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owenwilsonbaby's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
‘We take off into the cosmos, ready for anything: for solitude, for hardship, for exhaustion, death. Modesty forbids us to say so, but there are times when we think pretty well of ourselves. And yet, if we examine it more closely, our enthusiasm turns out to be all sham. We don't want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want to extend the boundaries of Earth to the frontiers of the cosmos. For us, such and such a planet is as arid as the Sahara, another as frozen as the North Pole, yet another as lush as the Amazon basin. We are humanitarian and chivalrous; we don't want to enslave other races, we simply want to bequeath them our values and take over their heritage in exchange. We think of ourselves as the Knights of the Holy Contact. This is another lie. We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors.‘
I thought this was just incredible. Although it’s short, I had immense difficulty getting through it because I found the world building and dense theoretical passages quite tricky to get through. The characters and the relationships that they form with each other were far more interesting. I thought a lot of Kelvin’s feelings towards Rheya were beautifully articulated. As a science fiction novel, I find it so compelling that Solaris chooses to explore grief, religion and academia in much profound depth than many of the scientific and speculative concepts it uses.
I definitely had some issues with it - the surprise anti-black racism relatively early in the novel caught me off guard. Although the racist description of the woman is a product of the time and context it was written in, I guess it disappointed me because in many other aspects the novel felt relatively contemporary. Some of the description felt as though it could have been written yesterday, and then the social attitudes of the author jumped out. Maybe that is a product of Kilmartin and Cox’s excellent translation - they make the narrative voice feel very contemporary. I don’t know. Just something that was on my mind.
In addition, I found it to be a little deliberately unsatisfying at times. I think this is because it’s primarily a novel that is about asking questions and searching for reasons for why things happen, and the conclusion of the novel - to me at least - seemed to be that there aren’t any, or the reasons that do exist are too hard for us to properly understand. This was sort of difficult to grapple with this week as I finished the book, because I have been struggling with some difficult news that has left me asking lots of questions, but I do think it was also therefore a useful and calming read. Whatever we’re going through, it’s out of our hands.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Confinement, Medical content, Racism, Suicide, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Body horror
trazac's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I very much liked this book. I loved the madness of the conversations and the human like reactions to what was happening. It's hard to get into, and the middle of the book is very dense, but it's an interesting view of humanity.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Confinement, and Death
Minor: Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Medical content
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