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

SOLARIS is the masterpiece of Polish author Stanislaw Lem - a psychological drama and a profound exploration of the science fiction genre.

Kelvin is a psychologist who arrives at a space station orbiting the mysterious planet of Solaris; his mission is to ascertain whether research should be terminated due to lack of progress. He finds the station all but deserted, its straggling crew seemingly haunted by hallucinations of figures from their individual pasts. But then Kelvin himself is visited in the middle of the night by a woman who is outwardly identical to his dead wife. Will Kelvin be able to resist the disturbing ambiance of Solaris, and the emotional pull towards the living, breathing likeness of the woman he loved?

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.

Der Planet Solaris ist von einem Ozean bedeckt, der eigenen physikalischen Gesetzen zu gehorchen scheint. Der Psychologe Kris Kelvin wird geschickt, um die Wissenschaftler, die den Ozean von einer Raumstation aus untersuchen, zu unterstützen. Doch nichts hätte ihn auf die merkwürdigen Ereignisse vorbereiten können, die ihn dort erwarten: Schon bald steht er seiner verstorbenen Geliebten gegenüber, an deren Selbstmord er sich schuldig fühlt. Auch die anderen Besatzungsmitglieder sehen sich mit schmerzhaften unterdrückten Erinnerungen konfrontiert. Kann es sein, dass der Ozean ein eigentümlich intelligentes Wesen ist, das die Vergangenheit heraufbeschwört – aus Gründen, die niemand versteht?

Mit einem Nachwort von Harald Lesch und Harald Zaun

Angela Zeiler

On the surface this is a ghost story- a story about a man grappling with guilt and his past. And then of course, it’s a story about space. But when it’s a story about space it’s never just that, because it’s in turn a story about humanity. And that itself is also the point of the story- what are we looking for when we look to space? To aliens? To our past? To science? We want it to tell us something about ourselves. And so this story is a thriller, at times deeply unnerving, with help from Lem’s vivid, sometimes painstaking descriptions of the alien landscape and the scientific accounts of it from different voices in the story. I found myself tensing up, tiptoeing through the rooms with Kelvin, feeling the many colors of the suns through the windows, whispering for fear of being heard, and seeing things that were unlike any Earthly thing. It was beautiful, existential, and thought provoking.

liz long

Not bad. Not the most interesting either. 

Azrael Montana

Sunky

Luis Ponce

Leí en algún lado que uno de los problemas que encontraba Lem en las adaptaciones de "Solaris" era la fijación por el apartado romántico sobre la cuestión del coloso extraterrestre. Mis impresiones más rápidas, sobre todo a minutos de haber acabado la novela, no pueden evitar sentir una enorme incompresión por este hecho. Pese a que con la novela Lem pretende señalar que las categorizaciones humanas (tan propias y regulatorias) no funcionan si se realizan desde una sola vía, el amor y la fragilidad humana resisten. Solaris, entre muchas cosas, sigue siendo una novela de amor, aunque su intención precisamente se centre en los procesos de colonización espacial y la subordinación de las especies. La desolación, antítesis de lo que en páginas finales definen por "Contacto", se despliega durante el inicio en el carácter de las tres únicas personas que habitan la central espacial. Y gracias a ello el descubrimiento del lector y de Kelvin, el protagonista, resulta tan desolador: ¿qué harías si te encuentras con un planeta, un espacio, capaz de reproducir el recuerdo de un ser querido? ¿qué diferencias habría entre él o ella y la imitación, el espejismo, de un planeta que puede leer tus memorias?

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...

nonchi

Finally, I watched Tarkovsky's version and.. it isn't bad. I think.... yeah.. it isn't bad. Really enjoyed movie Rheya way more than book Rheya. I enjoyed the monologues but comparing with some of the best dialogues in the book, not that big of a deal. 

And still... 

Animation tho. The imagery makes the meaning in Solaris, without the imagery we have great monologues, and that's it. But I like them so that's.... Fine. 

(?)
---------------------

Sensations, impressions and strangeness. A classic weird fiction I would say. Not recommend to thalassophobics, but apeirophobics might handle this well. 

I enjoyed almost everything about this book. I liked the pacing and the narrative choices the author made. Either speculating about the mysterious visitors, or rereading books on subjects the protagonist already knew, almost every chapter has some information for us to continue wondering what's going on in Solaris. And because we have so little information not only about Solaris, but also about Earth, everything was mysterious enough for me to relate with these characters. 

I will not discuss or confabulate here about the deeper issues the story suggests, there is nothing new here.  however, the author brings these issues in a much lighter and elegant way.. maybe even whimsical. I didn't expected that, honestly. 

Rheya could be more interesting tho.

Kelsey Lynn

This has been on my shelf waiting for me to read for way too long. I finally picked it up, and while my edition is pre 2011 (the bad translation) it was still haunting. I found myself drawing so many of the lines of the book (I may challenge myself to illustrate it). At times drawn out and dry, the moments of introspection, beauty and sadness make up for it, a truly unique story and I can't wait to read the preferred translation.

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.

Sophia De La Garza

This book for class was more fun than the previous reads. However, sci-fi is still my least favorite genre to read.

Alexia

Este es el primer libro de este autor que leo, y quedé enamorada. ¡Más Lem, por favor!
4,5 estrellas. Casi casi 5.

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.

Heather

Mmmmhhhh this was a looonng read. 
The beginning of the book was engaging enough but as we go deeper into the story, the plot becomes more and more intellectualized. 
Actions and dialogues become scarce, and we go through pages of descriptions without end.

Solaris

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