The book's publication was delayed as both Lem and Bereś were seen as involved with the opposition and sympathetic towards Western powers.

[4] In 1987, the book was published by Polish publisher Wydawnictwo Literackie, but in a low-quality edition of 10,000 copies; furthermore, as the book was subject to significant government censorship, in particular, the parts were removed that discussed the Polish government's declaration of the martial law[3] and the Soviet occupation of the city of Lwów, where Lem lived during his youth.

[3] The book is composed of the following chapters: While Bereś' interview was never fully translated to English, in the early 1990s Lem met with the literary scholar and critic Peter Swirski for a series of extensive interviews, published with other critical materials and translations in English as A Stanislaw Lem Reader (1997).

[6] In 2005 Bereś published another book-length interview, Historia i fantastyka, this time with Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski.

[7] Wojciech Orliński in his review of Historia i fantastyka notes that comparing it with the Lem's interview from 1980s it allows for a study of how Polish science fiction and fantasy has changed over those two decades.