Very classic scifi-ish, definitely spawned such movies as “Event Horizon” and questions your beliefs about evolution.
The story:
Huge battleship is sent to investigate loss of other battleship on far-away planet. Turns out there’s a lifeform on this planet which - in true Lem-tradition - really makes you think twice about Darwin and evolutionary theories.
I laid eyes on my copy of this while glancing over my book shelves 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.