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augusts_2020's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
snarf137's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Overall a tragic and mesmerizing account of the undescribeable, where the most intimate chambers of the characters' interior lives are laid bear and blur with something that is completely 'other'. Also one of the best descriptions of the truly Alien that I have encountered: the existence of a reasoning being whose motivations are forever beyond human understanding.
"So one must be resigned to being a clock that measures the passage of time, now out of order, now repaired, and whose mechanism generates despair and love as soon as its maker sets it going? Are we to grow used to the idea that every man relives ancient torments, which are all the more profound because they grow comic with repetition? That human existence should repeat itself, well and good, but that it should repeat itself like a hackneyed tune, or a record a drunkard keeps playing as he feeds coins into the jukebox.."
"The beat of our hearts combines, and all at once, out of the surrounding void where nothing exists or can exist, steals a presence of indefinable, unimaginable cruelty. The caress that created us and which wrapped us in a golden cloak becomes the crawling of innumerable fingers. Our white, naked bodies dissolve into a swarm of black creeping things, and I am – we are – a mass of glutinous coiling worms, endless, and in that infinity, no, I am infinite, and I howl soundlessly, begging for death and for an end. But simultaneously I am dispersed in all directions, and my grief expands in a suffering more acute than any waking state, a pervasive, scattered pain piercing the distant blacks and reds, hard as rock and ever-increasing, a mountain of grief visible in the dazzling light of another world."
Graphic: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Racism and Alcohol
elizlizabeth's review
3.0
Graphic: Confinement and Suicide attempt
fox_at_the_circus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The more character and dialogue heavy chapters were fun, tho. My personal favourite was Rheya (or better, her copy). I actually think, this whole story from her POV would be a way more interesting horror read.
Moderate: Suicide attempt and Gaslighting
Minor: Alcoholism
erebus53's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.5
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?..
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexism and Alcohol
kinddog2073's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Suicide and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Alcohol
captainfez's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
When I was at school, thanks to facts discovered later, Solaris was widely regarded as a planet endowed with life—but with only a single inhabitant…
To read the rest of the review, consider visiting https://captainfez.com/2023/01/03/book-and-movie-review-solaris/
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
esztertth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism
magicshop's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Man has gone out to explore other worlds and other civilizations without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers, and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed.
you should read this book if...
- you enjoy very imaginative and complex sci fi. and i mean complex. things will go over your head at times for most people, so be ready for that too 😅
- you're into solipsism and existential themes
- you're prepared to deal with quite a bit of pervasive sexism and misogynoir
the good
- ultimately a deep exploration of the human psyche and how it deals with grief, how it sabotages itself, lies to itself, and continuously hopes for the impossible against all odds. how can we be sure we exist ― that anything exists? how can we explore the unknown without first working to understand ourselves and each other? and much more that'll definitely entertain you if you enjoy philosophy and psychology.
- the concept/premise itself is undeniably interesting and attractive to anyone who enjoys space-related sci fi, and the book manages to deliver on it, albeit convolutedly (more on this further below).
the bad
- cringe-worthy racism and sexism, especially the latter since it takes up a big part of the story. basically one very minor character is a huge stereotype of black women, and is perceived by the main character with clear repulsion and even disgust most of the time. another female character, who is quite important to the plot,
not only has no real personality aside from on-and-off self-hatred and suicidal intent, but actually ends up dying three times ― twice to suicide, and mostly in order to benefit the main male character's plot. do keep in mind that this is a book from the 60s and a degree of these elements is almost to be expected, but i still wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to avoid it like the plague based on this stuff alone. - the book is entirely about the plight of a bunch of white dudes stuck together in a space station. this combined with the above... i rest my case 🙄
the complicated
- reads like a fictional textbook at times ― the pacing is really kind of.......Bad. lem switches between plot and long (and i mean long) scientific explanations about the planet at the drop of a hat, with no rhyme or reason, and you need a lot of patience and/or enjoyment of the subject matter to get through most of it (i was mostly the latter since i'm obsessed with space and alien life, but even then a lot of things went over my head for being far too technical with way too many made-up words).
- the ending paragraph is a banger, but the ending itself was
very open-ended and kind of unsatisfying to me. i just personally needed more closure than we got, but that might be a me thing, so it doesn't go in the bad section. - the main relationship is between people around 10 years apart in age, which to me is not a problem in itself, except that
the woman is a "clone" of the dude's girlfriend when she was 19, so he's basically dating someone who's mentally stuck at age 19 and has a different idea of who he is than who he actually is after growing up. that kind of irks me personally (it comes off as him taking advantage of her innocence and lack of knowledge at certain points) so i thought i'd put it here in case anyone else has trouble with that kind of thing.
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Suicide
teatalkandtomes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Minor: Suicide attempt