552. Solaris

Solaris
Stanislaw Lem
1961
Around 205 pages

Another crossover, as Solaris was also featured on the movie list. But it's not a very faithful adaptation, so it wasn't too much of a spoiler. We don't get sci fi books very often on this List, so they should be treasured, even when they are kind of boring. 

A distant planet named Solaris is covered in an ocean-like gel that appears to be a a living and sentient being. I like this interpretation of aliens, because I believe aliens wouldn't look anything like life on earth and a giant ocean blob seems accurate. Kris Kelvin, a psychologist, arrives on a research station hovering near Solaris to attempt to communicate with the entity, and interpret the phenomena that occurs on the surface.

This is a trippy story that clearly had an enormous influence on other sci fi stories, with Arrival and Inception immediately coming to mind. I liked the premise more than the execution, but that's only because I don't really go for the hallucinatory plots. 

I just want to get to Douglas Adams. All the sci fi stories we've had so far are so serious.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Lem himself observed that none of the film versions depict much of the extraordinary physical and psychological "alienness" of the Solaris ocean.

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