of a HAL9000 without the homicidal (or genocidal) impulse. I never have a copy of this book because I always give it away to people -- it is that good. Like most of Lem's work, it is where literature and SF become indistinguishable. Lem ranks with Clarke, Asimov, Herbert and Dick in the SF pantheon.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very nice Lem showcase, May 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Imaginary Magnitude (Paperback)

Though it wasn't the most entertaining book of Lem's, it definitely gives the best span of his talents of any that I've yet read. We get the simply goofy in the first couple bits, and the hard-core philosophical in the GOLEM lectures. This is an excellent survey of Lem's talent, but the individual parts are not his best. The humorous bits are certainly not "Cyberiad" or "Star Diaries" quality, but they are good nonetheless. The GOLEM stuff is a bit dry, but very intruiging. Overall quite good stuff, so it gets 4 stars. Mediocre Lem though.