“Solaris” addresses a common topic of science fiction – first contact with alien life. This is a topic that has been done brilliantly, terribly, and every step in between in countless books, movies and television shows. When this idea comes closer to achieving real greatness is when the creator addresses the notion that alien life could be so very alien that communication is difficult, even impossible. “Solaris” takes this to its limit – what if the alien is so very alien that we are not sure if there is something to communicate with, or whether we would recognize the communication if it occurred? Further, what if we are so alien that the being we encounter doesn’t recognize us as something intelligent? What if it doesn’t know we are there?

Solaris is a planet, a planet that appears to be alive. The future humans who have discovered this have been researching, investigating and analyzing for years. They have written articles and books, a whole body of research on the problem of Solaris, which the protagonist of the novel goes through during the course of the story. There is a research station on the planet where scientists are continuing to study the planet’s behaviours in an attempt to make sense of them. Impressively the author has conjured up a whole body of research about this planet as part of his story, which is quite convincing.  There are various discussions about the things the planet does and the attempts to communicate. But of course, this leads to the central problem.

Solaris is a planet covered with an ‘ocean’ of sorts. The whole planet appears to be a single entity. How do you communicate with a planet? Is the planet really intelligent? What possible meeting of minds can there be with something so unfathomably different?

How do you expect to communicate with the ocean, when you can’t even understand one another?

When the protagonist Kelvin arrives, the station appears to be in disarray and initially he cannot find anyone. He is unnerved by the fact that no one has met him or apparently noticed his arrival. The first ‘person’ he sees he actually hides from as she is clearly not one of the researchers and not supposed to be there – a naked black woman. When he finally finds one of the staff, Snaut, he has a lot of questions but Snaut is very evasive and wary. The man has a reason for this as it turns out. The only thing Snaut does tell Kelvin is that the station head, Gibrarian, is dead, having committed suicide only a few days before.

Each of the researchers on the station is visited by … someone. The planet is apparently creating facsimiles of people (or maybe not people) drawn from the minds of those on board. Kelvin is no exception, as shortly after his arrival he finds his wife in his room, only his wife has been dead for some years, having killed herself. Kelvin doesn’t want her with him but it appears she insists on accompanying him. He locks her in his cabin and she rips the door apart to be with him, without apparently realising she has done so. She is clearly not human, but has all his wife’s memories (at least the ones he knows about). There are two other researchers on the station, Snaut and Sartorius, who consistently refuses to come out of his room. Neither of them allow Kelvin to see who or what they have been visited by. The naked black woman is never explained. Did she belong to Gibrarian? No answer is given.

But why is this happening? It appears to be the most coherent sign given by the planet, but what does it mean? The planet is capable of constructing exactly duplicates built from memory. Does that mean the planet understands they are intelligent? Not necessarily, because there is no way of knowing what the planet considers to be intelligent. Maybe it is studying them, and the facsimiles are an experiment. Maybe it is just playing, as they have observed it constructing shapes, building like structures, and one humanoid figure on the planet previously. If it is an attempt at communication they don’t know what is being asked or how to answer.

The main theme of the book is communication, and how people cannot communicate with each other, let alone alien races. This is clear by Kelvin’s interactions with Harey, his peudo-wife. Initially he doesn’t want to treat her like his wife. Because he loved her, mourned her and is very guilty over her death he eventually succumbs, and is so intent on loving her that he wants to protect her against the other scientists who are trying to work out how to destroy the facsimiles. (They appear to be indestructible by any ordinary means.) Finally Harey, who despite being a facsimile is perfectly intelligent, works out what the scientists are looking at and, therefore, what she is. She goes behind Kelvin’s back to Snaut, and with his help she kills herself, again. History repeats itself – the planet, having built her from Kelvin’s memories, would include the fact that she is suicidal. The planet is unlikely to have understood this as an issue – how does a planet understand suicide? Kelvin’s fear of the unknown and his guilt mean his communication with Harey is marred, so their relationship ends (inevitably) the same way.

… remember she is a mirror that reflects s part of your mind. IF she is beautiful, it’s because your memories are. You provide the formula. You can only finish where you started, don’t forget that.

Communication between the researchers is not much better. Sartorius only makes one appearance, mostly talking over the radio. Snaut, too, is very secretive about who or what he has been visited by. Much of his conversation is mired in intellectual games and philosophical musings. It is as if he likes being clever, and this is what drives hm.

And yet, in spite of Kelvin being a psychologist, in the end Snaut appears to be the more rational of the group. Kelvin postulates that Solaris is a god, one devoid of religious meaning, an imperfect god who simply is. But Snaut puts his finger on the real problem:

We don’t want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want to extend the boundaries of Earth to the frontiers of the cosmos.  

And

We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors.

“Solaris” is a story about communication and its ultimate inadequacies. It starts with the impossibility of communicating with a truly alien life and ends with the impossibility of communication with each other. It asks many questions and gives no answers. You might even be forgiven for saying it is not a story in any real sense, as it has little action and no real conclusion.  Nonetheless, I have found ti endlessly fascinating and one of the best attempts at addressing the real question of communication with alien life – how alien would they be and could we achieve a meeting of minds? I recommend it for the hard science fiction enthusiast.