SOLARIS by Stanislaw Lem

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#1

As I said in the Perry Rhodan threat, I’m trying to come up with great SciFi written by non-English-speakers.

Solaris was one of the first novels I thought of, it’s written by Polish author Stanislaw Lem and many of you surely know the movie with George Clooney, which in my opinion is not as good as the other movie, there was a Soviet Solaris movie in 1972, which was a great deal more faithful to the novel.

Now, the book is about a space station circling a quite mysterious planet called Solaris. There are only three scientists left on the station and one of them has died under suspicious circumstances. The protagonist is sent to the station and has to deal with the other two scientist going crazy, himself going crazy, hallucinations of a woman who might or might not be his dead lover.

The thing I loved most about the book is the descriptive language, sometimes you read ten or twelve pages without any dialogue, it’s just a description of the planet and the way Lem writes it is just utterly beautiful, the words he uses, quite poetic somestimes, very plastic yet utterly imaginative. And the big question, of course, is: is the planet itself alive?

#2

Now, seeing that Clarke’s “2001” is the current book of the month, I really have to make a case for Lem. If anybody’s looking for more Clarke-type reading material, Lem really is where to turn to.

Anybody who has enjoyed “Rama” will also enjoy “Fiasco” or “The Invincible” (imagine “Event Horizon” with actual MEANING!) or “The Futurological Congress” (from which Matrix borrowed heavily).

There must some Lem fans out there?

#3

i loved the book and the older version of the movie…be a good book or movie rewatch selection. have you read anything else by lem that you would recommend?

#4

At last!

If you loved “Solaris,” then chances are you’re also going to like “The Invincible” as they’re somewhat similar thematically.

“The Futurological Congress” is a quick read, just a novella actually.

“The Star Diaries” and “Memoirs of a Space Traveller” are collections of short stories dealing with Ijon Tichy’s amazing space voyages. They’re incredibly funny at times.

Lem is very popular among Eastern/Central European sci-fi fans and it’s always nice to see how Hollywood eventually borrowed so many of ideas.

#5

thanks for the recommendations…

#6

This is basically a copy of what I wrote in the other Lem thread:

I stumbled over my copy of The Invincible this morning and once again, I just have to make a case for Lem and beg everyone who hasn’t done so yet to go out and read at least one book by Lem. The best bet is “Solaris”, but it doesn’t really matter, it could also be “Fiasco” or “Eden” or “The Invincible”, his central theme stays mostly the same, he merely explores different facets in those books.

So, honestly, please, go and read one of those books TODAY, it will broaden your horizon SO DAMN MUCH and here’s why:

Lem has a totally unique way of thinking about science fiction, about the human mind and possible contacts with alien life-forms. It’s very unlike anything Western SciFi has produced and it’s so totally worth it to go out and listen to what Lem has to say about human-alien interaction, because his basic idea is - there is no interaction, the chances that humans could ever, EVER, communicate with alien life are absolutely zero and his ways of explaining this, of twisting our minds around the thought processes behind this thinking are so damn enlightening, it will make you look at scifi and actually our world, in different terms.

So mark my words, go out and read one Lem book, I don’t care if it’s the only one by him that you ever read, by you need to have read one. And I’m damn serious about this.