If you click the question mark, the description says "60th Anniversary of Stanisław Lem's first book publication. Art inspired by The Cyberiad illustrations; by Daniel Mróz."

/don't speak Polish
//copied it from google.co.uk

Sweet!

That looks nothing like the mother of the hydrogen bomb.

It did me some nice feelings.

/my nallyrakers and neotremes went missing, though

That last puzzle had me a little until I watched his balloon thought for the 2nd time and I realized I had to hit the flying cube with the cannon ball man.

Well, Stannis is the true King...

Well, I don't know what I did, but I did it. Neat.

A recurring theme in his short stories is the rivalry between these two competing artificers. Unfortunately, I can't remember their names right now (it's been years since I've read them). At one point, artificer A declares he's made a machine that can make anything that starts with the letter "N", so of course artificer B comes to check it out and test it. Finally, after making all the other things that start with N that artificer B asks for, he asks the machine to make "Nothing", which is what happens at the end of the game.

His stories are very clever (imho) and while I don't know if this is the official description of his writing, everything I've read of his is very much like reading a fairy tale, but with "science" instead of "magic"

I think he even has a story where there are two countries at war and the prince from one loves the princess from another and his solution to stop the war so they can get married is to make cannons that shoot babies from one city to the other so the opposing city has to use all it's resources to take care of the babies and it can't fight anymore.

Anyone who's read these more recently, feel free to correct me if I'm off, it's been a while since I've read these.

Weird stuff, but very good.

Good to see - I've been a fan of his for some time (and sadly, submitted his obit thread here on Fark - a month too late, if I recall.)

kalysto727: Unfortunately, I can't remember their names right now

Klapaucius and Trurl, I think; they always struck me as being a bit like practical Greek philosophers. With more sallying, of course.

kalysto727: A recurring theme in his short stories is the rivalry between these two competing artificers. Unfortunately, I can't remember their names right now (it's been years since I've read them). At one point, artificer A declares he's made a machine that can make anything that starts with the letter "N", so of course artificer B comes to check it out and test it. Finally, after making all the other things that start with N that artificer B asks for, he asks the machine to make "Nothing", which is what happens at the end of the game.

His stories are very clever (imho) and while I don't know if this is the official description of his writing, everything I've read of his is very much like reading a fairy tale, but with "science" instead of "magic"

I think he even has a story where there are two countries at war and the prince from one loves the princess from another and his solution to stop the war so they can get married is to make cannons that shoot babies from one city to the other so the opposing city has to use all it's resources to take care of the babies and it can't fight anymore.

Anyone who's read these more recently, feel free to correct me if I'm off, it's been a while since I've read these.

Weird stuff, but very good.

The Cyberiad (in a new window for your reading pleasure)

The stories you mentioned were How the World Was Saved and The Fourth Sally, or How Trurl Built a Femfatalatron to Save Prince Pantagoon from the Pangs of Love, and How Later He Resorted to a Cannonade of Babies if want to read them. The images on the page are broken, though, so no illustrations.

A Good Shellacking, Trurl's Machine and The Seventh Sally, or How Trurl's Own Perfection Led to No Good are my favorites, I think. I loved the Cyberiad. Excellent book.

Thanks, it's been years since I've read these, so my memory's a little blurry and I don't have my copy of The Cyberiad at hand.

I also think this guy has the best story names ever.

Phil wants to know where his tribute is.

kalysto727: His stories are very clever (imho) and while I don't know if this is the official description of his writing, everything I've read of his is very much like reading a fairy tale, but with "science" instead of "magic"
[...]
Weird stuff, but very good.

If you (or anyone) enjoy that, I'd recommend checking out Italo Calvino, in particular his short story collection Cosmicomics. He's a "fabulist," which is a very tiny literary niche that's not quite scifi, not quite fantasy. Calvino in particular is a highly imaginative, playful, and helpless romantic of a writer.

vicejay: I still can't tell if I really like or really hate Solaris (the movie)

That depends. Is it the Russian one or the American one? The Russian one is fantastic, but the American is garbage.

Well thank goodness nobody saved this during the couple hours it was available in the western world.

kalysto727: His stories are very clever (imho) and while I don't know if this is the official description of his writing, everything I've read of his is very much like reading a fairy tale, but with "science" instead of "magic"

Half his books are like that. The other half (Solaris, the Pirx the Pilot stories, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub), are more serious (although Memoirs has a lot of dark humor).

brianbankerus: Well thank goodness nobody saved this during the couple hours it was available in the western world.

Link (new window)

Tyrone Slothrop: brianbankerus: Well thank goodness nobody saved this during the couple hours it was available in the western world.

Link (new window)

Sweet, thanks!

The Seventh Sally was the inspiration for Sim City.