. Stanislaw Lem. Harcourt, 1986. 285 pp. $5.95
Born in Lvov, Poland, in 1921, and edu- cated as a doctor, Lem has slowly become known to American readers through his highly philosophical science fiction. Books like Eden (1959) and Solaris (1961) are as noteworthy for their treatment of ideas (e.g., cybernetics) as for their fantastic plots and settings. Repeatedly throughout these 10 discussions of science (and other) fiction, Lem voices his low opinion of a genre that he believes is a "hopeless...