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A review by heathengray
Solaris by Stanisław Lem
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I dimly remember the snooze-fest that was Geroge Clooney's attempt to make a movie out of this book. So I had written off Lem as someone I'd never 'get'. After reading some more classic sci-fi however, people started pushing me his way. And I'm glad they did.
The novel is set on a space station established to research the world it orbits - Solaris. It is a barren world with naught but an ocean that should have been drifting into the nearby Red sun in its system. But it wasn't. So centuries later after humans discovered the ocean itself is alive, and can exert the force of will necessary to keep the planet from harm, and have frustratingly discovered little else, our protagonist arrives to discover the remaining crew of two in the midst of collective nervous breakdowns. A third member is recently dead. And then his visitors arrive - Living flesh and blood people from his past, as if they picked up their lives from the moment he lost contact with the in his life.
I can at least confirm it isn't anywhere near as boring as the last attempted movie makes it. But it is boring for the reasons this book's pacing can lag - namely the angst our protagonist goes through to reconcile the feeling he has for these visitors. While we get some very juicy sci-fi histories of the planet and mankind's attempt to understand it, sadly we don't get much of a resolution, and the book ends very much in keeping with the themes it presents - life and memories.
The novel is set on a space station established to research the world it orbits - Solaris. It is a barren world with naught but an ocean that should have been drifting into the nearby Red sun in its system. But it wasn't. So centuries later after humans discovered the ocean itself is alive, and can exert the force of will necessary to keep the planet from harm, and have frustratingly discovered little else, our protagonist arrives to discover the remaining crew of two in the midst of collective nervous breakdowns. A third member is recently dead. And then his visitors arrive - Living flesh and blood people from his past, as if they picked up their lives from the moment he lost contact with the in his life.
I can at least confirm it isn't anywhere near as boring as the last attempted movie makes it. But it is boring for the reasons this book's pacing can lag - namely the angst our protagonist goes through to reconcile the feeling he has for these visitors. While we get some very juicy sci-fi histories of the planet and mankind's attempt to understand it, sadly we don't get much of a resolution, and the book ends very much in keeping with the themes it presents - life and memories.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racial slurs
Pretty much towards the start the protagonist sees a visitor and describes her as an Negress Amazon or something similar. Put it down to the year it was written in, I guess. But for being set in the far future, I think Lem wanted to shock the reader in the way only a woman (and a black woman, no less) on a serious scientific expedition could.