Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

I picked this book up cheaply since it was a tacky version with George Clooney on the cover that came out for the related movie. I had it sitting on my shelf for a while since when I saw the movie, despite it being excellent, I associate it with some pretty bad times. One day I’ll be ready to appreciate it again though.

The book was a bit of a let down and reminded me a lot of a Dostoevsky novel. Lots of grim internal commentary going on. Unfortunately I couldn’t relate to the characters very well, the most human one (Rheya) is ironically not really human, which I can say without really ruining the plot. Although perhaps that is an ironic point that the author was trying to convey. I found the main character a passive-aggressive asshole more often than not, and unfortunately the book is written in the first person.

The plot itself was also a little lacking, nothing really happened, and there was a lot of history on Solaris and its research to read. History is great, but in this short novel it seemed to be a little excessive. Maybe I’ve been ruined by reading pulp sci-fi with at least a little action.

It did however invoke atmosphere – loneliness, isolation, and being in the clutches of unfathomable alien entity. Glad I read it since it is a classic, but I probably wouldn’t read it again.

I picked this book up cheaply since it was a tacky version with George Clooney on the cover that came out for the related movie. I had it sitting on my shelf for a while since when I saw the movie, despite it being excellent, I associate it with some pretty bad times. One day I'll be ready to appreciate it again though. The book was a bit of a let down and reminded me a lot of a Dostoevsky novel. Lots of grim internal commentary going on. Unfortunately I couldn't relate to the characters very well, the most human one (Rheya) is ironically not really human, which I can say without really ruining the plot. Although perhaps that is an ironic point that the author was trying to convey. I found the main character a passive-aggressive asshole more often than not, and unfortunately the book is written in the first person. The plot itself was also a little lacking, nothing really happened, and there was a lot of history on Solaris and its research to read. History is great, but in this short novel it seemed to be a little excessive. Maybe I've been ruined by reading pulp sci-fi with at least a little action. It did however invoke atmosphere - loneliness, isolation, and being in the clutches of unfathomable alien entity. Glad I read it since it is a classic, but I probably wouldn't read it again.