The Cyberiad

Trurl and Klapaucius are constructors. In the brilliant opening story, Trurl constructs a machine that can make anything beginning with the letter "n." Klapaucius, impressed but always eager to put his friend's machines to the test, asks it to create "nothing." The crisis that ensues is typical of a Stanslaw Lem short story. The machine can barely be stopped before the entire world disappears.

Trurl and Klapaucius are themselves machines. This is made clear in another story when Klapaucius, to make a point, beats Trurl about the head with a crow bar, producing dents rather than a bloody pulp. As constructors they are constantly in the employ of rulers of the various kingdoms and planets they encounter. (This is science fiction aligned with the world of fairy tales and medieval romance.) The kingdoms are often at war, and the rulers are frequently greedy or dimwitted. The impulsive Trurl adds to chaotic situations more often than he remedies them. It is up to Klapaucius to set things right - or "rightish." Then, like the knight errants of the stories Lem evokes, the two constructors sally forth to further adventures.

As in Star Diaries, Lem's tales are entertaining but exhausting and best taken in small doses. The wordplay, the impossible names, the cobbled together scientific nomenclature wears me down. I'd really like an audio version of these stories, one narrated by an actor who has mastered the language readers are likely to stumble over or glide past. Going the distance is worthwhile for those moments that are laugh-out-loud funny, or those in which the braininess sidles into the profound.