Much like the Strugatsky’s Roadside Picnic and its connection to Tarkovsky’s Stalker…Solaris is another example of being familiar with the film(s) before I ever knew it was a book. I’ve been familiar with the book for several years now, and it’s not until now that I’ve decided to give it a shot.

Solaris reads like the mix of classical, hard science fiction that’s concerned with the actual science behind the happenings of the narrative, and that of a haunting ghost story where the characters’ minds are revealed by their interactions with the ‘supernatural’ manifestations of their deceased loved ones or colleagues. It’s quite a compelling mix of ideas, and the notion of the alien planet being the ‘alien’ itself is incredibly brilliant. It’s very fast paced (thanks in part to its short length), in spite of the occasional bombardment of hard, technical jargon that’s used to lend credibility and believability to such a fantastic premise. I don’t read hard sci-fi very often, as it’s this aspect that I personally don’t gel as much with, but Solaris strikes a great balance and doesn’t ever get too bogged down in its own detail.

This makes me want to rewatch not only Tarkovsky’s film, but Soderbergh’s as well, if only to reaffirm how different they are from the novel— in the case of film’s visual immediacy, I think it was likely a smart choice not to focus as much on the hard science (and instead focus on the human interaction), but at the same time, that’s what gives the book much of what makes it so fascinating and as I said, Lem knew how to strike a balance between those two aspects.