Solaris is a classic sci-fi drama that follows the story of Kris Kelvin, a psychologist, as
he arrives on a space station that is surveying the planet Solaris below.
Solaris – the planet itself – appears to display signs of what might be intelligence,
implying the planet is conscious. However, this intelligent consciousness is
not like anything human, raising the question of why humans use themselves as
the standard of consciousness for all ‘life.’ This however, is but a subplot of
the book.
The book’s main focus is upon the humans studying it. Shortly
after Dr. Kelvin arrives on the station, he is soon plagued by ‘visitors’ of
which I will say nothing more other than said ‘visitors’ are implied to be explorations
of the human psyche by the planet for reasons that are not readily apparent. The
book’s strength lies in how Dr. Kelvin rationally, successfully – and emotionally,
unsuccessfully – deals with the station’s ‘visitors.’ This is what makes the
book more about the human psyche and how it might deal with possible alien
intelligence than the existence of alien intelligences itself.
As for the prose, this book is an easy read despite some
dated references, an occasional awkward translation (as the author is Polish),
and a bit too much description in the early chapters. There is also the matter
of entirely too much exposition near the middle of the book about something the
planet is doing, not all of which is relevant later. This section of the book
seems to forget it is a drama set against a sci-fi background.
Finally, as an author myself, I find the ending of a story
to be the entire point of a story, and this book doesn’t miss that target in my
opinion. The book ends on a sad but more importantly entirely realistic note,
though I could see how other readers may take the ending as something of a
whimper. The reader would do well to remind themselves that this is more drama
than sci-fi and in keeping that in mind, will find the ending more satisfying.
Final Score: 8/10
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