-
The Star Diaries
- Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Anthologies & Short Stories
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
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 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
-
The Futurological Congress
- From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Good story, but maybe better ingested visually.
- By Amazon Customer on 01-29-13
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
-
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
-
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
-
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 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
-
The Futurological Congress
- From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Good story, but maybe better ingested visually.
- By Amazon Customer on 01-29-13
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
Labyrinths
- Selected Stories & Other Writings
- By: Jorge Luis Borges
- Narrated by: Dominic Keating
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The groundbreaking trans-genre work of Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) has been insinuating itself into the structure, stance, and very breath of world literature for well over half a century. Multi-layered, self-referential, elusive, and allusive writing is now frequently labelled Borgesian.
-
-
Look, this is Borges
- By Lars Spuybroek on 05-27-20
-
Exhalation
- Stories
- By: Ted Chiang
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Dominic Hoffman, Amy Landon, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the acclaimed author of Stories of Your Life and Others - the basis for the Academy Award-nominated film Arrival: a groundbreaking new collection of short fiction. In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.
-
-
Masterful and singular
- By Brian on 05-15-19
By: Ted Chiang
-
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
-
Robot Dreams
- By: Isaac Asimov
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A robopsychologist must outwit a machine determined to stay hidden in "Little Lost Robot"; a woman’s talent for "Light Verse" overshadows her true accomplishments with her robot servants; "The Last Question" presented to computer after computer over a hundred billion years may remain forever unanswered … and seventeen more future visions from the grand master of science fiction.
-
-
The 3 Laws of Robotics
- By Niels J. Rasmussen on 10-26-14
By: Isaac Asimov
-
I, Robot
- By: Isaac Asimov
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They mustn't harm a human being, they must obey human orders, and they must protect their own existence...but only so long as that doesn't violate rules one and two. With these Three Laws of Robotics, humanity embarked on a bold new era of evolution that would open up enormous possibilities, and unforeseen risks.
-
-
Forget the violence - Read this one for the humor
- By Herb on 02-19-05
By: Isaac Asimov
-
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 2-A
- The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time Chosen by the Members of The Science Fiction Writers of America
- By: Theodore Sturgeon, Ben Bova - editor, Lester del Rey, and others
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla, Kevin T. Collins, Mark Boyett, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This volume is the definitive collection of the best science fiction novellas published between 1929 and 1964, containing 11 great classics. No anthology better captures the birth of science fiction as a literary field. Published in 1973 to honor stories that had appeared before the institution of the Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame introduced tens of thousands to the wonders of science fiction and was a favorite of libraries across the country.
-
-
'Greatest' is the word...
- By dutch wolff on 06-21-18
By: Theodore Sturgeon, 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
-
The Ministry for the Future
- A Novel
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.
-
-
Great ideas, uneven narration
- By depthpsychologist on 12-09-20
Publisher's Summary
This collection of short stories centers around one character, space traveller Ijon Tichy. In these stories, Stanislaw 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.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Star Diaries
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joe Kraus
- 12-29-18
Gulliver in Space
Not long ago I read Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Lathe of Heaven, and it disappointed me, among other reasons, because it put so much weight on the “science” half of science-fiction. I felt as if throughout the novel, she was trying to appease the doubters, the critics who question whether ‘speculative literature’ ever has a claim to be taken seriously.
Lem is doing the exact opposite. His space hero, Ijon Tichy, is a goofy stand-in for the free play of imagination. He’s a space explorer who, using technology as ever-changing as the campy Batman of the 1960s, ventures on one silly adventure after another.
The first of the adventures should be more than enough to hook anyone. Tichy is flying through a distant galaxy when he discovers that the equivalent of his space-rudder has jammed. He then finds that, to fix it, he will need a second pair of hands, one to hold the item in place and the other to tighten the wrench. Alone, and in despair, he takes a nap only to be awakened by himself – a version of himself from the future a day in advance. It turns out (with the sort of vague reference to science that LeGuin would have found beneath her) that his ship is approaching the speed of light as it nears a star, and that has put him into a time loop.
Lem might have left us to wonder at his cleverness, but he takes things much further. Tichy at first refuses to trust his future self. Then, when later opportunities arise, he constantly frustrates his efforts to fix the space ship. He gets into fights, ambushes himself, anticipates what he will soon want to do but guesses wrong, and finally forms a kind of parliament of all his future selves on the ship.
Silly as such a story is, though, it’s simultaneously allegorical in at least two dimensions.
The dimension that’s more readily accessible is biting. At the same time as the entire book is a celebration of the capacity of the human imagination (certainly as Lem exercises it), it’s a critique of our capacity to work together to solve our problems. The perpetual bete noir here is bureaucracy, the lumbering ways in which we attempt to order our mutual efforts. The second story for instance, has Tichy appointed as Earth’s delegate to an interstellar association of civilizations. When he arrives, though, the association has to go through a lengthy deliberative process, demanding reports on Earth’s good conduct.
That’s a consistent concern throughout the stories, and it’s easy to imagine Lem drew on frustration with the communism of his Polish childhood. Funny as the perpetual insight is – bureaucracy kills the spirit that makes us human – it clearly has an edge.
The other dimension of allegory here grows out of that notion, but – as I read this 40 years later and a continent away – I’m conscious of missing much of the historical, political, and social import. I sense it, but I feel a little as if I’m hearing someone else’s inside jokes. Even through translation, I recognize the rhythm of a master joke-teller, but I find myself a beat slow. I am aware, always, that this is coming to me second-hand, that I am watching the man perform and then pausing to read the subtitles before I can fully laugh.
You get some wonderful details here – aliens that our dim-witted Tichy mistakes for vending machines, or potatoes that, adrift in space, become predatory and rapacious – but I did find some of the later stories running together. Maybe because I was missing some of the barbs at the ends of the hooks Lem throws out there, I felt as if I’d gotten the best of this before it was over.
Still, I recognize a deep cleverness here. Aware that there are parts of this out of my reach without footnotes, I still enjoy it. This is science fiction as it was first born, as Gulliver’s Travels first showed it can be, and that – even before its other virtues – makes me recommend it.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Antons
- 01-31-18
No 24th voyage.
There is no 24th voyage, which IMHO, is the best and the most intimidating of them.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- GREGORY
- 11-10-16
Story of a space-traveling Candide
One of the most entertaining and insightful satires written in any genre. I've read only maybe half a dozen books that made me LOL and this one is one of them. I read it some thirty years ago and much of the satire was lost on me but know in my late fifties I can appreciate every reference. Very good translation which is a feat in case of Lem's satirical writing because it relies heavily on made up names and words. The subject matter, the human condition, is universal. I love how he ignores the details that so many writers are overthinking and give their books pedantic and overworked quality. If there was ever a movie made I would see it done in a steampunk fashion. I recommend this book to older readers who enjoy deadpan humor delivery and lived long enough to need a less than serious approach to our human foibles.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- devin
- 03-22-16
Amazing book
I would recommend this to anyone that loves science. Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy is the best comparison. However, Lem wrote this before Adams wrote his book. The book is funny, clever and takes little bit of scientific understanding to appreciate. I would recommend this to adults not kids because kids probably won't find it as funny. Overall, this is a great book it's very silly and clever.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- BK
- 02-22-20
🌠stellar humor
A firework of ideas and fictional realities. David Marantz read the diaries of this extraordinary traveler Ion Tichy in a very convincing manner. St. Lem balanced and decorated the many philosophical aspects
with hyper-Cosmic humour. We are lucky that the man of many journeys didn't loose it due to the many severe challenges he had to face!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 04-09-18
Great book and an excellent audiobook!
I have been a huge fan of Stanislaw Lem for most of my adult life and only wish I had been introduced to his body of work at a younger age. That being said I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook and had no problem listening to it all the way through, enthralled by his mastery of the genre of science fiction. The performance was flawless and I highly recommend this to anyone young or old. Even those who have no love for science fiction may find themselves drawn into these richly humorous adventures of a hapless human wandering the cosmos armed only with his quick wit and a pen knife. I only hope this helps others to find the works of the author who wrote many other excellent books such as the Cyberiad which is another favorite of mine. If you're on the fence just pull the trigger, you won't regret it.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jdances
- 01-03-18
Quirky sci-fi Goodness!
Think Douglass Adams meets Frank Herbert! Fun sci-fi with a classic flavor mixed with more modern scientific notes... A wild ride in a Hitchhiker's Guide kind of universe, with very deep and thoughtful bits thrown in, all served in easy little short stories! An enjoyable time through and through..
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vitaly
- 09-06-16
A true masterpiece
This book is a true masterpiece. Lem was, beyond any doubt, the best sci-fi writer of all time
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Isaac Sharp
- 05-06-14
Eh... It lost me
Is there anything you would change about this book?
Started good. Kinda Douglas Adams-esque scifi parody, but got pretty repetitive.
And it is full of pseudo-scientific jargon that is at first amusing (again, a la Adams) but at a certain point just makes it really hard to follow.
What about David Marantz’s performance did you like?
Great performance, just not a great book.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Bianca
- 12-12-13
Makes one think, laugh, and imagine...
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
It was an unexpected book, but maybe this was so because I am not as yet very familiar with Lem's works, just his popularity. It made me think of Gulliver and his travels, who by a series of encounters recalibrates his thoughs on human nature, leading him to despondency and alienation. Tichy is different in that he is terribly good-natured and not easily perturbed by what he discovers in space, time and the character of himself or other species, perhaps leaving the audience to carry the thought further. Richly imaginative, and highly recommended.
6 people found this helpful