Sep 22
Click for full imageGK’s Art Direction: Alright, Lem asked us for a giant robot of some sort. Preferably with the ruins of a burning city in the background, perhaps people running in terror, a few puppies being crushed, you know, that sort of thing. Can you do it?
Published 1977
Artist has been listed as two people. I’m unsure which is correct.
Many thanks to GK!
(Average: 8.55 out of 10)
Loading...
Lastest Tweet
September 22nd, 2010 at 9:19 am
‘My hair, oh my darling I know! I just washed it in Robo-Jojoba Shampoo and now I can’t do a thing with it!’
September 22nd, 2010 at 9:23 am
looks like the art director got his 8 year-old to draw that.
September 22nd, 2010 at 9:31 am
Lem’s THE CYBERIAD is one of the funniest SF books ever written, so in that context it’s amazing this particular book cover isn’t… you know… funnier. Or… funny.
September 22nd, 2010 at 9:33 am
In the future.. all scientists will live in awesome office building sized robots.
I love that it has wheels!! So basically rendering it’s legs pointless.
September 22nd, 2010 at 9:39 am
“The Cyberaid” just sounds like something that can be ordered from the back of disreputable magazines.
September 22nd, 2010 at 11:46 am
Actually, this image is pretty well consistent with the book’s content for a change. It looks like they were trying to emulate the soviet-era robot art that peppers the text. Wouldn’t be my chosen edition for this marvelously funny collection, but not the worst thing ever.
September 22nd, 2010 at 1:15 pm
I think I might actually love this cover. In a ‘it’s so ridiculous it’s amazing’ kind of way.
Is that so wrong?!
September 22nd, 2010 at 1:53 pm
I like how Mombot has LEDs in lieu of painted toenails.
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Fine. It’s a stylized illustration. I get that. Still, they couldn’t make the shadow of the person more than a sharp edged shape?
All in all it’s too goofy to warrant sneering at. It has a disarming charm.
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:19 pm
I kinda like this one actually. Make me think of whimsical early scifi kid’s pulp. That said, I wonder how many “modern masters of science fiction” we have? Lem is refered to as “the” modern master, the definite article, indicating that there are no others. First, what time period are we defining as “modern?” Second, how does someone earn such a title? Was there an election? Some governing body of great publishers and editors and other writers? Cuz I’m totally sure that writers like Heinlein and Azimov totally wouldn’t vote for themselves (insert ironic tone here)
September 22nd, 2010 at 5:01 pm
“Trurl, what have you been up to, this time…? The Electronic Bard was bad enough, the last time I saw it” – Kalapicius
As for the last comment, should it read the “Modern Master of Polish Science Fiction”…?
September 23rd, 2010 at 1:08 am
I will never be able to think of Klapaucius the same way again. Happy robotic grins are not *them*.
September 23rd, 2010 at 1:39 am
Re: Nix’s last comment…
That’s why I think the “happy robot” is not Klapaucius, but rather, the Electronic Bard…
(I suspect that Klapaucius is the figure in the foreground, while Trurl is the figure framed by the open hatches in the centre of the Bard…).
September 24th, 2010 at 12:23 am
Plausible indeed… but those two figures look human. (Ah well, they *acted* like humans. Well, people. Except of course that *they* created *us*, in-canon…)
September 24th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
that robot makes me feel like someone is trying to sell me breakfast cereal
June 7th, 2011 at 6:51 pm
“Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce GO!”
Heh, ever saw that cartoon?
November 12th, 2013 at 12:29 am
As Graff pointed out above, you might want to think of spelling the title properly. I think it was meant as a pun on ‘Siberia’ as well as the mock-epic habit of calling something ‘The ___iad’ (like ‘The Dunciad’ or ‘The Spooniad’ – yes, such things exist).
The cover, though, is trying too hard to be whimsical and the guy popping his head out of the hatch just looks like ‘Pob’s Programme’ or ‘Professor Balthazar’
November 12th, 2013 at 4:48 pm
These new robot hair care products do wonders for the frizzies!
January 19th, 2016 at 9:41 pm
No girls allowed in the giant robot house. If only Pacific Rim had these.
April 2nd, 2017 at 1:20 am
This paperback was the edition that introduced me to Lem. I always figured the giant robot was Trurl’s violently stupid thinking machine, the one that insists that 2+2=7. Or it could be the Bard. That’s definitely Trurl up in its chest and Klapaucius down on the ground. They’re both robots themselves, so they shouldn’t look 100% human.
Compared to Daniel Mroz’s timelessly surreal illustrations in the interior, it’s not great, but I do think it’s better than some of the cover illustrations from later US editions.
April 3rd, 2017 at 3:47 am
“The Cyberaid” would be… well… make up your own “marital aid” joke here.
October 31st, 2020 at 2:30 am
Speaking of Mroz, I wonder if this https://i.pinimg.com/564x/48/da/c1/48dac12d1e6bd42716d3c26d205a8c43.jpg inspired the cover?