Customer Reviews

Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My understanding is that the three books featuring space traveller Ijon Tichy were originally published in Polish in a single volume (THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS, THE STAR DIARIES, and MEMOIRS OF A SPACE TRAVELLER). If so, I would insist that that has to be one of the ten greatest science fiction books ever published. The highpoint of the Tichy tales is THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS, which is published as a separate book in English, but the stories in THE STAR DIARIES are very nearly as good (the remnants were published in the MEMOIRS). Essential reading. They come across as some demonic blend of Italo Calvino, Escher, and Groucho Marx. Most sci-fi writing is deeply derivative from previous writers, but Stanislaw Lem is possibly the most original sci-fi writer of the past forty years. I am one of those who believe that Lem should have received serious consideration for a Nobel Prize.

The best book from Ijon Tichy series. The set of stories is the best I read from this series. The stories, written in various years, show how diverse Lem is. Some of the themes he touches here are very serious, e.g.planet with the 'water cult', planet with 'no identity' people, religious monk/robots, etc. Some are masterpieces of sci-fi humor (multiplication of Tichy on the ship is just the best), some are just a simple fun (twentieth voyage with the attempt to fix the past from the future with the outcome that anything significant that happened to the human race is because of mistakes in trying to fix the history). Highly recommended to anyone (not only sci-fi fans). And by the way - it is totally different from 'Solaris'.

If you like Lem, this is one of his best. It's not really science fiction, it's the discharge of neurons in a fireworks display.

joe missed the point of this one. Since when are Lem's stories plot-driven? Some books even lack a story line altogether (which, of course, does not lessen their impact). The 20th Voyage is a wonderful satire on the scientific endeavor and mistaken human superiority and is very carefully constructed - it takes a few reading to realize that the time loop makes perfect sense and actually says a bit about the future of humanity. These stories aren't brain candy but rather sophisticated. Therefore, don't expect a thrill-rides, but idea-driven tales.

"The Star Diaries" cannot be easily classified, probably because of its varied content. In any case, this isn't science fiction. This is philosophical satire, although it isn't clear what precisely it satirizes. The theme isn't consistent. The book is intended as a recollection of a spacefarer's unbelievable journeys, with each story being a separate adventure. Each is numbered, but the enumeration contains gaps, and, in any case, the numerical order isn't the chronological (the chronological order is 22, 23, 25, 11, 12, 13, 14, 7, 8, 28, 20, 21).

If one does read the stories in the chronological order, a certain evolution becomes clear: the earlier stories are light-hearted social satire with Ijon Tichy as the book's extremely close-minded but nevertheless courteous and polite hero romping about on alien planets ("Due to the retardation of the passage of time, my sneeze lasted five days and five nights, and when Tarantoga again opened the little door, he found me nearly unconscious with exhaustion", 12th Journey); but with each new journey the reader is bound to notice that the backgrounds begin to become more and more Earthlike, the cheerful pseudo-sci-fi camouflage is dropped, and Ijon himself becomes a convention designed to deliver the plot's message. Some of these later journeys begin to drag quite impressively (20 bored me to tears - especially when I realized that it's a direct copy of a shorter story in the "Further Reminiscences"), but from time to time deliver an incredibly potent message (13 and 21 being the most prominent examples - both dealing with personal freedoms).

Of the earlier romps, 7 (a multiple time loop causes Ijon to live and re-live every part in a scandal over who should go and repair the rudder), 12 (Ijon is stranded on Amauropia with a time machine, and, by speeding up the evolution of a race of local cave people, is forced to live through all the tribulation a tribe, a feudal kingdom, a theocracy, a Republic, and a militaristic regime can offer), and 14 (Ijon tours a planet whose high-tech amoeboid natives have a titanic taboo centered about the concept of "scrupts") seem to be the most fun.

The faults? As I mentioned, some of the later stories drag quite a bit, especially when the reader isn't prepared for a lesson in philosophy. Those looking for "Hitchhiker's Guide" sort of fiction will only be able to stomach about half the book. From time to time, Lem slips into writing entirely in and about fictional (read - "nonsensical") things. Of course, not all the nonsense is really non-sense: Lem relied on plays of words and puns for some of the humor, and most was probably lost in the translation (I was lucky to read it in the next best thing to the original Polish - Ukrainian).

Nevertheless, this is a startling, mind-bending, and superbly original read which should not be missed.

If you want to start reading books by Stanislaw Lem, I recommend starting with this one. Ijon Tichy will become your hero and companion.

This by happy chance was the very first Lem book I read. It is by turns hilarious, deeply moving, and profound--but always entertaining. The voyage that says the most about the unthinking embrace of technological change, I think, is the eleventh voyage, the voyage to the renegade robot planet. After you finish this go directly to "Return From the Stars".

If Borges had written "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," it might have resembled "The Star Diaries." Not really a novel, this hit-and-miss collection (mostly hits) features randomly ordered and thematically unlinked space journeys by Ijon Tichy, who also stars in the far more accessible "Futorological Congress."

Even though it's not a long book, "The Star Diaries" is best enjoyed in small doses. Some of the more lighthearted tales resemble the best Monty Python skits (and are just as hysterical). In the Seventh Voyage, for example, Tichy gets caught in time loops which causes multiple versions of himself to encounter one another. "That Friday me by now was the Saturday me and perhaps was suddenly knocking about somewhere in the vicinity of Sunday, while this Friday me inside the spacesuit had only recently been the Thursday me, into which same Thursday me I myself had been transformed at midnight." By the end of the chapter, the spaceship is so crowded with Ijon Tichys that they can barely move around.

Other stories tend more towards historical parody or philosophical commentary. The allusions run so fast and thick that these (particularly the Twentieth and Twenty-First Voyages) pay rereading, and even then I found myself puzzling over some of the references. The themes and plots of these tales most resemble Borges's cabalistic fables (it would be interesting to know if Borges was an influence) and, although they are absorbing in their own right, I don't think Lem's stories are as rewarding as Borges's fiction--but then again, Borges doesn?t demand as much of his reader.

Science fiction aficionados looking for another "Solaris" (or even another "Futurological Congress") might be disappointed by this volume--but ultimately it will depend on your taste in cerebral humor. Instead of straightforward narrative or easily imagined characters, Lem has fashioned farcical sketches and intellectual brainteasers that are both challenging and humorous.

This is the first sci-fi book I read -- I was ten. Ever since, I am looking for something that can live up to the expectations Lem created in the Star Diaries... I am still looking!

My favourite voyage is 23, when he was dispatched to change, "streamline", they say :), the course of history. This is very suseptible to translations mistakes as it is mostly words-play, but the English translation is not that bad after all.

A book just for those who like a different point of view...

This is one of the great collection of SciFi shorts of all time. Yes Joe, the 20th & 21st voyage drag on too long. But no one should miss the 7th & 28th voyages. Lem examined, with humor and insight, some futurological problem WAY ahead of his time.