Solaris is a cult classic of the science fiction genre. Written in 1961, originally in Polish later translated to English in 1970, it popularized the SF genre alongside others, such as H.G. Wells (War of the Worlds) and Jules Verne (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, etc). Within the universe of Solaris, Kelvin, an up and coming scientist enters Station Solaris with one main purpose: to identify whether the seemingly living and almost-intelligent planet should continue to be studied by mankind. However as he spends more and more time floating atop the "thinking ocean" he experiences almost-lifelike visions of past memories, buried memories. These visions seemed to affect everyone on board, convincing Kelvin, more and more that these were not visions but memories temporarily brought back to life by the ocean...
Solaris is... not the easiest read. It is a slow-burner, for the majority of its pages, albeit relatively short (roughly 214 pages). However it is indeed worth it. The whole book is classified as a science fiction genre, however it ventures out to various genres: romance, morality and a brief amount of thriller.
Ratings: A must-read for all science fiction buffs. Solaris is psychologically thrilling and raises many questions of morality.
