A full on radio dramatisation of the surreal but thought provoking sci fi story, with full cast, special effects and music. Solaris is a 1961 philosophical science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanisław Lem. Its central theme is the complete failure of human beings to understand an extraterrestrial intelligence as a team of human scientists probes and examines the oceanic surface of the planet Solaris from a hovering research station. Solaris manifests an ability to cast their secret, guilty concerns into a material form for each scientist to personally confront.