Stanislaw Lem: Solaris review

The backcover text of Lem's book says "one of the best of science fiction". I have to disagree.
Written in 1961, Solaris has become a real classic of science fiction so I thought it was my time to patch this little hole I had in my cultural education.
I was so disappointed.

The idea is simple and not bad at all. The book tells about scientist Kris Kelvin who travels to a space station in an orbit of planet Solaris. The planet has been a mystery for the scientists for decades because of its mystical "inhabitant": a vast sea. There has been done many studies on the sea, whether it is an individual, or organic or has a consciusness at all. So far there isn't any certain proofs what the sea actually is.
When Kelvin arrives, the station seems almost deserted and the two scientists who still occupy the place behave weirdly and talk about "visitors" they've had.
Soon Kelvin finds out what they mean and starts to wonder it the sea has anything to do with it.

The problem of Lem's book is its language. For a humanist who sucked at high school physics, this book has way too much of technical information, which isn't interesting at all. I don't really care for reading how Kelvin reads some study made about the sea a few decades ago. Too much science, too much technical stuff.
And there are so many points when the dialogue gets mixed up. Perhaps it's the style Lem uses, but for me it's bloody annoying to go back several lines just to count which one of the characters is saying this line on the end of the page.

I have heard people praising this book and it must have been a massive work and required so much imagination, but I just hoped it would end soon.

I recommend this to those who sincerely enjoy classic science fiction with lots of science and space stuff.

/ [Caterin S.]

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