-
The Futurological Congress
- From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Premium Plus
$14.95 a month
Buy for $14.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Cyberiad
- Fables for the Cybernetic Age
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trurl and Klaupacius are constructor robots who try to out-invent each other. Over the course of their adventures in The Cyberiad, they travel to the far corners of the cosmos to take on freelance problem-solving jobs, with dire consequences for their unsuspecting employers.
-
-
Robotic Fun
- By Joel D Offenberg on 04-12-13
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
Solaris
- The Definitive Edition
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani ( Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.
-
-
A comment on negative reviews
- By Burns on 09-20-11
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
The Star Diaries
- Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ijon Tichy, Lem's Candide of the Cosmos, encounters bizarre civilizations and creatures in space that serve to satirize science, the rational mind, theology, and other icons of human pride.
-
-
Gulliver in Space
- By Joe Kraus on 12-29-18
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
His Master's Voice
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A witty and inventive satire of "men of science" and their thinking, as a team of scientists races to decode a mysterious message from space. "I had the feeling that I was standing at the cradle of a new mythology. A last will and testament...we as the posthumous heirs of Them...."
-
-
Excelent and entertaining
- By Jakub on 01-10-12
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
The Invincible
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Invincible is a classic science fiction thriller by the author of Solaris - for the first time translated directly from the original. A starship from Earth is challenged by a mysterious hostile intelligence.
-
-
Aliens, Search & Rescue, and Much More!
- By Midwestbonsai on 06-18-18
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
Fiasco
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The planet Quinta is pocked by ugly mounds and covered by a spiderweb-like network. It is a kingdom of phantoms and of a beauty afflicted by madness. In stark contrast, the crew of the spaceship Hermes represents a knowledge-seeking Earth. As they approach Quinta, a dark poetry takes over and leads them into a nightmare of misunderstanding.
-
-
Not standard Sci-Fi fare ...
- By Old Hippy on 01-02-10
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
The Cyberiad
- Fables for the Cybernetic Age
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trurl and Klaupacius are constructor robots who try to out-invent each other. Over the course of their adventures in The Cyberiad, they travel to the far corners of the cosmos to take on freelance problem-solving jobs, with dire consequences for their unsuspecting employers.
-
-
Robotic Fun
- By Joel D Offenberg on 04-12-13
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
Solaris
- The Definitive Edition
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani ( Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.
-
-
A comment on negative reviews
- By Burns on 09-20-11
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
The Star Diaries
- Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ijon Tichy, Lem's Candide of the Cosmos, encounters bizarre civilizations and creatures in space that serve to satirize science, the rational mind, theology, and other icons of human pride.
-
-
Gulliver in Space
- By Joe Kraus on 12-29-18
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
His Master's Voice
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A witty and inventive satire of "men of science" and their thinking, as a team of scientists races to decode a mysterious message from space. "I had the feeling that I was standing at the cradle of a new mythology. A last will and testament...we as the posthumous heirs of Them...."
-
-
Excelent and entertaining
- By Jakub on 01-10-12
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
The Invincible
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Invincible is a classic science fiction thriller by the author of Solaris - for the first time translated directly from the original. A starship from Earth is challenged by a mysterious hostile intelligence.
-
-
Aliens, Search & Rescue, and Much More!
- By Midwestbonsai on 06-18-18
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
Fiasco
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The planet Quinta is pocked by ugly mounds and covered by a spiderweb-like network. It is a kingdom of phantoms and of a beauty afflicted by madness. In stark contrast, the crew of the spaceship Hermes represents a knowledge-seeking Earth. As they approach Quinta, a dark poetry takes over and leads them into a nightmare of misunderstanding.
-
-
Not standard Sci-Fi fare ...
- By Old Hippy on 01-02-10
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
The Left Hand of Darkness
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can change their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement.
-
-
Almost 50 and still amazing
- By kwdayboise (Kim Day) on 06-07-17
-
Roadside Picnic
- By: Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Olena Bormashenko (translator)
- Narrated by: Robert Forster
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a "full empty", something goes wrong.
-
-
Gritty, resonant sci-fi classic
- By Ryan on 02-14-13
By: Arkady Strugatsky, and others
-
Peace on Earth
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Elinor Ford - translator, Michael Kandel - translator
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ijon Tichy is the only human who knows for sure whether the self-programming robots on the moon are plotting a terrestrial invasion. But a highly focused ray severs his corpus collosum. Now his left brain can’t remember the secret and his uncooperative right brain won’t tell. Tichy struggles for control of the lost memory and of his own two warring sides.
-
-
Very thoughtful and entertaining
- By Vitaly on 09-14-16
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
Return from the Stars
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Barbara Marszal - translator, Frank Simpson - translator
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hal Bregg is an astronaut who returns from a space mission in which only 10 biological years have passed for him, while 127 years have elapsed on Earth. He finds that the Earth has changed beyond recognition, filled with human beings who have been medically neutralized. How does an astronaut join a civilization that shuns risk?
-
-
Out of 10 stars I would do 9, only because...
- By Brian Oehm on 05-07-20
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Mars, the harsh climate could make any colonist turn to drugs to escape a dead-end existence. Especially when the drug is Can-D, which transports its users into the idyllic world of a Barbie-esque character named Perky Pat. When the mysterious Palmer Eldritch arrives with a new drug called Chew-Z, he offers a more addictive experience, one that might bring the user closer to God. But in a world where everyone is tripping, no promises can be taken at face value.
-
-
Fantastic and current
- By Jerry Witt on 12-20-15
By: Philip K. Dick
-
Ubik
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Glen Runciter runs a lucrative business - deploying his teams of anti-psychics to corporate clients who want privacy and security from psychic spies. But when he and his top team are ambushed by a rival, he is gravely injured and placed in "half-life," a dreamlike state of suspended animation. Soon, though, the surviving members of the team begin experiencing some strange phenomena, such as Runciter's face appearing on coins and the world seeming to move backward in time.
-
-
A great performance of an SF classic
- By Steve on 07-10-16
By: Philip K. Dick
-
Memoirs Found in a Bathtub
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 3149, and a vast paper destroying blight-papyralysis-has obliterated much of the planet's written history. However, these rare memoirs, preserved for centuries in a volcanic rock, record the strange life of a man trapped in a hermetically sealed underground community.
-
-
Better Read then Heard
- By Kenny on 01-16-12
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
We
- By: Yevgeny Zamyatin
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the 26th century A.D., Yevgeny Zamyatin's masterpiece describes life under the regimented totalitarian society of OneState, ruled over by the all-powerful "Benefactor." Recognized as the inspiration for George Orwell's 1984, We is the archetype of the modern dystopia, or anti-Utopia: a great prose poem detailing the fate that might befall us all if we surrender our individual selves to some collective dream of technology and fail in the vigilance that is the price of freedom.
-
-
Interesting history, prose a little outdated
- By Joel D Offenberg on 11-30-11
By: Yevgeny Zamyatin
-
Now Wait for Last Year
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Earth is trapped in the crossfire of an unwinnable war between two alien civilizations. Its leader is perpetually on the verge of death. And on top of that, a new drug has just entered circulation - a drug that haphazardly sends its users traveling through time. In an attempt to escape his doomed marriage, Dr. Eric Sweetscent becomes caught up in all of it. But he has questions: Is Earth on the right side of the war? Is he supposed to heal Earth’s leader or keep him sick? And can he change the harrowing future that the drug has shown him?
-
-
Can you make the world right?
- By Red Eagle's Legacy on 12-16-15
By: Philip K. Dick
-
Dr. Bloodmoney
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What happens after the bombs drop? This is the troubling question Philip K. Dick addresses with Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb. It is the story of a world reeling from the effects of nuclear annihilation and fallout, a world where mutated humans and animals are the norm, and the scattered survivors take comfort from a disc jockey endlessly circling the globe in a broken-down satellite.
-
-
great narration, and with dick you cannot lose
- By sammy boy on 10-17-18
By: Philip K. Dick
-
Mortal Engines
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These fourteen science fiction stories reveal Lem’s fascination with artificial intelligence and demonstrate just how surprisingly human sentient machines can be.
-
-
who can listen too this?
- By Amazon Customer on 07-19-17
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
The Atrocity Archives
- A Laundry Files Novel
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Gideon Emery
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey, who has more than enough trouble keeping up with the endless paperwork he has to do on a daily basis. He should never be called on to do anything remotely heroic. But for some reason, he is.
-
-
Do you love the Dresden Files? You'll like this.
- By Nick on 05-19-12
By: Charles Stross
Publisher's Summary
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.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Futurological Congress
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 01-29-13
Good story, but maybe better ingested visually.
First off, this was a good book, but I think one that I would have appreciated a lot more if I'd read it rather than listened to it. A lot of the latter part of the book contains words that Lem created and being able to see the words spelled out on the page and thus analyse them for the implied (and probably sarcastic) etymology would have added to the fun.
It did take me a little while to get into the mood for this book, the sarcasm is not so much tongue-in-cheek as tongue-through-cheek, it's not subtle. That said, once the introductions were complete and the main plot kicked in I enjoyed the story and the humour.
The story is told first-person, transitioning to a chunked diary-style format for the last third of the book and there were moments where I felt presages of the book Fiasco in the tone and style of the story-telling.
I want to stress that I had no issues with this particular recording, I thought it was well narrated by Mr Marantz and was free of distractions (music, chapter breaks, etc), I just think that the content would be better appreciated with a bit more time to linger on the words and a better idea of how things were spelled.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Julie W. Capell
- 03-27-16
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.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kathy in CA
- 01-26-16
(Not Your Average) Really Humorous SciFi Adventure
I initially read this on my Kindle and enjoyed it immensely. It's a fun, feel-good type of book despite the dire futurological predictions. So, I recently decided I needed to listen to the audio version. The narration was just fine, thank goodness! So, here is my previous review.
"I must say I warily downloaded this book and put off reading it for some time. I thought it could be as bleak as the recent Russian sci-fi translation I read. I guess I didn't read the reviews carefully enough. This was one of the funniest books I ever read. Lem is brilliant, with such a sense of humor. There were parts where I had to close my Kindle, while I tried to get the guffaws under control. Luckily I was reading in bed and only my hubbie could see me.
While Lem is wonderfully creative and you could tell he had a great time penning this story, I was also blown away by the translator. This novel is so much about word play, and you could not tell it was written in a foreign language. It was impeccably translated and didn't suffer a bit. I can't wait to try more of Lem's books. While very funny and short, there was also a scary message here.
Even if you are not a sci-fi fan, you are in for a treat with this book. It would take anyone out of a reading slump or maybe even a deep depression. Get it and enjoy, now!"
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Darryl
- 08-19-14
Chock-a-block full of ideas
This is a very enjoyable quick book. There is so much packed into it that my interest never flagged. In fact, there are numerous ideas that could have generated at least short stories of their own, but they are only a part of this world.
I found myself thinking of many different novels that at least share an idea with this, enough so that I began to wonder how many authors and filmmakers perhaps read this and were influenced. There are moments like Stand on Zanzibar but crossed with Vonnegut. I thought of Inception, the Manual of Detection, Philip K. Dick, Matrix, with some Nabokovian wordplay tossed in.
Funny in places, thought provoking in others. For a novel written in 1971 (and translated In 1974) I thought there was a lot of great satire about the direction society was/is heading and it is surprisingly relevant to current society in many ways, and I think there are many serious cautionary items blended into the fabric of the world of the novel.
Here's one sample: Lubricrat: one who gives bribes. Derived from "greasing" of palms.
Tell me that's not applicable to our entire system of government, summed up in one word.
I'm not going to spoil anything, so have fun with it, I did.
Also, there's a movie coming soon, The Congress, which looks interesting, but from the movie blurb, it does not appear it will follow the novel. It may be they seized upon some element and developed something, we'll see. As I said, there are so many ideas which could easily be developed into some tangential story.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mr. Sagiv Hadaya
- 09-28-17
unique and super smart
what an amazing story. great concept and vision.. i was left with my jaw dropped! highly recommend.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jason bennett
- 12-27-16
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.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- George
- 06-09-17
Why is this in the top 100 list?
I imagine this is on the top 100 list that was circling around the Interwebs around 2015, because the list was created by Boomers who we know loved experimenting with all sorts substances. Basically, the narrator is tripping on this thing or that throughout the book, while making predictions about the 2000s, specifically, how everyone will be medicated on this thing or that. I didn't look at the copyright and thought this book was written in 1930s because the future predictions are so simple. Other than that, there are a lot of modern catch and brand words that are mentioned in this book, which was fun to hear. I gave it 3 stars because there is little to take away.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Flintafus
- 07-27-19
Good performance of a satirical farce.
Unfortunately, I don't seem to get on with satirical farce. Lots of interesting ideas, all of which were stuffed into a short book instead of giving them the time that they needed to be explained properly. I enjoyed some of the humourous elements, but the winding, repetitive story arc just annoyed me after a while and from there on on I was lost on the books many ideas.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- MJ
- 01-29-18
Linguistically Psychedelic
What an amazing book. The futurological use of language is a joy and I'm sure I missed half of the psychedelic drug aptonyms. I probably need a sniff of lingorememberall gas. The stark dystopian future of a veneer of drug induced normality that avoids even seeing, let alone dealing with, the truth of life has a darkly appealing mirror of today's slide into shallow celebrity. Is it all a dream, or does he wake up in the future? I love the image of doped up half robot people getting absolutely knackered climbing up a lift shaft, believing they are actually just standing in an elevator ... is brilliant!