Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Solaris

‘We take off into the cosmos, ready for anything: for solitude, for hardship, for exhaustion, death. Modesty forbids us to say so, but there are times when we think pretty well of ourselves. And yet, if we examine it more closely, our enthusiasm turns out to be all sham. We don't want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want to extend the boundaries of Earth to the frontiers of the cosmos. For us, such and such a planet is as arid as the Sahara, another as frozen as the North Pole, yet another as lush as the Amazon basin. We are humanitarian and chivalrous; we don't want to enslave other races, we simply want to bequeath them our values and take over their heritage in exchange. We think of ourselves as the Knights of the Holy Contact. This is another lie. We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors.‘

I thought this was just incredible. Although it’s short, I had immense difficulty getting through it because I found the world building and dense theoretical passages quite tricky to get through. The characters and the relationships that they form with each other were far more interesting. I thought a lot of Kelvin’s feelings towards Rheya were beautifully articulated. As a science fiction novel, I find it so compelling that Solaris chooses to explore grief, religion and academia in much profound depth than many of the scientific and speculative concepts it uses.

I definitely had some issues with it - the surprise anti-black racism relatively early in the novel caught me off guard. Although the racist description of the woman is a product of the time and context it was written in, I guess it disappointed me because in many other aspects the novel felt relatively contemporary. Some of the description felt as though it could have been written yesterday, and then the social attitudes of the author jumped out. Maybe that is a product of Kilmartin and Cox’s excellent translation - they make the narrative voice feel very contemporary. I don’t know. Just something that was on my mind.

In addition, I found it to be a little deliberately unsatisfying at times. I think this is because it’s primarily a novel that is about asking questions and searching for reasons for why things happen, and the conclusion of the novel - to me at least - seemed to be that there aren’t any, or the reasons that do exist are too hard for us to properly understand. This was sort of difficult to grapple with this week as I finished the book, because I have been struggling with some difficult news that has left me asking lots of questions, but I do think it was also therefore a useful and calming read. Whatever we’re going through, it’s out of our hands.

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funcabbage's review

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challenging dark 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? It's complicated

3.5

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wagthree's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The portions of library scenes learning about the planets history are a slog and a half. I also found them far too numerous for a 200 page book. The character-driven scenes are mostly gripping, though. So much is alluded to and hinted at and not out-right said.

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steven_lamb's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I enjoyed the first 60% of the novel much more than the latter 40%, though I did not dislike any portion of it. Lem expertly ratchets up the tension and mystery so that the first 60% read almost similar to a horror novel to me. I do enjoy the exploration or deeper emotional themes in the latter 40%.

I found the long and dense scientific descriptions in the Solaristics Volumes that the main character reads in the book quite fascinatingly written, if not a little difficult to follow at times. Overall, quite a satisfying read! 4/5

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yasmin_raev's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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bobpony's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Such a good story. You have a small group of scientists orbiting what may be an intelligent planet, and very strange things are occurring on the station. The book is chock full of novel ideas, and I enjoyed how the history of mankind's interaction with Solaris was woven into the story. But there were a couple of issues for me. First, there are two chapters that needed seriously editing. They're long, rather boring explanations of categories of things. The first details the various types of structures that can be observed on the planet. The second outlines the stages of research, and which researcher did what, regarding the planet. Both are slow, both could have been trimmed or placed as appended material, and both feel like homework assignments given on the eve of a vacation day. The second issue I had was only because I've seen (and love) the 1972 Russian film of the book done by Andrei Tarkovsky. That film restructures and expands the narrative in small ways, resulting in a much more satisfying ending. The book falls short of the film's impact. But it's still good, glad I read it! It's probably a 3.5 or a 3.75 for me. Oh, and don't watch the George Clooney remake of the film - it's a Hollywood love story set in space - it's rather horrible. ;)

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krzem's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Concept was really interesting and at the start was hooked. Sadly chapters about the mechanics of the planet and science were waaay too streached-out and made me really annoyed - it ruined the experience for me. The plot itself was quite intriguing. Disappointed by the wasted potential.

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