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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
It’s about grief and what it means to be human. It’s about religion and the impossibility to conceive of the non human. It’s funny and enigmatic and startling. A true classic of its kind, effortlessly profound.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Racial slurs
Original, breve pero con una premisa interesante y fundacional para obras posteriores.
Además de un buen libro de ciencia ficción es una excelente reflexión acerca de las emociones, motivaciones y deseos humanos, siendo casi un ensayo teológico.
Además de un buen libro de ciencia ficción es una excelente reflexión acerca de las emociones, motivaciones y deseos humanos, siendo casi un ensayo teológico.
I picked this up on a whim because I like both Tarkovsky and Soderbergh's movie adaptations. However, this is one of those few occasions where the book is *not* better than the movie.
I was surprised by how short the book is and by how much of it is dedicated to the "science" aspect of the planet. The quick story synopsis: Solaris is a planet that is also one giant, sentient being. A group of scientists orbit Solaris and attempt to study it while the planet manifests dead people who were significant to the scientists. Are these manifestations an attempt to communicate or understand or torture?
Both movies focus primarily on that last question, making them studies of loss, memory, and the human condition. Those things are in the book as well, but not nearly as in depth. The author spends a lot of time describing the history of the planet and previous expeditions, the scientific studies performed by previous crews, and this crew's attempts to untangle the situation.
Perhaps my experience with the movies tainted my reception of the book too much. It isn't fair to judge it based on my expectations. However, even when the passages describing the strange workings of the planet were interesting, my mind always wanted to go back to the "story at-hand" concerning the scientists and their visitors. I found the "science" too distracting from the "fiction."
Overall, it wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't as worthwhile as I had hoped it would be.
I was surprised by how short the book is and by how much of it is dedicated to the "science" aspect of the planet. The quick story synopsis: Solaris is a planet that is also one giant, sentient being. A group of scientists orbit Solaris and attempt to study it while the planet manifests dead people who were significant to the scientists. Are these manifestations an attempt to communicate or understand or torture?
Both movies focus primarily on that last question, making them studies of loss, memory, and the human condition. Those things are in the book as well, but not nearly as in depth. The author spends a lot of time describing the history of the planet and previous expeditions, the scientific studies performed by previous crews, and this crew's attempts to untangle the situation.
Perhaps my experience with the movies tainted my reception of the book too much. It isn't fair to judge it based on my expectations. However, even when the passages describing the strange workings of the planet were interesting, my mind always wanted to go back to the "story at-hand" concerning the scientists and their visitors. I found the "science" too distracting from the "fiction."
Overall, it wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't as worthwhile as I had hoped it would be.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
The more I think about this book the more I appreciate it. This book is morphologically similar to blindsight but I felt blindsight did a better job with its cosmic horror philosophy sci-fi reveal. Blindsight also portrayed its females characters slightly more normally. Sightly.
I realize Solaris is a product of its time but the portrayal of the women characters was sometimes difficult to read. Removed one star.
I loved the horror and suspense at the beginning and was sad when it turned into exposition by the middle of the book.
I realize Solaris is a product of its time but the portrayal of the women characters was sometimes difficult to read. Removed one star.
I loved the horror and suspense at the beginning and was sad when it turned into exposition by the middle of the book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Suicide
Minor: Racism
4 stars. My partner got it as a surprise gift for me after reading it many years ago and loving it, and I devoured it in a couple of sittings. Such a beautiful, touching, haunting approach to a more classic alien sci-fi story. My only slight bit of criticism is that the sudden and rather lengthy science / theory and history interludes in the story felt a bit much in proportion to the ret of the narrative at times, hence the 4 stars instead of 5. I really loved reading those explanations, but I think I maybe would have preferred a different format for those? I don't know. Either way, a stunning, very atmospheric little story, I loved it. (Also - I read Annihilation right after this, both within a few short days, and they make the BEST double feature! Such a good accidental pairing, highly recommend it.)
This is a strange review because I have to give it 3 stars as an average, even though my thoughts are that a lot of this is 5 stars and slightly more of it is like 1.5 stars. Please note my review is for the English translation from the 1970s French version, which is considered to be one of the worst translations. I advise finding the modern English translation if that's your native language, or attempting to find it in Polish if you're able--from what others have said the original (Polish) version is much stronger.
CONTENT WARNING:
Things to love:
-First contact. The story and musing around what first contact will likely be like, given that it's highly improbable we'll find another sapient species that looks like something we'd recognize as sapient, is fascinating.
-Why people suck. A bit misanthropic, but there's a pretty cutting and powerful look at why humans are so bad at being good neighbors in our solar neighborhood.
-Cool science. Given that this was published in 1961, the ideas about what the future would look like are...actually pretty darn close. 8 years before a man walked on the moon, this guy had space stations. I also loved the thoughts around a planet with two suns. (Moons? Two light sources anyways).
-Creepy. The first few chapters are really great. Soooo scary. A very adult "worst fear."
The parts that sucked all the marrow from those great bones:
-The made up academia. Perhaps this was like in "City of Dreaming Books" where it was very clever if you were following Polish science journals in the 50s and 60s, but I wasn't, so bits of really cool worldbuilding and atmosphere were just entirely swamped by what read to my eye as pedantry.
-The emotional blankness. I almost entirely blame the translation on this, but that's all I can do. We never have "reactions" only "actions." Someone will yell, someone else will yell "why! don't say that!" and this is the only insight we have into the characters being upset. We can read in what it would be like to be alive in a situation like this, but the feelings we are fed are themselves so ambivalent that I couldn't figure out if I was supposed to feel longing or horror or disgust or absolute despair. I could make a case for any, but trying to look for those bits of humanity really sucked the human element out of the book.
-The sudden end. Again I'm almost certain that something is lost in translation, but I didn't understand the significance of the experiment, and I wasn't ready for us to be discussing loss at long last.
A very uneven read with enough meat that I'm glad to have read it, but I'm not sure I'd ever recommend this except to those with a specific interest. 2.5 rounded up.
CONTENT WARNING:
Spoiler
racism, suicide, loss of a loved one, self harm, mild goreThings to love:
-First contact. The story and musing around what first contact will likely be like, given that it's highly improbable we'll find another sapient species that looks like something we'd recognize as sapient, is fascinating.
-Why people suck. A bit misanthropic, but there's a pretty cutting and powerful look at why humans are so bad at being good neighbors in our solar neighborhood.
-Cool science. Given that this was published in 1961, the ideas about what the future would look like are...actually pretty darn close. 8 years before a man walked on the moon, this guy had space stations. I also loved the thoughts around a planet with two suns. (Moons? Two light sources anyways).
-Creepy. The first few chapters are really great. Soooo scary. A very adult "worst fear."
The parts that sucked all the marrow from those great bones:
-The made up academia. Perhaps this was like in "City of Dreaming Books" where it was very clever if you were following Polish science journals in the 50s and 60s, but I wasn't, so bits of really cool worldbuilding and atmosphere were just entirely swamped by what read to my eye as pedantry.
-The emotional blankness. I almost entirely blame the translation on this, but that's all I can do. We never have "reactions" only "actions." Someone will yell, someone else will yell "why! don't say that!" and this is the only insight we have into the characters being upset. We can read in what it would be like to be alive in a situation like this, but the feelings we are fed are themselves so ambivalent that I couldn't figure out if I was supposed to feel longing or horror or disgust or absolute despair. I could make a case for any, but trying to look for those bits of humanity really sucked the human element out of the book.
-The sudden end. Again I'm almost certain that something is lost in translation, but I didn't understand the significance of the experiment, and I wasn't ready for us to be discussing loss at long last.
A very uneven read with enough meat that I'm glad to have read it, but I'm not sure I'd ever recommend this except to those with a specific interest. 2.5 rounded up.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes