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meedamian's review against another edition
5.0
Every time I read Lem, my thoughts are: "Yup, he is the greatest ever".
jclermont's review against another edition
4.0
I’ll definitely need to read this one again. So many interesting ideas packed into one mind bending story.
theaceofpages's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
In the future war is avoided by confining all weapons and weapons development to automated systems on the moon. When a man is sent to investigate what's happening in this highly secretive system he returns with a damaged corpus collosum and a split brain that won't cooperate.
I had such a good tome with this book! I loved seeing Lem's ideas of a weaponised moon system. I'd say it's pretty impressive given how long ago it was written. The plot is a little convoluted at times but it's such a fun ride if you just let the plot take you where it goes.
I had such a good tome with this book! I loved seeing Lem's ideas of a weaponised moon system. I'd say it's pretty impressive given how long ago it was written. The plot is a little convoluted at times but it's such a fun ride if you just let the plot take you where it goes.
Content Warnings
Moderate: War
Minor: Gun violence
spaceisavacuum's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book is totes about Andy Warhol. Says here it was published in 1987, but there’s some mention of Campbell’s Soup and St. Vitus Dance so I am convinced. The narrator, Ijon Tichy has a severed commisure in which the right side of his brain has been erased, and won’t coordinate with his left hand. His left hand basically has a mind of it’s own, it even steals Tichy’s wallet! Or hides it in an inconspicuous place, that is. The LA are up to something. Long ago, the government in unresolved satyriasis for weaponized artillery, began caching advanced weaponry on the moon. This is an onerous premonition developed by a SF writer that should not ever come to pass, and I don’t think it would. War is stupid as fuck, it’s what tyrannical leaders resort to for nefarious game… but the human race is over it. If all of our leaders sent us to war, or incinerated us in it’s ash, it’d just be a senseless waste of life, and Capital. “Why? Germs that are too virulent kill all their hosts and so perish with them.” I’d rather have a Disneyland on the moon than a weapons cache.
Ijon Tichy has a skirmish with a Moonman that otherwise resolves in peaceful relations and compares it to, “A strange battle, for it was primitive, resembling the Mesozoic dinosaurs on Earth millions of years ago, but at the same time it was sophisticated, because these lizards were not hatched from reptilian eggs but were robots armed with lasers and packed with electronics.” An amusing comparison, but think Lem was proposing that war in any measure is primitive. Tichy is having an out of body experience that’s very Carlos Castañeda-esque. But Tarantoga just thinks he belongs in the asylum for treatment, where Dr. House explains everything about what happens in the right side of the brain. Stanisław Lem himself is a writer of acute insight, because what is an invention that won’t rust? The pickle! “One cannot imagine a Slav, for example, without Borscht.”
Ijon Tichy has a skirmish with a Moonman that otherwise resolves in peaceful relations and compares it to, “A strange battle, for it was primitive, resembling the Mesozoic dinosaurs on Earth millions of years ago, but at the same time it was sophisticated, because these lizards were not hatched from reptilian eggs but were robots armed with lasers and packed with electronics.” An amusing comparison, but think Lem was proposing that war in any measure is primitive. Tichy is having an out of body experience that’s very Carlos Castañeda-esque. But Tarantoga just thinks he belongs in the asylum for treatment, where Dr. House explains everything about what happens in the right side of the brain. Stanisław Lem himself is a writer of acute insight, because what is an invention that won’t rust? The pickle! “One cannot imagine a Slav, for example, without Borscht.”
mikiher's review against another edition
3.0
This is a classic Lem, with all the humor, the fascinating ideas, and the anti-establishment attitude. Still it's not one of his best. It's extremely dense, rather hard to follow, and the ending is somewhat disappointing.
izarravarela's review against another edition
3.0
Science fiction has to be a little campy to work, I think, and Stanislaw Lem finds the right balance of cultural relevance and pulpy silliness to make this book work.
(I borrowed this book for my husband, who's more into the sci-fi genre than I am, but found myself with nothing to read—well, nothing but A Hundred Days of Solitude, which I am sloggggging through—so I thought I'd give it a go. Glad I did.)
(I borrowed this book for my husband, who's more into the sci-fi genre than I am, but found myself with nothing to read—well, nothing but A Hundred Days of Solitude, which I am sloggggging through—so I thought I'd give it a go. Glad I did.)
nolen_wine's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and War
Minor: Sexism
cel_red's review against another edition
4.0
Leí este libro de Lem, y no Solaris que es su obra maestra, por dos razones: la división de los hemisferios cerebrales y la doctrina para crear la paz en la Tierra. Porque el enviar las armas a la Luna y el misterio que lo rodea me pareció fascinante. El punto principal es que todas las armas del mundo están en la Luna, y cualquier país en cualquier momento puede reclamar las suyas para hacer la guerra con alguien más, el punto es que no sabe si su arsenal será mejor que el del enemigo o no, y esa ignorancia es el punto clave del desarme. La ignorancia es justo la razón por la que mandan a Tichy.
Leer más: https://bitviajera.blogspot.com/2015/10/libro-paz-en-la-tierra.html
Leer más: https://bitviajera.blogspot.com/2015/10/libro-paz-en-la-tierra.html