Why did I love this book?
I begin my recommendations with a science fiction novel that first got me thinking about the difficulty of understanding other minds when I was a teenager.
Among many other profound philosophical and psychological questions, it’s about the exploration of an intelligent alien mind (and the alien trying to comprehend our minds) and the many things that can go disastrously wrong in the process.
In trying to explore what is going on the cockpit of an insect, I probably continue to make similar errors, though my research is unlikely to result in the doom of spaceship crews, as in this novel.
9 authors picked Solaris as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface he is forced to confront a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others suffer from the same affliction and speculation rises among scientists that the Solaris ocean may be a massive brain that creates incarnate memories, but its purpose in doing so remains a mystery . . .
Solaris raises a question that has been at the heart of human experience and literature for centuries: can we truly understand the universe around us without first understanding what…