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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
very interesting exploration of the limits of human understanding, loss and mankinds conquest over nature. only problems are that solaris violates conservation of momentum and appears to have charged neutrinos, plus two chapters of this are just huge lore dumps.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Changes my perception of aliens. We always imagine them humanoid; Lem was able to go beyond that. Sometimes the read is overly slow and ardous. But I think that adds to the charme.
reflective
Holy Moly, this was one weird book.
Not so much the fact that the planet the story takes place on is one big living organism, no, the weird part is that the characters are completely incompetent in communication or working inside an organisation.
It is mind blowing that they weren't supposed to give daily reports back to Earth, or that they didn't set an alarm when they where clearly invaded by this creature.
Sure, the book was written decades before we set foot in space. But come-on, in what world are people going to bring a library of books into space. The writer clearly didn't know anything about science or math to calculate payload.
Not so much the fact that the planet the story takes place on is one big living organism, no, the weird part is that the characters are completely incompetent in communication or working inside an organisation.
It is mind blowing that they weren't supposed to give daily reports back to Earth, or that they didn't set an alarm when they where clearly invaded by this creature.
Sure, the book was written decades before we set foot in space. But come-on, in what world are people going to bring a library of books into space. The writer clearly didn't know anything about science or math to calculate payload.
Solaris, though written in the 1960’s, continues to be a book that is recommended to sci-fi lovers. It is continuously being “re-discovered” by each successive generation. It has been made in to two different films and has been translated in to over 40 different languages. It is considered a masterpiece of writing.
And it left me sorely disappointed.
Despite the accolades, despite the numerous glowing reviews, despite the incredibly interesting premise – I was let down reading Solaris.
I found it boring and tedious. I cannot speak for any other of Lem’s books, but in this one he is quite fond of info dumps. Pages of information that have little to nothing to do with what is currently happening plot wise and do not move the story along one bit. I found myself skimming the pages during these times, trying to get back to the original plot.
Solaris is one of those books that falls in to a difficult category, at least for me as a reviewer. While I personally did not enjoy it, the book itself is still lauded as a classic by so many others. All I can do is give my own opinion and urge my dear readers to also make their own.
I would be curious to try a few different translations on the next Lem book I read. Not that this one was particularly bad, but seems like potentially difficult writing to translate so curious how other translations come across.
Человек отправился познавать иные миры, иные цивилизации, не познав до конца собственных тайников, закоулков, колодцев, забаррикадированных темных дверей.
Incredibly cool premise of a creating sentient ocean that takes a look at how humanity perceives that which is unknown and at our incessant thirst for knowledge at all costs. Really enjoyed the wirkd building and (most of) the ramblings.
Only bumping it down from 5 stars cause it could have been 100 pages shorter and I felt like it diminished men to beings whose only focus is b00bs even in detriment to their survival (clearly a product of its time) . I would also like for some analogies to be left to the reader and not so in your face.
Only bumping it down from 5 stars cause it could have been 100 pages shorter and I felt like it diminished men to beings whose only focus is b00bs even in detriment to their survival (clearly a product of its time) . I would also like for some analogies to be left to the reader and not so in your face.
I wanted to read this book and somehow managed to find reasons to postpone it for around 8 years. Mixed feelings, to be really honest. Because it had the most mind-haunting images carried inside its covers, the most brilliant and gut-wrenching philosophical and oh-so purely humanistic views on the nature of consciousness and self-identity, all mixed with some bizarre long fictitious small internal histories of the solaristic studies, experiments, research theories - which I get the point of ultimately, in giving the whole microcosm of the space station both some gravitas and some fundament to the life purpose of the three men living on it.
But i have the nagging feeling that most of the points made by the long interjections placed in the otherwise beautiful pacing of the book could have been avoided. Absolutely loved the ending, saw Tarkovsky's take on it and I dare say he did a supremely more romantic take on the whole story (romantic in a sort of love for human suffering sort of way).
In the end, there is a lingering feeling that the rhythm of the novel and Kelvin's inner thought process ondulates onctuously, in thick heavy waves, just as the ones hitting the shores of the rare mimoids of Solaris.
P S. Snaut and Sartorius were real jerks to Kelvin, imo.
But i have the nagging feeling that most of the points made by the long interjections placed in the otherwise beautiful pacing of the book could have been avoided. Absolutely loved the ending, saw Tarkovsky's take on it and I dare say he did a supremely more romantic take on the whole story (romantic in a sort of love for human suffering sort of way).
In the end, there is a lingering feeling that the rhythm of the novel and Kelvin's inner thought process ondulates onctuously, in thick heavy waves, just as the ones hitting the shores of the rare mimoids of Solaris.
P S. Snaut and Sartorius were real jerks to Kelvin, imo.