According to my Goodreads page, I didn’t care for the one Stanislaw Lem book (IMAGINARY MAGNITUDES) I read 36 years ago. I have a vague memory of it being leant to me by someone I was attempting to humor by reading it. Not a good way to approach a book so I will have to revisit that one. Reading and enjoying TALES OF PIRX THE PILOT has encouraged me to read more. This collection of Sci-Fi stories starts out as one thing and then along with it’s main character melds into something else. The first four stories set up the last. Something of the silliness of youth permeates Pirx the Pilot in the first story THE TEST until the end reveals something else has really been going on. Each story has some of that youth but it seems to dissipate faster and faster. We learn along with Pirx to see the workings of his world and it’s patterns and that the threat of repeating the previous mistakes of others is ever present. The fourth story, THE ALBATROSS shifts nicely to setting up the mood for the final story. And the final story, TERMINUS, is fantastic. Replaying the theme of the other stories of history being a kind of loop we have to struggle not to repeat, TERMINUS is a haunting echo caught in our ear. The ending of the story solidly defines who Pirx the Pilot has become—snuffing out the last of his youth.

“The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.”
― Dorothy Parker

If she could be bothered to roll over in her grave for anyone, I think Dorothy Parker would be amused to do so for this clever little mockery. (And if you’re not familiar—treat yourself to some Dorothy Parker now!) With pen dipped in darkest cynicism, this collection of poems often pierce the marrow or at least chip the funny bone. Oddly therapeutic as if complaining to a friend. Not everything hits but they are short so you can just move along. Makes me imagine a cluttered desk—covered in notes—written during those moments where the mind escapes the task at hand—needing to expel something creative about thoughts that shouldn’t be entertained.