The Cyberiad (Polish: Cyberiada), sometimes subtitled Fables for the Cybernetic Age, is a series of satirical science fiction short stories by Polish writer Stanisław Lem published during 1964-1979. The first collected set of stories was originally published in 1965, with an English translation by Michael Kandel first appearing in 1974.
The main protagonists of the stories are Trurl and Klapaucius, two "constructor" robots who travel the galaxy constructing fantastic machines. Nearly every character is either a humanoid robot or some sort of intelligent machine, with few living creatures ever appearing. These robots have for the most part organized themselves into proto-feudal societies with strict ranks and structures. The timeline of each story is relatively constrained, with the majority of the individual tales following one or both of the two protagonists as they find and aid civilizations and people in need of their creations, advice, or intervention. Though the thematic content of the stories is broad, most focus on problems of the individual and society, as well as on the vain search for human happiness through technological means.
In 1970, the book was adapted into the opera Cyberiada. Alongside many of Lem's other works, this book has been an inspiration for numerous films and games. There is a steel statue of Elektrybałt, Trurl's legendary electronic bard who coins the word Cyberiad, in the Copernicus Science Centre, Warsaw.[1]
The Cyberiad shares the peculiar robot's universe, as well as the style, with the cycle Fables for Robots.
