Review – Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 241 pages
Publisher:‎ Pro Auctore Wojciech Zemek
Release Date: November 22, 2014
ASIN: B00Q21MVAI
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed ebook from Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 3/5 stars

“When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface, he finds a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the living physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others examining the planet, Kelvin learns, are plagued with their own repressed and newly corporeal memories. The Solaris ocean may be a massive brain that creates these incarnate memories, though its purpose in doing so is unknown, forcing the scientists to shift the focus of their quest and wonder if they can truly understand the universe without first understanding what lies within their hearts.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook through Kindle Unlimited.

Thoughts: I had this on my to read list for some time and when I finished “Alien Clay” by Tchaikovsky and saw so many reviews comparing that book to Solaris I decided it was time to finally read this. I liked “Alien Clay” a lot better than this book, it is just a more cohesive story. This story starts out okay but there is way too much page space given to fantastical descriptions of research done by previous visitors to Solaris, this was hard to picture and bogged down the story.

Kris comes to Solaris to find the research team in pieces; the leader is dea and the rest are haunted by Visitors/Guests. Kris wakes to find himself laying beside the body of his long dead lover, who appears to know him. However, she can’t remember her past. The team quickly discovers that the ocean of Solaris is sentient and is pulling out their memories and making them corporeal. This doesn’t start to happen until they bombard the ocean with x-rays.

I liked some parts of this book and intensely disliked other parts of this book. Watching Kris confront the painful memory of his dead lover and watching him adapt to that is intriguing. The planet of Solaris is also fascinating in its own right. Most of this book feels very dream-like and Kris as a character is very distanced from the readers.

I struggled with the fact that Kris remains removed from the other researchers on board the station; you see them sometimes, but they very rarely interact which is odd because there are only three humans on the station.

I also struggled with the incredibly long chapters where Kris is reviewing previous research on Solaris. These sections of the book are filled with long and complicated descriptions of things that were hard for me to picture and imagine. They also didn’t seem to have a lot of impact on the rest of the story aside from driving home the strangeness of the planet and the fact that humans have been fascinated by it for many years.

The whole story felt incomplete and unsatisfying to me. I do understand that there is a deeper context here about humanity needing to understand itself before it tries to understand others. I just didn’t find this very compelling.

My Summary (3/5): Overall I am happy to have finally read this, I enjoyed some part of the story but disliked others. Watching Kris confront an alien life form in the form of his dead lover was intriguing but watching him delve in to the prior Solaris history was not. The story feels ambiguous and unreal throughout, and in the end I didn’t find it all that satisfying. I enjoyed “Alien Clay” a lot more; that does have some similar themes to this book and is a more concrete story with more interaction.