Just Finished Reading: The Three Electroknights by Stanislaw Lem (FP: 1977) [52pp] 

I read some Lem decades ago and found him very different from the standard UK or US sci-fi author. That made him both interesting and difficult. I haven’t read, but I do own, his most famous work ‘Solaris’ and intend to read that at “some point” in the future. I’ve tried to watch the original Russian version but failed on both attempts. I did really enjoy the Steven Soderbergh directed US remake in 2002 which starred George Clooney and Natascha McElhone. I thought it was quite excellent. 

But, to this booklet... It contained 4 (very) short stories including the titled piece. Although each was readable the first three didn’t do very much for me. The final story ‘The Tale of King Gnuff’ was something else though. At first it was a pretty standard fantasy tale with a decided Shakespearian twist. A young man is elevated to the throne in a kingdom far, far away but has a problem. He’s both a coward and incredibly paranoid. Thinking that his family are plotting against him he strikes first and has them all executed. Still not feeling safe he slowly eliminates anyone who could possibly be a danger and over time empties his capital of threats. Still not satisfied he installs advanced surveillance, builds walls around the city and automates all services. But to monitor things 24/7 (not trusting anyone else) he needs to plug himself into the machine that oversees his security. But there’s a problem. When he sleeps – as he still needs to do – his subconscious mind seems to be plotting rebellion. The King is stumped – how do you fight yourself in the dreamworld and know if you’ve won? I couldn’t help but think that this was a less than subtle comment about Stalin and his years of Terror. Mostly reasonable with the final story being very good indeed. 

Translated (presumably) from the Russian by Michael Kandel.