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adventurous
informative
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Solaris, despite being centered around a mysterious alien "ocean," is about the human condition and insatiable desire to make contact with the unknown. Humans are defined by a need to make sense of the universe, and in the novel, the characters (and much of the supplementary, worldbuilding science sections) are driven by this very need. Half of the book revolves around the history of the ocean and humanity, which got very boring and dry after a while. I think the purpose of including these sections was to emphasize that humans have been trying to understand this alien world for a very long time through humanity's understanding of science, but the execution got lost in the weeds. I appreciate that the mystery is never solved and we (and the protagonist, Kelvin) are left dissatisfied with the scientific findings. We never truly understand what is going or what the "ocean" is, and the novel asks us to find peace with this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Death, Blood
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
adventurous
challenging
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:
Yes
The first half is fantastic, loses itself in the second.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Violence
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Polaris starts with a tense and mysterious situation but gradually slows to a dismal crawl. The book reflects on how humankind deals with the inexplicable, and leaves much unexplained (even the more trivial mysteries are never resolved). The main character is stubborn, short tempered, and brooding, which reduced my enjoyment as well. Thankfully, the book is short, so I perservered to the end, and I actually quite enjoyed the final chapter.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Suicide, Alcohol
Minor: Racism
dark
mysterious
reflective
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
Everyone who has written a science fiction book apparently considers themselves an armchair philosopher. It all has to be a metaphor, all the time, apparently; not just any metaphor, no, a metaphor that the author has to explain in excruciating detail because he doesn't trust his audience to pick up on his subtleties!
Solaris - the planet - is a truly fascinating concept. An ocean-planet with two suns, a planet that seemingly controls the environment around it, seemingly able to create.And I do love an ending where the central mystery of the book isn't answered - and it's not. We never find out if the ocean is living, is a brain, or is just a bizarre geologic structure. Unfortunately, Lem ruins all of it through Kelvin, who painstakingly infodumps about the physical, biological, and philosophical theories about the planet that literally only exist in his made-up universe. If I wanted to read a textbook, I would've read a textbook.
At times, I found myself engaged with Kelvin's and Rheya's dynamic: their desire for each other;Kelvin's guilt over Rheya's suicide; Rheya's belief that she truly is Rheya, which turns into the reader's belief; the horror Kelvin feels when seeing Rheya's reappearance, or when she stole the tape recorder; and all of that turning into a burning need to be with each other despite all logic. But at the end, when Rheya dies, Kelvin gets over it basically immediately. Even from the start, it's obvious to the reader that Rheya is a blank character, as most female characters are when written by men. There's nothing interesting about her except as Kelvin's dead wife. She's obedient and docile, but hysterically suicidal whenever Kelvin shows any apathy towards her whatsoever. Women, amirite?! *rolls eyes*
I can see the appeal of Solaris, and it was appealing to me, at times. But the characters are hollow and unlikable with no clear motivations, it's interspersed with long tirades about philosophy and science and religion that have nothing to do with the plot at hand, and even the plot itself seems to be serving that singular purpose as a playground for Lem's own interest in such dense topics. Either he didn't have the decency or the skill to at least veil the metaphor in plot. In a word, it's boring.
Solaris - the planet - is a truly fascinating concept. An ocean-planet with two suns, a planet that seemingly controls the environment around it, seemingly able to create.
At times, I found myself engaged with Kelvin's and Rheya's dynamic: their desire for each other;
I can see the appeal of Solaris, and it was appealing to me, at times. But the characters are hollow and unlikable with no clear motivations, it's interspersed with long tirades about philosophy and science and religion that have nothing to do with the plot at hand, and even the plot itself seems to be serving that singular purpose as a playground for Lem's own interest in such dense topics. Either he didn't have the decency or the skill to at least veil the metaphor in plot. In a word, it's boring.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence
Minor: Death, Racial slurs, Suicide, Gaslighting
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Stanislaw Lem is great at building tension, and building a believable and immersive environment. The book is at its best it's told through the main character's eyes, and the reader can see what's happening around them. It falls down at the long sections of exposition, which feel distant from the main narrative, and at the long monologues.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Murder
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
Solaris war ein Fiebertraum. Von Anfang bis Ende war hat mich der Aufbau fasziniert und die unendlich vielen Details die Lem sich hat einfallen lassen. Auch ist Solaris ein wahnsinnig toller Blick darauf wie Lem 1961 die Zukunft der Raumfahrt erwartete. Ein faszinierendes aber auch unzufriedenstellendes Buch zwischen Scifi, Noir, und ausgedachten wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Death
Minor: Body horror, Racism
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Grief
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
‘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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Racism, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I started listening to this audiobook alongside the paperback that I was given by my brother about 20 years ago. The translation is different and it was kind of fun until I gave up because my eyes were causing me issues (the reason I predominantly listen to Audiobooks). Each paragraph meant basically the same thing, but the wording was slightly different, which felt a bit like reading subtitles when they don't quite match how I interpret the original language. Fun.. but a bit exhausting.
Out in the vastness of space there is most likely intelligent life, and this is the story of what happens when humans encounter alien life so vast and different to our own that communicating with it, or even being noticed by it, becomes a spur for entirely new fields of science and philosophy. The premise of the plot is that instead of life developing, pluralising, and leaving the ocean, it has stayed in the ocean and become it, organising into what appears to act like one ever-seething organism. This organism extrudes matter from itself in forms that scientists have been observing for decades, trying to make sense of the ever changing landscape.
When Kris Kelvin lands on Solaris, only to be told that his once mentor has recently died, he has to figure out what is going on. When he runs into another person, who should not be there, walking in the corridor, he starts to understand the warning of his fellow who begged him not to engage with any strangers.
This story is at times spooky, horrific and maddening, and lumbers at a frustrating pace through hypotheses and tests, as the scientists try to figure out the shapes and human forms that the planet is making for them, that (in Bradbury-esque fashion) seem to be patterned on their own deepest memories. Together they try to overcome their own stress and cabin-fever, and strive to understand the nature of, and perhaps communicate with, the life-form of the planet.
In the discussion of morality, spirituality and godforms, it doesn't escape me that they speak of humans being limited by our animal perceptions of the environment around us, so that perhaps the only type of life we can truly communicate with has to be human-like. Is the life on Solaris trying to interact with humans by sending humanlike synthetic things, or are we again in a trap of anthropomorphising and presuming that our own mythologies are fact?..
Out in the vastness of space there is most likely intelligent life, and this is the story of what happens when humans encounter alien life so vast and different to our own that communicating with it, or even being noticed by it, becomes a spur for entirely new fields of science and philosophy. The premise of the plot is that instead of life developing, pluralising, and leaving the ocean, it has stayed in the ocean and become it, organising into what appears to act like one ever-seething organism. This organism extrudes matter from itself in forms that scientists have been observing for decades, trying to make sense of the ever changing landscape.
When Kris Kelvin lands on Solaris, only to be told that his once mentor has recently died, he has to figure out what is going on. When he runs into another person, who should not be there, walking in the corridor, he starts to understand the warning of his fellow who begged him not to engage with any strangers.
This story is at times spooky, horrific and maddening, and lumbers at a frustrating pace through hypotheses and tests, as the scientists try to figure out the shapes and human forms that the planet is making for them, that (in Bradbury-esque fashion) seem to be patterned on their own deepest memories. Together they try to overcome their own stress and cabin-fever, and strive to understand the nature of, and perhaps communicate with, the life-form of the planet.
In the discussion of morality, spirituality and godforms, it doesn't escape me that they speak of humans being limited by our animal perceptions of the environment around us, so that perhaps the only type of life we can truly communicate with has to be human-like. Is the life on Solaris trying to interact with humans by sending humanlike synthetic things, or are we again in a trap of anthropomorphising and presuming that our own mythologies are fact?..
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexism, Alcohol
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Death