Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Brilliant.

I’ve been reading science fiction novels since middle school so about forty years. Somehow, this exceptional book never made it to my reading list until now.

This is top tier SF, in the ranks with Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 and Foundation. I looked on some lists of best SF books ever and this is on most lists just way farther down the list than it should be. This needs to be near the top.

Actually, the book that I most thought of was Clarke’s 1973 novel Rendezvous with Rama. In both works we find Earth scientists completely baffled by an alien intelligence that is conspicuously indifferent to us. Lem first published this in 1961 in his native Polish and then an English language translation began making the rounds about ten years later.

Solaris is a planet that strangely orbits two suns and is inhabited by a single living ocean that is inconceivably powerful and also intelligent though the fundamental alienness of this entity is beyond the comprehension of our best researchers. A school of study has originated amongst scientists who study Solaris and it’s notable single resident, creating decades of research material and libraries of information though we have not even scratched the surface of what to do with this alien.

Our protagonist arrives just as one of the three domiciled scientists has committed suicide. The hero is disconcerted by the bizarre behavior exhibited by the reclusive and paranoid remaining scientists. He soon learns why they are acting weird when his dead lover shows up in the flesh and wants to visit. Apparently the ocean has vast psychic powers and can materialize human simulacra presumably from the minds of the humans aboard the research station.

What follows is a strange trip that is also one of the best science fiction stories I’ve ever even thought about reading. The imagery that Lem describes, with alternating red and blue sunrises and sunsets and the alien ocean adds an artistic range and depth to the already intriguing SF story.

Lem wrote later that he purposely created the alien to be a great gelatin ocean to avoid any personification of the monster. I say “monster� because a little discussed element of this book is the inclusion of horrific themes that make this work so well. This is SF but also scary as hell, the kind of nightmare that could have come from Stephen King - if King was even half as cool as Lem. Lem’s description of the ocean made me think of Lovecraft and his Cthulhu mythos.

This also has elements of romance in the story that was thought provoking. Our hero’s relationship with the personification of his dead lover was mesmerizing and the added romantic aspects of the story, mixed in with the horrific themes, added an almost gothic quality to the narrative.

A MUST read for SF fans, don’t wait 40 years like I did, read it today!