Peter’s Reviews > Bajki robotów > Status Update

Robot King Murdas wanted to be called "The Great", but did not possess any characteristics of a great ruler. Instead he was anxious and suspected anyone of treason, in particular his family. So he got them killed. And to fully survey his realm he order extensions of himself to every corner of the capital and achieved "greatness", though in a different way than expected.

By now the nowelty of combining heavy SF and fairy tales has a bit worn our by now, the neologisms likewise. I am struggling sometimes to see the morale behind the stories.

In the story "The Treasures of King Biskar" clever Kreacjusz, like Hercules, gets tasks that seem impossible to do. I particularly liked the second one when Kreacjusz being abandoned on a desert planet builds a spaceship out of ice and powers it with anti-matter taken out of his own electronic brain. When landing the ship melts and he sets foot on the ground like Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirats of the Carribean.

Or rather page 00101011 in binary code as provided by the book. Like all fairy tales also these fables for robots have a message: Invaders and usurper will ultimately fail and the sly will win over the violent and powerful. What makes them really attractive, however, is Lem's play with words like "elektrycerz", "intelektryk", "bezrobot", "ślusaria" or the robot warcry "Awruk!" :-)

In memory of Stanislaw Lem, who was born 100 years ago.