So many of these stories had elements that will stick with me. The older stories are still relevant and the newer ones are still classics. I found the first story, The Hunt, particularly thought-provoking.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for this advance copy to read and review. All opinions are my own.

As a widely popular sci-fi author, these stories are a safe bet. I'm not sure these are his best work (and description does not claim this), but it is a good set. Some of the stories felt new somehow, even though they were written long ago. Lem fans and sci-fi fans will likely enjoy this.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

I have been reading science fiction since my age was in the single digits, and inexplicably, I had never (to the best of my recollection) read anything by Stanislaw Lem. With "The Truth and Other Stories" I am glad to have finally remedied that oversight.
Lem's work, I am pleased to find, contains a literary and intellectual maturity that is often lacking in his more pulp-oriented North American contemporaries. He often deals with the same tropes (e.g. AI, alien invasion, first contact) but does so with more insight, clarity and rigor than did many other writers at the time, or even since.
Lem is firmly rooted in what is known as "hard science fiction" in the sense that there seems to be a solid scientific basis to his work which he expresses in fascinating detail. However, his work transcends any limitations of that genre with elements of humanism, humour and even, to my surprise and enjoyment, cosmic horror (see "The Friend" in this volume). Lem's work is rich, layered and as informative as it is entertaining.
Having finished this volume (and followed it up with a watching of Solaris), I am very much looking forward to enjoying more of Lem's work. More, I will be using this as my springboard to explore other European writers whom I've overlooked, such as Olaf Stapledon, Yvgeny Zemyatin and the Strugatsky's. Readers who seek a mature treatment of science fiction themes beyond the pulp formulas would be strongly encouraged to read this volume and do the same.

Stanislaw Lem was one of the greats of classic science fiction. This is a collection of twelve of his stories, most never before translated into English from the original Polish. These are dense stories filled with scientific jargon and will take a while to read. The best of the bunch are "The Friend" and "Darkness and Mildew."

1. The Hunt (Late 1950s) is a story told from the point of view of something not human, something possibly mechanical in nature, who is being hunted for sport through forests and mountains. It is a poetic story, which brings to life the environment he is running through.
2. Rat in the Labyrinth (1956) is a first contact story and, as it so often goes, first contact with aliens is nothing like we ever imagined. Here, it is an episode so odd and different than almost anyone expected. This one starts out slowly, but you have to stick with it to get to the good stuff. It may indeed feel more like an endless labyrinth than a flying saucer.
3. Invasion from Aldebaran (1959) is another first contact story, but it flips the Rat in a Labyrinth story on its head by viewing the first contact from the point of view of the many-tentacled aliens. The oddness with which they understand Earth is just how odd we would find an alien world out there.
4. The Friend (1959) revisits the theme of First contact and, once again, it is nothing like you imagined. Leg starts this terrifying take slowly with a stranger visiting a shortwave radio club. But, see, the stranger has s secret friend who is quite out of this world.
5. The Invasion (1959) is a hard science look at first contact. It starts out just peaceful out in the field. A tough, awkward read. Interesting thing is how Lem anticipated three-d printing.
6. Darkness and Mildew (1959) is for a change of pace not exactly a first contact story and it'd also my favorite so far. Think Dr. Frankenstein meets Dr. Doolittle. Think deeply before you watch another episode of "Hoarders." Lem's quirky sense of humor is also at play here.
7. The Hammer (1959) is a tough one to follow, but it's a real early look into the nature of artificial intelligence.
8. Lymphater’s Formula (1961) starts out as a difficult read, but ultimately is a very satisfying tale. If you thought Dr. Frankenstein appeared in an earlier story, you ain't seen nothing yet. Evolution slowly progresses.
9. The Journal (1962) is a technically-rich story written in the form of an entry to a scientific journal. Thus, the title.
12. The Truth (1964) explores the idea of what is life and what is intelligent.
11. One Hundred and Thirty-Seven Seconds (1976)
12. An Enigma (1993) is about predictions and intelligent thought.

Lovers of old-school paranormal and sci-fi stories will love this collection! It reminds me of Vonnegut and Orson Welles. The languidness of the writing soothes the reader into comfort before the Big Shocker in each story. Lots of fun!

It feels kind of crazy to read “new”, never-before-translated works by one of the greats like Lem. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect going in since this is mostly a collection of unconnected short stories, but what I got in the end is the typical thought-provoking, creative and a delight for any Lem fans.

Some of these are quite heavy reads, and I had to re-read some parts multiple times. Interestingly, as much as there is no main theme, you can expect many of the themes Lem always returned to in his career, perhaps most notably in this collection the exploration of what alien intelligence would look like. Because these stories were all written independently over the span of multiple decades, you can see a clear evolution/change in his writing style and habits.

Feels like classic SF, and classic Lem!

I would like to thank the MIT Press for kindly providing an electronic review copy of this book.

"The Truth and Other Stories" is a collection of English translations of 12 stories by the Polish SF author Stanislaw Lem with a foreword written by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Robinson's foreword is a very useful introduction to Lem and his works. Among other things, Robinson describes Lem's interaction with and influence on the field of American science fiction.

Most of the stories in this book were written in the eight year period between 1956 and 1964. (The outliers were written in 1976 and 1993.) Initially, these stories reminded me of several of the classic SF authors. There are stories with the sense horror found in Edgar Allan Poe or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Other stories have the philosophical inquiring feel of the tales of robots, artificial brains, scholars, monks, scientists, mad scientists, and renaissance men by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. (Yes, in this collection they are all men.)

Nearly all of the stories take a thought provoking idea and develop a deep story around it. Several of the stories tend to be verbose and tedious, but in most the concept and the story twist is genius. These stories that are based around a profound concept reminded me strongly of Ted Chiang. Though truthfully, since these stories were written first, I should say that Ted Chiang's best stories feel strongly influenced by the best Stanislaw Lem stories.

I am very happy to have had the opportunity to read this book. I feel like it has helped educate me on the history of science fiction. I will keep an eye open for other stories by Stanislaw Lem.

Having never read Stanisław Lem, but certainly having heard of his work, I was eager to pick up this collection when I saw it available (thank you MIT Press and NetGalley for providing an ARC). Inevitably I enjoyed some stories more than others but overall, the stories are thought-provoking and, in some instances, laugh aloud funny at times. I’m happy to have finally gotten to read this classic author, and can see myself returning to this collection to read a few of the stories again. I appreciate the inclusion of the dates for each story’s composition as this gives a sense of the trajectory and development of Lem’s work over the course of his writing career. Overall, an interesting collection I’d happily recommend to fans of classic science fiction.

Awesome short stories collection by a great master of the science-fiction genre. What a blast to read those, mostly for the first time, I only remembered one of them, if I read more I can't remember, and it says that nine of them are first time English translation so, my memory might be good enough! Original, creative, the aged good like good wine. If you love science-fiction, this is a book to pick!! I highly recommend it!

A collection of (finally) new material from a classic voice in the science fiction genre. These stories mirror and extend our world, and are reminders about some of what works best in this genre.

Great c0llection of the master's stories. I didn't mind the three reprints as I didn't recognize or remember them, and the nine new stories are worth the entry price. Here's one sample plot to get you interested : Lovecraftian beginning turns into an alternate Solaris.

A new collection of Stanislaw Lem short stories, brought to us in mostly brand new, debut translations from the original Polish, from a house who has a building list of his works. You'd think to be on a winner there, surely? Well, the first piece certainly carried a seed of doubt, with a quite pointless and laboured man-being-pursued-for-unknown-reasons story. Oh, and he's not human, so even that description is a little off – but not as off as what we get here. Next, a first encounter story which has some novelty in its mix, but also much that seems too guessable. The first hit for me came next, although with its ridiculous amount of alien technobabble (either a sheer delight or utter nightmare for translators, surely) comes too the risk of this being off-putting. It seemed to boil down to a typically Polish alien invasion story, with good comedic angles, unlike the ones in a longer piece on the same subject, that seems to portray Poland in a bad light with the woozy near-panic of a night-time evacuation of an extra-terrestrial landing site. The poor ending here showed Lem not to be as perfect as made out by others.

A standout for me had to be 'The Friend', a novella whose lack of concision you can ignore as it shows a humble lackey at a shortwave radio club embroiled in someone else's task a 'friend' has set him. For what kind of story it is, the very analogue kind of tech used should feel desperately dated, and yet perhaps its alienness to the modern age actually makes it work the better. Elsewhere we get a new kind of weapon; robots thinking about human creation; spacecraft and their sole occupants conversing with each other – about daydreams and other matters; a man yacking for ages about psychic ants and the usurpation of humanity; another fine success, concerning an eerily knowledgeable newspaper computer; and the title story, which bears the testimony of a plasma scientist.

One piece just passed me by, for I was reading it and understanding less and less with every passing word. Lem is not a light, easy read (but did you really expect an airport book from a University press?!). Generally, however, he has a certain quality, that makes it worthwhile you persist, and not succumb to the urge to skim. I would not point to any of these as utterly memorable, with perhaps two exceptions, but even those had sections I would prefer had received a red pen's treatment. Still, the singular mindset of this creator is here on these pages, and whether you read the few classics or all the pulps from the past of sci-fi, this is worth considering. My personal taste, however, saw too few instances of this breaching three stars.

Stanislaw Lem was one of the first authors I read when I first got into adult science fiction, and I think about Solaris, like, once every couple of hours. So when I heard a new collection of his stories was being translated into English (many for the first time), obviously I made a netgalley purely to get an ARC of it.
(Insert obligatory netgalley disclaimer here, etc. etc.)
It's interesting for me to think of these stories in comparison to Solaris, with is, I think, a high water mark for thoughtful, philosophical scifi. A lot that is repeated here—Lem returns, again and again, to the idea of alien intelligence: what it would look like, and whether we would recognize it, and what that means about us.
But there's a lot of humor here, too. ("Invasion from Aldebaran", in particular, made me do that weird snort-laugh people do when they read amusing things alone in their bedrooms during a worldwide plague.) Which, you know! Was very refreshing given the general gloominess of life right now. It reminded me of watching the Twilight Zone late at night as a kid, funny and kind of existentially horrifying in equal measure.
I think this style of witty/horrifying/philosophical writing is having something of a comeback lately—I'm thinking, in particular, of Ted Chiang, who's probably the best writer of speculative short friction working right now. Obviously, there's a big gulf there stylistically—each story in this collection comes with a little note about when it was written, but it would be clear even without them that these stories aren't exactly contemporary. Nonetheless I think this collection is a compelling entry point to the Lem-iverse for those who are late to the party, as well as long-time fans who haven't bothered to learn how to read Polish in pursuit of new material.
Also, you know, nice cover! (less)

Thoroughly interesting, different stories about possible beings on other planets and places we cannot even dream of, possible aliens, historically futuristic are the short stories written during the span of 1950 to 1990s by the author. One of those translation fiction done well and good.

*Contents:

1. The Hunt
4 🌟
*Got thirsty while and after reading this

2. Rat in the Labyrinth
4 🌟
*Of course, another planet like ours must exist
*Aliens? Hello.

3. Invasion From Aldebaran
4 🌟
*We are talking about inhabitants from the other planets

4. The Friend
4 🌟
*What have you done, my friend??!

5. The Invasion
3 🌟
*I want a better ending

6. Darkness and Mildew
4 🌟
*Claustrophobic read indeed

7. The Hammer
4 🌟
*Love it with all its details and uncertainty

8. Lymphater's Formula
4 🌟
*One of the best. Take your time reading this one.

9. The Journal
4 🌟
*Perfect little story as a story.

10. The Truth
4 🌟
*Too dystopian but never dystopian enough?

11. One hundred and thirty seven Seconds
4 🌟
*It cannot be forgotten easily.

12. An Enigma
4 🌟
*Love the crispiness and all the discussion. Theology as plot for discussion. Well done.

I just wish the stories have some more variety than most of them being about aliens and other planet like surroundings.

Thank you, authors, editor and the publishing team for the ARC.