Solaris

Sadder than I remember. The first time I read it, I was impressed by the satire of the Scientific Establishment. This time I was more attuned to Kelvin’s inner journey, his changing understanding of his feelings of guilt and love for Harey (Rheya) and her Solarian incarnation, and the sacrifices each are willing to make for the other that suggest to me that they really did come to love each other in the end, beyond Harey’s programmed love and Kelvin’s sense of guilt. I think that Kelvin’s decision to stay on the planet in hopes of establishing contact with what might be a planetary intelligence is just sublimated hope of Harey’s further reincarnation. I think he would have done better to have let go.