Solaris

The Definitive Edition

By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator

Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani

Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.

In Solaris, Kris Kelvin arrives on an orbiting research station to study the remarkable ocean that covers the planet’s surface. But his fellow scientists appear to be losing their grip on reality, plagued by physical manifestations of their repressed memories. When Kelvin’s long-dead wife suddenly reappears, he is forced to confront the pain of his past - while living a future that never was. Can Kelvin unlock the mystery of Solaris? Does he even want to?

©1961 Stanislaw Lem. Translation © 2011 by Barbara and Tomasz Lem (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Few are [Lem's] peers in poetic expression, in word play, and in imaginative and sophisticated sympathy." (Kurt Vonnegut)

"[Lem was] a giant of mid-20th-century science fiction, in a league with Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick." ( The New York Times)
"Juliani transmits Kelvin’s awe at Solaris’s red and blue dawns and makes his confusion palpable when he awakens one morning to find his long-dead wife seated across the room. Juliani’s performance is top-notch." ( AudioFile)

Transit of Solaris: a SF Mimoid on a Grand Scale!

I'm kinda giddy about both starting and finishing this on June 5, 2012 (Transit of Venus). I figure if I can measure how long it takes me to read this novel in English and French and Polish, I might be able to figure out the exact distance from Solaris to my Brain. Obviously, this is not science fiction meant to be read by teens, waiting for the next evolution of the Twilight series or Fablehaven or whatever teenagers read now. This is Big Mamma Science Fiction dealing with big issues using philosophy and poetry to communicate both the strangeness of mankind and the gentle waves of the Universe. Being a translation, the reader (or listener) is only able to capture an incomplete shadow of Lem's original text. However, if the shadow is any indication, the height of Solaris in Polish must have been a mimoid on a grand scale.

details details details

a good story weighed down with too many unnecessary details. Too bad. I got through about half, then gave up trying to sort out story from blah blah blah

Engrossing.

I remember many years ago as a child, watching the Russian movie Solaris by director Andrey Tarkovskiy. To tell you the truth, I really did not understand it one little bit. It was a confusing film that nearly put me to sleep. It was hard to grasp and I had a very difficult time understanding the concepts around the ocean and its manifestations. But the story lingered in my mind thereafter and I knew that one day I would have to read Stanislaw Lem’s novel to understand it as an adult. Finally I got to listen to this incredible novel. This is one of the very best science fiction novels ever written. Lem really studies our inner soul and its interaction with the impossible. As you engross yourself in the novel, do not be disappointed that there is no final answer to the mystery of the ocean, but marvel in the way he entices you to answer the questions the protagonist struggles through. What would you do in an event like this? That is really what Lem is asking of you … A must read!

Definately NOT Star Wars - MUCH Better!

Really an outstanding read.

The Narrator is top class - it will be difficult listening to many others after this - The whole performance comes across as if he is telling the story - not reading it off. Pity he has not done much else - more please.

The story itself is not anything like Star Trek or Star wars. This is more like SCIENCE fiction as opposed to science FICTION. The story had me thinking hard about what was happening and more. It would be something like explaining how to use your credits to a mosquito. Mind boggled for certain.

I will reread again and again and would definitely recommend to anyone who is serious about science.
As a parting thought though, not "what’s it all for?" but "how did it start?"

A very challenging read made compelling

The reader is Alessandro Juliani (Felix Gaeta in Battlestar Galactica). He's an accomplished voice actor (he's a classically-trained singer) and his interpretation of the roles is interesting, and quite different from both films. Snaut comes off as Tom Waits with a head cold and Sartorius is far more obviously passive-aggressive - using formal language and a sing-song tone to distance himself - than the quite harshly sardonic versions in both films. I also noted how little Sartorius actually appears directly instead of being a merely implied presence and actor. Harey is the least convincing, but then on the page she was only sketched in outline anyway.

With Stanislaw Lem, characters are never the primary focus, except insofar as they serve to reveal peculiar and universal human limitations. As has been said of Lem, knowledge is the real protagonist. Where Juliani really excels is in reading Kelvin's long and intricate summaries of fictional reports on the transient and incomprehensible phenomena of Solaris; it's "mimoids", "symmetriads" and "asymmetriads." One of the pleasures of science fiction is the "infodump", and Lem was a master of it, using it here to brilliantly satirical effect, but it's hard for someone not appreciative of the mode to endure. Juliani manages to inflect his reading with the narrator Kelvin's fascination, weariness, wryness and frustration, making it both interesting and comical, and showing how Solaris has been such a compelling and thoroughly intractable mystery to its investigators.

Lem's descriptions rather remind me of Mandelbulbs, by the way (3- or n-dimensional Mandelbrot sets).


Solaris was never an easy book to enjoy, but it was never meant to be. This presentation makes it a lively and compelling exercise. Highly recommended.

Timeless and Amazing

I was blown away by this book. Narration by Juliani is excellent. The journey and imagery that Lem created was to me profound. After listening to this book I rented the movie version. Didn't hold a candle to this book (don’t judge a book by it’s movie really applies here). The planet is a character in and of itself, fascinating. This book made me wish I lived in a universe with Solaris so I could see the amazing transformations created by the planet. Highly recommend.

First Class Sci-Fi, First Class Narration

This book deserves its reputation as a first rate science fiction classic: at the same time it creates indelible rich images of another world and the sensation of remoteness that the reader or hearer will long remember, it transmits the limits of human understanding with the paint brush of ambiguity.

I thoroughly enjoyed both the story and its truly talented rendering by the narrator.

Not your typical Sci-Fi Novel (but almost!)

Would you listen to Solaris again? Why?

Yes, because I was annoyed for a lot of the start of the book when it wasn't going the way I thought it would go. Now I realize it is more of a thought-provoking novel and would listen more to the details.

What other book might you compare Solaris to and why?

The Road, just because they are both futuristic and get people talking/thinking/debating. And they both are pretty exciting.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It was interesting enough for me to discuss it with others who were not reading it, to get their view on it. Also now I want to watch the movie.

Any additional comments?

I would recommend this novel.

This classic continues to surprise!

For film lovers, Tarkovsky's Solaris sits up there with Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey as ground-breaking classics and front runners of the true space age. But both films are well-known for being a bit opaque. Long shots of space and strange planetary surfaces. Not a lot of dialog. What's there to say?

So I was stunned to find Lem's story--and Julian's incredible narration of this new translation--to be so engaging, intimate, current and accessible. At the same time, the reality facing the newest arrival on Solaris Station is like a litmus test for one's sensitivity to horror. What's your Hari?

While appreciating Tarkovsky's film I was surprised by the technical depth Lem filled the planet of Solaris with and how well-tread he made the Station's halls feel, long before we ever made it into space. This and 2001 are indispensable for fans of the films and the sci-fi genre.

I found something oddly pleasant, albeit anachronistic, in listening to a narrated digital recording of a classic sci-fi novel wherein many discoveries on a distant planet far in the future are made in a library amongst the hand-written notes left by their predecessors.

A can't stop listening "read"

This is the first full Audible Sci-Fi novel I have had the pleasure of listening to. If they are all produced as well as Solaris was, then I will be an Audible addict. Spending so much time in my work van, this is ideal.
The story itself is intriguing and draw me in very quickly. I was supposed to have this on the iPhone for a holiday by the pool (great idea not having to take my reading glasses to the pool) in October. Didn't make it.
The descriptions in the novel brought alive by the narration and talent of Alessandro Juliani where as rich as if imagined when reading the novel itself (which I have not done in this instance). While the story does bog down in places, it soon lifts again when he comes out of his musings over science or historical archives.
I have now downloaded a few more novels that I hope I can hold off listening too till October. But probably won't be able to.
I highly recommend this for fans of Sci-Fi. Great work Audible. Thank you.