The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

Just wondering if anybody else has been to see The Congress ? http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Co...
I thought this would be good as I liked the directors (Made Waltz with Bashir) and was loosely based on a book by the writer of Solaris(although never read this one) The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy
It had good reviews but I really didn't like it / get it. To me just seemed really confused, there were some good ideas but the visuals were much better than the story. Would be interested to know if others enjoyed it and it's just me who didn't.

I love animation and the concept sounds cool. I will have to check it out.

This is a recent review by me:

I write this review shortly after seeing the movie The Congress, which is an adaptation of Lem's book _The Futurological Congress_. I advise to skip the movie. The movie has a much different (and inferior) plot than the novel. The movie only had three or four things from the book. Soon after the movie ended, I sensed disappointment in the other movie goers and I actually told some of them that the book is different and much better.

This book is like a Philip K. Dick novel in highly wacky mode. It should not be surprising that its like a Philip K. Dick novel, for Lem championed PKD's work, even ranking PKD among the greatest science fiction writers.

In this book, the main character is staying in a hotel in a Latin American country, when there is an attempted revolution. So the authorities in response put mind-altering chemicals into the environment. So we have the "What is reality?" trope in this novel.

The book is breezily written and funny. The translation from the Polish appears to be excellent. Lem even coins new words which nevertheless is understandable in English

Ronald wrote: "This is a recent review by me:

I write this review shortly after seeing the movie The Congress, which is an adaptation of Lem's book _The Futurological Congress_. I advise to skip the movie. The m..."

I've now read Solaris and The Invincible by Lem and I really enjoyed both. I must admit that after seeing the film I hadn't been inspired to read the book_The Futurological Congress_ but if it's a lot better and like a wacky PKD novel then i'm clearly missing out. I'm going to put on my to read list.

I've finished reading the book now and it is indeed much better than the film. Lem's imagination knows no bounds, amusing and confusing but really enjoyable. When I have more time i'm going to have to read some more of his works.

It's quite difficult to believe that this and The Invincible have the same author. This being totally crazy and The invincible being traditional hard sci-fi, very impressive.