I was very disappointed when I read Solaris. It is a book I had been looking forward to reading for years.

For me it was too slow and drawn out. There were too many things left for the reader to "understand" or think up for themselves. I found the descriptions of the ever changing planet forms tedious. I had been thinking of watching the George Clooney film, but now I don't think I'll bother.

Some people say "Solaris" was Eastern Europe's response to "2001, A Space Odyssey". Well, I had problems with that movie. There were parts of it that were tedious and other bits that were excellent. I did, however, think the novelisation was brilliant and "The Sentinel", ok!
(2001 was more "good", than "tedious". It pushed the envelope in so many ways and gave us so many new things; both in cinematography and Science Fiction tropes.)

The "Solaris" novel was a good response to the tedious parts of the "2001" movie; it mirrored them well. ( )

Solaris was a disappointing read despite its high reputation. We never learn enough about the planet and I found the long elaboration of former expeditions boring. The dramatic changes of the ship crew is quite interesting though and I would have loved to read more about it. ( )

Solaris was a disappointing read despite its high reputation. We never learn enough about the planet and I found the long elaboration of former expeditions boring. The dramatic changes of the ship crew is quite interesting though and I would have loved to read more about it. ( )

A mysterious ocean studied for years yields no mysteries. The planet, solaris has been studied for hundreds of years, but scientists have discovered nothing more. The theories are diverse. A scientist goes to the space station to explore the planet. In the end he learns more about the nature of love and himself. It's a sad and melancholy story. The study of the planet frustrates all involved. Kelvin and others on the station begin to see people from their past. Most notably Kelvin sees his long dead wife, dead from a suicide. All the characters despise these creation and seek to get rid of them. They discover they are manifestations of the ocean. Kelvin is different he begins to love this creation, even if it is a mainestation of his own mind made physical by the oceans powers. The others find a way to destroy these manifestations. Kelvin's wife asks to be destroyed. He is then faced with the reality that he will never see her again. Even when he visits the ocean its waves divert away from him. Love lost is lost forever. Last passage:We all know we are material creatures, subject to the laws of physiology and physics, and not even the power of all of our feelings combined can defeat those laws. All we can do is dtest them. The age-old faith of lovers and poets in the power of love, stronger than death, that finis via sex non armoris, is a lie, useless and not even funny. So must one be resigned to being a clock that measures the passage of time, now out of order, now repaired, and whose mechanism generates despair and love as soon as its maker sets it going? Are we to grow used to the idea that every man relives ancient torments, which are all the more profound because they grow comic with repetition? That human existence should repeat itself, well and good, but that it should repeat itself like a hackneyed tune, or a record a drunkard keeps playing as he feeds coins into a jukebox...Must I go on living here then, among the objects we both had touched, in the air that she breathed? In the name of what? In the hope of her return? I hope for nothing. And yet I lived in expectation. Since she had gone, that was all that had remained. I did not know what acheivements, what mockery, even what tortures still awaited me. I knew nothing, and I persisted in the faith that the time of cruel miracles was not passed. ( )

I should start by saying that I haven't seen the film version of this book, but after reading it I am quite keen to see the film.

This was a very interesting and intriguing science fiction novel. It kept me thinking throughout and it certainly wasn't predictable. The isolation of the characters was well portrayed which led me to be very sympathetic to the lead character. ( )