“Another genuinly interesting treatment of an interesting alien from Lem. A little too frustrating/tedious to read in all other aspects.
Who recommended this book
“Honestly, I love Lem's ideas and treatment of aliens and this book definitely does not disappoint on that front, but everything else outside of that was just not great, making the book very difficult and tedious to finish. The characters are drawing out every single dialog, everything is always kept so very mysterious, everyone is always confused or unwilling to communicate properly, no-one acts like a good scientist, and the technological capability of the ocean is dubious. The story and its events just did not really add up. 3/5
“This book scared the shit out of me. I picked it up after watching the film adaptation by Tarkovsky, which is one of my favourite movies. Sometimes I feel like the only explanation for human life is that our planet is a terrible god. I like thinking that planets are living, sentient behemoths that we completely misunderstand. I’m horrified to think what it would be like if such an abstract sentience had no regard for us, or enjoying toying with us. The act of repeatedly killing a doppelganger or a loved one seems so horrific; how could anyone think of something so awful? Whenever people pour cream into coffee in a clear glass, it reminds me of this book, because that’s what I imagine the surface of Solaris to look like.
“Solaris by Stanislaw Lem