Imaginary Magnitude (2011)

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Like A Perfect Vacuum, Stanislaw Lem's collection of reviews of books which have never been written, Imaginary Magnitude is an anthology of Introductions to those which never will be: stylistic burlesques of prefaces that lead nowhere; dazzling conceits of forewords followed by no words at all. An appropriate introduction' is followed by introductions to erotic X-ray photography, verbal communication between humans and bacteria, literature created by non-human authors, a continually evolving encyclopaedia of future knowledge and a Pentagon supercomputer that rebels against its intended use. Effortlessly leapfrogging the bottomless depths of a supremely indifferent universe, Lem touches lightly on those Great Questions which will always remain incomprehensible to man -but increasingly within the reach of his technological children. 'The computer may ultimately be right. But for the time being, in Imaginary Magnitude, an entertaining and intelligent mortal has the first word' Time 'Lem, a science-fiction Bach, plays in this book a googolplex (the figure 1 followed by a staggering number of zeroes) of variations on his basic theme' Philip Jose Farmer, New York Times