Lem's Solaris: The Prize
By Péter MARTON ** Join the European Science Fiction group on Facebook for related discussions. ** Last year, in the European Science Fiction group on Facebook, we had a quiz series for which a prize is given out to the winner, and that prize is visible above. As the founder of this community, I am very happy to report that the logistics of getting the brand new copy to its owner have by now been arranged. This is the best choice I could think of, for the book prize, given worldwide awareness of Lem's work and also his genius that is on full display in Solaris . The psychic ocean of the planet Solaris, an entity that cannot be conveniently anthropomorphised in the name of universal understanding, generates endless debates among scientists in the novel – this forms the background to the story in which a team of researchers grapples with the challenge of making sense of interactions with the ultimate, unfathomable Other. An Other that increasingly takes the init...