Andrzej
I always thought or were told that this book is "for kids" or younger generations in general. Well, it's completely not true. Not that it's unsuitable for younger people, but rather that it actually touches some really deep and complex topics. The penultimate tale about a trial was especially great. And so contemporary, even though it was written in the 1960s and is about artificial intelligence. It's absolutely stunning. I'm even happier that it is going to be adapted for a movie soon, bringing it to a wider audience. This book definitely exceeded my expectations. One of more interesting pieces from Lem for me.
Good old witcher? Eventually yes, however, here we get to know Geralt when he was young, not being really the same person as the one we know from the previous books. The way he is portrayed at the beginning is actually rather funny and I'm not sure whether I really like it, but it's not bad after all. I am not sure if this is an old sentiment, or a more objective impression, but Sapkowski's style is really amazing to read. Flies like a butterfly. And all characters have this something. They are not just dry NPC fillers. I would like this book to be longer and give us a more continuous story, but that is just a minor issue. It was so nice to come back to these stories, even if it might have been a little 'money heist' by the author ;)
This was a really insightful read! As a disclaimer, this is probably the first book I read which is basically a letter correspondence.
Here, we are able to get a little bit into the heads of two of the titans of XX century (science) fiction authors (the parenthesis is intentional, as it is not really what they considered their work to be). It's genuinely eye opening to dive into their thoughts on the sci-fi scene, each other's works, trends in literature and some politics. Somehow mind-blowing to me was the fact, that Lem did not speak English and only learnt to write and read in it. Especially considering the quality of English in his letters.
However, I think this book is mostly interesting to people who know the works of both of the authors. Otherwise, it can be difficult to relate to what are they talking about.
What a great surprise this whole trilogy has been! A deeply humanistic story about broken families, traumas, loneliness, and coming of age stories (two). It starts as a seemingly fantasy novel to become sci-fi later. The author, throughout the book, shows us only the required minimum to understand the situations, so we are constantly in this mysterious place. It plays out great. I was really engulfed in the story and relationships between the characters. I am also really happy with the ending, which was dramatic, even stressful, but managed to tie all the strings together and not lean on trivialities.
This is more like an instagrammer's account digest. Most of the information are ranging between good to neutral. Just a few seem to be utter nonsense or slightly harmful. My biggest problem is that, even though the author talks about science, she bases it on tiny studies, with questionable methodologies and outcomes and extrapolates them radically or takes from them what suits her best. It clearly is written by someone who used to sell continous glucose monitors and build her persona on that. Now she has to maintain it pumping the same mantra all over again. Most of this book could be summarized on maybe 5 pages.
This is a pretty good book, don't get me wrong. Especially the early days and the last chapter. However, sometimes, it felt a little bit too much as a hagiography rather than a biography. Grandiose statements with almost no criticism about certain decisions or products are not something I am looking for in a biography. Another thing, maybe more of a perspective shift rather than a criticism, is that this book shows everything from a very American standpoint. I mean the impact and market penetration of apple. For someone like me, coming from a formerly Eastern block country, Apple had zero to no direct impact on digital literacy and access to products until more or less 2010 and it's sometimes hard for me to understand all those wows.
I loved the premise. Very original take on fantasy or scifi. I guess in this case, you could choose either, although that wouldn't be your typical hero fantasy. The take on sort of magic is also innovative with power over earth's tectonics.
The storytelling and organization are super interesting. Usually, in such books, you realize what is going on very early on. In this case, however, I was just guessing who is who is around 65-70% of the book while it was revealed maybe at 85%. It's a very satisfying feeling when all the strings combine. It's a wonderful feeling to be slowly discovering the fog of mystery in the book and feel like you are venturing in the unknown.
I had some small issues, like the emptyness of the world or shallowness of the secondary characters, all of them really. However, you can easily say it was in order to strengthen the mystery feeling and make the book really about the main character and her companion. Also, it's funny that the language people in the book speak sometimes resemble the one from the Mistborn series.
I think it is one of the better scifi/fantasy books I have read in recent years. It's not a very dense or hard to read book either. Immediately after finishing it, I bought the second one in the series and started reading.
Troche cringe'owa ksiazka. Bardzo naiwna i napisana w okropnie nieaktualnym stylu. Sprawia wrazenie historii zapisanej z sesji rpg prowadzonej przez i dla nastolatkow. W zasadzie nic wartosciowego poza sama rozrywka w sobie nie ma. Historia oklepana, bohaterowie nieciekawi, zero refleksji. Deus ex machina pogania sama siebie. A do tego postaci kobiece ograniczaja sie do obiektów. Ma prawda mialem nadzieję na trochę zreformowana polska fantastykę, a dostalem jakby lżejszego lesnego dziadka pokroju Pilipiuka...
Ugh, that was not my type of book. It was really well written, but kinda ridiculous. The story was gruesome without much meaning to it, the Satan thing fun, although a bit shallow. I liked the other side of the mirror and relations to Alice in wonderland, although I think that aspect could have been much deeper and better played out. In general, the book felt somehow as a dark comedy story about a Hollywood screenwriter who finds a Satanists cult mixed with scenes of senseless and a bit pointless graphic violence. For connoisseurs.
Another gem from Lem. This one is much darker and more mature than the rest I've read, though. A fabulous contemplation on transhumanism, human existence, consciousness, and many, many more. Some of the topics and the approach to them feel so contemporary even nowadays. Even though this book was written in 1963 and mostly talks about the influence of futuristic, for its time, technologies. This just proves Lem's truly unique and forward-thinking imagination and pure genius.
2.5* To trudna książka do oceniania. Z jednej strony wspaniały research, wiele wywiadów i tło historyczne. Z drugiej kompletny chaos i brak “flow” w samych rozdziałach. Dziwna próba klamry literackiej z odnoszeniem się w ostatnich rozdziałach do bohaterek z pierwszych rozdziałów. Dziwna, ponieważ w tym momencie już dawno zapomniałem o tych bohaterkach, bo nie były wspominane w ogóle po drodze. Również brak głębszej analizy i dyskusji na tematy poruszane, był czymś, czego mi brakowało. Książka zyskałaby bardzo dużo, gdyby autorka zrezygnowała z ilości w imię klarowniejszej myśli przewodniej w rozdziałach i pomiędzy nimi. Nie jestem pewien czy problemy przeze mnie opisane wynikają z braku czasu, czy ze słabej pomocy edytorskiej. Jest to wielka szkoda, bo jest to temat ważny i dający tak dużo potrzebnego nam kontekstu historycznego. Niemniej jednak książka jest warta przeczytania nawet w tej formie, w jakiej jest i myślę, że wiele osób oceni ja znacznie wyżej niż ja.
Wow! Just wow! This was written in 1966? I actually find it funny that it is all classified as sci-fi, even though the setting suggests so, and there are some futurolgistic things as well. This really is an exploration of humankind, society, transhumanism, totalitarisms, libertarianism, and so many more -isms that it really is mind-boggling how was it possible to fit all of that in such a small book. It's easily the best thing I read this year, although maybe the competition wasn't too strong so far. This book really proves to me that Lem was a genius.
This was not shocking at all ;) Cool stuff to gather the available data in one, concise book. It was a bit repetitive (e.g. using exactly the same words to talk about one person or another in multiple chapters), but was good. It wasn't either very dogmatic or one-sided, even though I am sure some people can say that. To me, it's more shocking that such an organization like CC still exists in this form.
I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, after the first part, which tells the history of the company and is genuinely interesting, it becomes a sort of internal marketing pamphlet. It's a bit too shallow and not enough self reflective, in my opinion. The company has some great initiatives and philosophy, but then it still makes their products in poor countries with child labor. Not to mention the not-so-ecofriendly environmental cost of overseas shipping. It's not people in Bangladesh who are buying $500 jackets. Go, buy some local brands made in your area. They will have the same performance but will be really eco-friendly.
Tough story. I enjoyed the raw style, the atmosphere, and the context. On the other hand, the book was sometimes unnecessarily violent. I get that it was a reflection of the situation and so on, but some stuff was just too bleak. Looks like Twardoch is bathing in this almost cynical violence more and more with each book.
That apart, I was really taken by the world he created.
