Comment Solaris film versions & Lem's better short fiction (Score 1) 92
Lem's Solaris is adequately reviewed above. The Russian film version, IMO, definitely ranks inferior to the book: way too long (3+ hours) and told in strict chronological order. Flashback scenes from the text are shown entirely before the remainder of events, IIRC. The recent movie _Event Horizon_ borrows heavily from Solaris, and deserves watching if you don't mind splatterpunk horror movies.
Lem's _Return From The Stars_, _Fiasco_, _Cyberiad_, _Prix the Pilot_, and all his other long fiction deserves the mention it gets here. Still, for my money, his short stories are much better. Go read _Imaginary Magnitude_, with its tales of transhuman MI philosophers and their meta-languages. Go read _One Human Minute_, with its precognitive bacteria, X-ray pornography, and the prescient short "Weapon Systems of the 21st Century." All of these far outshine his longer works.
Lem's _Return From The Stars_, _Fiasco_, _Cyberiad_, _Prix the Pilot_, and all his other long fiction deserves the mention it gets here. Still, for my money, his short stories are much better. Go read _Imaginary Magnitude_, with its tales of transhuman MI philosophers and their meta-languages. Go read _One Human Minute_, with its precognitive bacteria, X-ray pornography, and the prescient short "Weapon Systems of the 21st Century." All of these far outshine his longer works.
