The Futurological Congress

From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy

By: Stanislaw Lem

Narrated by: David Marantz

Bringing his twin gifts of scientific speculation and scathing satire to bear on that hapless planet, Earth, Lem sends his unlucky cosmonaut, Ijon Tichy, to the Eighth Futurological Congress. Caught up in local revolution, Tichy is shot and so critically wounded that he is flashfrozen to await a future cure.

©1974 The Continuum Publishing Corporation (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

provoking and so real

The Futurological Congress is a science fiction novel written by Polish author Stanislaw Lem and first published in 1971. It is a satirical work that explores the potential consequences of futuristic technologies and the ways in which they might be used or misused by society.

The novel is set in the year 2039 and follows the character of Ijon Tichy, a scientist who is invited to attend a futurological congress in Costa Rica. As Tichy navigates the futuristic world of the congress, he encounters a number of strange and unsettling technologies, including virtual reality devices and mind-altering drugs.

One of the most notable aspects of The Futurological Congress is its use of satire to explore the potential dangers of emerging technologies. Throughout the novel, Lem uses humor and absurdity to critique the way in which these technologies might be used to manipulate or deceive people.

Overall, The Futurological Congress is a thought-provoking and entertaining read that offers a unique perspective on the potential consequences of futuristic technologies. It is a must-read for fans of science fiction and those interested in the intersection of technology and society.

absolutely fantastic

Lem is one of the best sci-fi authors ever and this is lem at his best

Incredibly good narration

I am a big fan of Lem's writing and this performance truly does it justice.

Some sci-fi just doesn’t hold up after 50 years

Dated.
I like Lem (Stainless Steel Rat, etc.)
But the contrivance that lets the author confabulate a remote future of 2030 — doesn’t work — on multiple levels.

This is basically my favorite novel of all time.

I did read it and listen this novel in two languages. I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

A foundational masterpiece

The reader will trace many of our recent sci-fi ideas to this excellent novel.

An ingenious, concentrated look into the future!

Prepare yourself, read this when there are no distractions, you will need all your attention for this book. Pushes your vocabulary to another level! Very amusing at the same time. The author needs to be reintroduced to the library's of North America.

Bonkers Futurism that got it right

If Philip K. Dick went back in time and made a baby with Douglas Adams by way of George Orwell, it would have been this book.

Mind Bending

So many layers of disconnect from reality, you'll be questioning the protagonists reality/ sanity til the very end.

The Onion on scifi steroids

Any one paragraph in this book could be an entire book unto itself. It reminded me of the blurbs on the front of the Onion newspaper (when there was a printed version) that directed you to the inside of the paper to read the full article—which did not exist. Many of these ideas are excruciatingly funny skewerings of modern Western culture. No system, service or symptom escapes Lem’s brilliant satire. The pharmaceutical industry is the most obvious foil, but Lem uses our propensity to believe there is a pill to cure everything to send up religion, government, academia, Big Agriculture, health care, marketing . . . the list goes on.

There are so many ideas in here, but not much of a plot. Still, one of the funniest and most original scifi books I have read in a long time. [I listened to this as an audio book read by David Maranz, who did an excellent job.]

Also cannot fail to recognize the brilliant translation work done here by Michael Kandel. I cannot imagine how difficult it was to translate this from Polish, with all the wordplay, made-up words, and still keep the humor intact. A bravura translation.