Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - Solaris

Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Solaris by Stanisław Lem

20 reviews

veelaughtland's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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owenwilsonbaby's review against another edition

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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.

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yasmin_raev's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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bluelizzz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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maur_damar's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

4.75

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vessel's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Here's the thing about Solaris: Lem is describing the biology, behaviors, and visuals of the ocean that wouldn't be out of place on the cover of a space themed dark ambient album, I'm having fun. He's describing the arcane, involved, and controversial academic scene surrounding it, I'm still having fun. We pivot to interpersonal drama and having to listen to the same irritating academic dudes ramble on or argue impotently or say racial slurs, I'm not having fun anymore.

If you're a pervert like me who's really into speculative biology and fun sci fi worldbuilding, there are a number of parts in this book that are a joy to imagine and roll over in your brain. There are concepts posited that are fascinating to consider, and once again, its striking imagery alone makes it clear for me why it is considered a classic.

Personally, I found the protagonist incredibly grating and annoying, along with pretty much every single other character (excluding the ocean), and there was just something about the pacing that I could not stand. I was having fun about half the time reading this, and the other half felt like pulling teeth. It gets a bonus for the brief moments of effective suspense and horror, along with the occasionally quite charming, deeply dated elements that in the year 2023 very much read as "retrofuturism".

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augusts_2020's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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snarf137's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This was such a subtle and mature read. For some reason, it wasn't as gripping as I expected (given that everything about this story is right up my alley), but the concepts were deft and the writing was beautiful. I still can't quite place why this isn't a full 5/5 stars (perhaps it is, with a little more mental digestion), but suffice to say that this story is technically perfect.

Overall a tragic and mesmerizing account of the undescribeable, where the most intimate chambers of the characters' interior lives are laid bear and blur with something that is completely 'other'. Also one of the best descriptions of the truly Alien that I have encountered: the existence of a reasoning being whose motivations are forever beyond human understanding.

"So one must 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 the jukebox.."

"The beat of our hearts combines, and all at once, out of the surrounding void where nothing exists or can exist, steals a presence of indefinable, unimaginable cruelty. The caress that created us and which wrapped us in a golden cloak becomes the crawling of innumerable fingers. Our white, naked bodies dissolve into a swarm of black creeping things, and I am – we are – a mass of glutinous coiling worms, endless, and in that infinity, no, I am infinite, and I howl soundlessly, begging for death and for an end. But simultaneously I am dispersed in all directions, and my grief expands in a suffering more acute than any waking state, a pervasive, scattered pain piercing the distant blacks and reds, hard as rock and ever-increasing, a mountain of grief visible in the dazzling light of another world."

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elizlizabeth's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

3.0

Interesting premise, leaning a bit on psychological thriller. I didn't like the pacing of it a lot since at times it infodumps on things that don't have any impact on the immediate events. At times it felt like an excuse to present some ideas the author has regarding human-centric science, religion, grief, and guilt, rather than a novel with an actual plot and conflict.

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fox_at_the_circus's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I really liked the premise of the book. The maybe sentient alien ocean and isolated scientist interacting, is just a really good setting to explore characters. And while I love detailed and thorough worldbuilding, the chapters about the research history read like a physics textbook and dropped way to many names for me to follow. The super detailed descriptions of the ocean's visuals also lost me a bit, it was just too much detail for me to imagine.
The more character and dialogue heavy chapters were fun, tho. My personal favourite was Rheya (or better, her copy). I actually think, this whole story from her POV would be a way more interesting horror read.

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