Name: Solaris
Rating: 3.921195652173913 (184 reviews)
ISBN: 9780156837507

Stanisław Lem

The first of Lem’s novels to be published in americanca and still the best known. A scientist examining the ocean that covers the surface of the planet Solaris is forced to confront the incarnation of a painful, hitherto unconscious memory, inexplicably created by the ocean. An undisputed SF classic. Translated by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox.

Solaris

Jiji

Man has gone out to explore other worlds and other civilizations without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers, and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed.

Emiley Jones

Angela Zeiler

Karpe Diez

Lem presents a motif found in several mythologies: what if planetary forms like mountains, oceans, rivers, etc are actually intelligent life forms? We just don't have the capacity to perceive them as such, partially due to the difference in scale. And, if that was true, such entitys' interest in communicating with us would be just about the same as ours towards bacteria. <br /><br />Feelings of guilt, shame, unresolved duty are so powerful over our subconsciousness that they can end up dominating our daily actions. They are always there, like an invisible witness to everything we experience in life. But what if they would actually be embodied in a physical representation, denying us the option to at least try to push them away? Sticking into our daily routine, no longer making it possible to ignore them?

Not bad. Not the most interesting either. 

Azrael Montana

Sunky

michael mann

The Definitive Edition

This is the second time I read it. It did not age well. Good science fi for sure but has some questionable moments 

Definitely an interesting take on the first contact. Some “Moby Dick”-esque chapters that spent too much time on unnecessary history or imaginary science. 

Will Dawson

naučnofantastičen roman

Stephen Gill 

A thought-provoking story about first contact with an alien entity.

Nelson Zagalo

"Solaris" de Stanislaw Lem foi publicado em polaco em 1961, traduzido para inglês em 1970, e transformado em filme de culto russo, em 1972, por Andrei Tarkovsky. Nos últimos 25 anos vi o filme, pelo menos, uma dezena de vezes e de cada vez fui compreendendo mais e melhor o mundo-história que nos era apresentado. Ajudou, pelo meio, a leitura de "Cosmos" (1980) de Carl Sagan, assim como múltiplas outras leituras de não-ficção e ficção-científica, assim como o meu próprio amadurecimento. Em 2002 saiu a versão de Soderbergh que pouco acrescentava, apesar de apresentar um discurso mais direto porque menos poético. O meu amor pelo cinema e enorme respeito por Tarkovsky, fez com que tivesse sempre considerado a sua obra insuperável. Sempre que pegava no texto de Lem, as primeiras páginas faziam-me sentir que a simples especulação escrita nada podia face à mestria poética cinematográfica. Terminada a leitura, continuo a reconhecer a mestria artística de Tarkovsky, mas percebi que o visionarismo pertence todo a Lem.

[Imagem]
Capa da primeira edição inglesa

A leitura do texto fez-me sentir que Tarkovsky tinha escondido excessivamente o âmago do universo de Lem no interior do seu filme. Ele está lá, e basta ver o curto videodoc "Auteur in Space" (2015) de Kogonada para reavivar memórias e ligações, mas requer muito trabalho e persistência por parte do espetador, assim como bastante contexto. Ao terminar o livro, senti que Lem se tinha dado a nós, que mais do que um romance, tinha feito uma grandiosa obra especulativa, ou se preferirmos uma obra de "não-ficção futurista". Lem acusou Tarkovsky de se focar apenas nas relações humanas, o que é incorreto. Tarkovsky fá-lo tanto como Lem. O cerne de Solaris pode ser visto a partir da perspectiva preferida de Lem, a incomunicação com o não-humano, mas essa abordagem é construída com base em processos de espelho da noção de existência do humano, ou seja, das memórias, e isso é central tanto em Tarkovsky como em Lem.

[Imagem]
Imagem do filme homónimo de Andrei Tarkovsky com a russa Natalya Bondarchuk (Rhea) e o lituano Donatas Banionis (Kris)

A escrita surpreendeu-me, para uma obra de género, escrita sob um regime de opressão política como a URSS, e com cerca de 60 anos, é muito boa. Não existem artifícios de estrutura, nem inovações formais, a história serve apenas o relato, mas a escrita juntamente com a ciência eleva todo o discurso a ponto de nos colocar num elevado estado reflexivo. Se Tarkovsky consegue elevar a experiência por meio da poesia audiovisual, Lem fá-lo por meio da perfuração direta de conceitos sobre a condição humana.

Publicado no VI:
https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...

Charlotte 

A book set on a different planet ✔
2.5 stars

This book was quite boring and nothing really happened and the characters were bland and unlikeable, and things that were said as a reflection on humanity were mediocre at best.

Gulshan Hasanzada

Dünyada filmə adaptasiyası ən mürəkkəb kitab hansıdır?-deyə soruşsalar, oxuduqlarıma görə elə birinci Solarisi deyərəm.

1972 Tarkovski istehsalı filmini izləmənizi tövsiyə edirəm, amma Tarkovskini nə qədər sevsəm də Stanislav müəllim kimi mənə təsir edə bilməyib.

''insanoğlu başka dünyalar, başka uygarlıklar bulmak için yola düşmüştü ama, karanlık geçitlerde gizli bölmelerden oluşan kendi öz labirentini tanımamış, kendi mühürlediği kapıların ardında neler yattığını bulup çıkaramamıştı.''

Fraser Simons

A psychologist is sent to a long established space station with the goal of helping to discern something about an alien presence. 

A kind of quintessential setup for science fiction, but this is the absolute perfect execution. It’s a layered story that builds thematics and numerous conceits to both convey what it’s like to attempt the problem or puzzle of unraveling this mystery at an emotional level, while building to a larger point that science fiction usually ignores; especially in regards to alien life and communications, first contact, etc.

It’s hubris to believe we could throw ourselves in tin cans through voids and expect that the scientific method and even the very reasoning process could be adequate in the task of truly attempting to understand something actually alien. Not something anthropomorphized or metaphorical, or some other device or method to relate to something fundamentally unknowable. 

The book has no interest in fulfilling genre tropes or providing prescriptive answers, nor does it even provide a “likeable” character. It is purposefully isolating, it’s form meeting function. There’s a fair chunk of hard science in here from time to time, and I can see why some people would not care about that part. But the book is very short and I found that section particularly interesting, though I am a complete layman in the area.

It made me feel like the main character, provoked some thoughts I don’t think any science fiction book ever has, and it is one of the rare books that acknowledges, or rather highlights, that there are some things every person simply must reckon with, less it destroy them. Now, or later.

Quick note: I was warned off the other translations, with this audiobook and an ebook being the only ones that the author thought was adequate. I followed along with the other translation softcover I have and it is quite different. The prose and construction is quite a bit more complex in this version, and there is more nuance. But I didn’t think, from what I saw, that the other translation was too bad, either. I’m not surprised plenty of people thought the original one was completely fine.

Lee Schneider

Spare and skillfully rendered. In a category of its own. 

This is one of the best books I've read in a while. I'm not a huge science fiction reader, usually dabbling in the lighter and more comics side of things, but this was recommended to me and I'm really glad to have found it.

Humans are exploring new planets and have spent many, many years trying to make contact with Solaris, a planet covered in some strange kind of organic cell "sea," with few results. When Kris gets to the station above the planet, he finds out that more contact has been made than ever expected, but what to do with it?

It's a rather short novel that, from my interpretation, focuses on the question of what humans are trying to accomplish when searching for other life, and how our perceptions hold us back. The imagery is masterful, and balances the new and strange observations or events with a relatable protagonist. It's very thought provoking when you consider our current ideology about space travel.

The main negative that I encountered was some strange wording, most like likely brought on by being translated twice and not directly translated into English.

André Nóbrega

3,5, extra points for the originality, for how alien the alien is, not so much for the delivery of the research and science, far too close to a masters degree thesis study moment for me to love.

Solaris

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