A series of stories united by a fantastic pseudo-medieval universe where robots take the place of people, and with common heroes—great inventors Trurl and Klapaucius.
The early stories of “Cyberiad” are very similar to “Tales of the Robots,” but they have recurring main characters—cyber-constructors and demiurges Trurl and Klapaucius (though from childhood, Klapaucius is more familiar). Nothing is easier for them than to light or extinguish a couple of stars to carry out their brilliant ideas. And as often happens, at first the author seems to have simply been having fun and fooling around. However, the further you go, the harsher the Polish partisans become. Not by chance Lem himself classified “Cyberiad” as philosophical parables. And critics note the “two-layeredness” of the stories comprising “Cyberiad.”
The
Contents
1. How the Universe survived
2. Trurl’s machine
3. A tough beating
Seven journeys of Trurl and Klapaucius:
4. First Journey, or The Trap of Gargancian
5. First Journey A, or Trurl’s Electribalder
6. Second Journey, or What service Trurl and Klapaucius rendered to King Cruel
7. Third Journey, or Probabilistic Dragons
8. Fourth Journey, or About how Trurl used a “womentrone” to save Prince Panarctica from love’s torments, and how afterward he had to resort to the “detomet”
9. Fifth Journey, or About the pranks of King Balerion
10. Fifth Journey A, or Trurl’s consultation
11. Sixth Journey, or How Trurl and Klapaucius created a demon of the second kind to defeat the robber Mordor
12. Seventh Journey, or How Trurl’s own perfection led to trouble
13. A Tale of Three Storytelling Machines of King Genialon
14. Altruizin, or a truthful account of how the hermit Dobritsius Cosmos wished to make someone happy, and what came of it
15. Something happened
16. Repetition
17. Raising Digits