I just heard a famous Science Fiction writer died today, Stanislaw Lem.

From Boing Boing:

Stanislaw Lem reportedly dead at 84
Wikipedia reports that Stanislaw Lem, the Polish science fiction author of such amazing novels as Solaris, died today at age 84. More details in this obit from DNA India. Link (Thanks, RonK!)

Lem, whose books have sold more than 27 million copies and have been translated into more than 40 languages, won widespread acclaim for The Cyberiad, stories from a mechanical world ruled by robots, first published in English in 1974.
  
Solaris, published in 1961 and set on an isolated space stations, was made into a film epic 10 years later by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and into a 2002 Hollywood remake shot by Steven Sodebergh and starring George Clooney.

I don’t think I ever read through one of Lem’s books, though I did read a number of Asimov’s books and Lem influenced a lot of writers, who may have eclipsed him in the United States in terms of fame, but not in influence.