The Cyberiad - Stanisław Lem

GoodReads Summary: A brilliantly funny collection of stories for the next age, from the celebrated author of Solaris. Ranging from the prophetic to the surreal, these stories demonstrate Stanislaw Lem's vast talent and remarkable ability to blend meaning and magic into a wholly entertaining and captivating work.

What would happen if Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams had a child? Stanislaw Lem.

Ok, maybe I'm pushing the story a bit too far, 'cause that's the only book I've read from Lem so far, but the stories in this book really do seem a mix between what Asimov wrote with the nonsensical humour of Adams.

The book revolves around stories of two "constructors", Trurl and Klaupacius and their adventures. And I put "constructores" with quotes 'cause, only by reading the synopsis is that I got that they were robots -- a thing the book never transpires, in a way that I thought, till now, that they were humans in a world were robots and humans live along. Good, bad? I can't say it.

While the humour is there -- and I truly appreciate Adams style and reckon the hard work of the translators -- some pieces get too long and too nonsensical to be actually funny. It becomes a chore, sometimes, to read very long paragraphs, with a bunch of weird words (cause there is a bunch of made up words, like mixing "sarcastic" and "transistor" into a single word).

It's fun overall, but not Adams fun.