You are doing all you can to stay human in an inhuman situation. Noble it may be, but it isn’t going to get you anywhere. And I’m not so sure about it being noble – not if it’s idiotic at the same time.
― Stanisław Lem, SolarisIt’s what we wanted: contact with another civilization. We have it, this contact! Our own monstrous ugliness, our own buffoonery and shame, magnified as if it was under a microscope!
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris
Kelvin is finally on his way to the space station on Solaris. A solo traveler, we share each step with him as he departs from the massive spaceship and travels the hours in his solo pod to land on the base station on the uninhabited planet called Solaris.
Solaris is covered almost entirely by an ocean. Some islands poke up from the surface, but these are dead and uninhabited. The life form is the ocean. The ocean is not like Earth’s ocean. Instead, it is a living, moving creature. It expresses some signs of sentience, but, after decades of attempting to make contact, Earth scientists are doubtful they will ever understand what this ocean is.
We don’t know much about Kelvin other than he studied for years before he was allowed to join the other scientists on Solaris. The planet’s atmosphere is too toxic to breathe, so most observations are performed using the equipment and tools available on the station. There are hovercraft that can be used for expeditions, but the station’s occupants have become more cautious as previous explorers either vanished en-route to their destination, or suffered mental breakdowns upon their return from a routine flight.
Kelvin’s arrival follows a narrative similar to a classic horror story. The base station appears to be abandoned. His shuttle lands safely and he enters the station. Instead of joining a group of motivated and sharp scientists, he meets Snow, who appears as if he’s been living in a cave for years. Sartorius, the other scientist, has barricaded himself in his lab and will not come out. Gibarian, the scientist who requested Kelvin join them, is recently deceased. The station is functional, but piles of broken equipment and contents of cabinets and crew quarters are strewn about as if the place had been ransacked. The maintenance robots have been disabled and locked away. There is no way for Kelvin or the other scientists to contact the ship. Neither Snow nor Sartorious will explain what is going on.
What has happened is that Solaris has finally made contact. This is not a horror story, but to me this is one of the most interesting renditions of showing that the true horror – the cruelty and hubris and indifference – is perpetuated by our own thoughts and behaviors.
I appreciated the story and the roles of each of the characters. I am still pondering the questions posited in this book, and how Kelvin, as a proxy for the reader, reacts and then rationalizes his behavior as he tries to stay sane.
This was not a fast read. While this is a relatively short book, getting through the last fifty pages or so was a slog. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this before. Now that I have read it, I think I will enjoy reading theories and interpretations of the messages within more than the actual reading of the book.
Another reviewer posted some recent reviews of what is considered to be classic sci-fi. For this one, Solaris is a brilliant example of how to create a rich history and knock it out of the park in setting the mood of foreboding in a short book. However, as far as stories go, you can probably read a synopsis and then look up some explanations about the themes presented in the text. I’m glad I read it, but it took more effort than I had expected.