I appear to be in the minority with this cult classic but the book did not resonate with me and became a chore to finish.

It's disappointing because there were some very enjoyable elements of the book. The haunting and eerie vibe is unmistakable in The Station. The interaction between the scientists is frustratingly vague but slowly you learn more and understand why. The mysteries of Solaris take form and the book embraces a mystery, creepy sci-fi/thriller feel.

And then it's followed by paragraph after paragraph of detailed history, learnings of past explorers. Any momentum and interest I had in the story would come to an immediate halt.

I can appreciate what the story was doing and the creativity that Lem showed by providing such detail and thought into alien life but it ruined the book for me.

As Kelvin pulls encyclopedias, diaries, research papers out and reads them I checked out. I wasn't interested in an anthropological study on aliens, but for those that were into it, this book would be brilliant.

This is a short book but it took a long time (by my standards) to get through it.

The book bordered on DNF territory but with only hours left in my reading time I thought I could tuck in and knock it out...but as the days went on my desire to read decreased so a few hundred page book took a while to finish off.