The star diaries - S. Lem

In the Translator’s Note at the end we can read:

Much to the discomfort of his critics, and to the disappointment of many of his fans, who pleaded, ‘Write us more things like Solaris,’ Lem was not content to repeat his previous successess; he continued to follow his own difficult drummer. The Star Diaries offers only one example of this stubborn and even restless individuality.

I was in fact expecting a thing like Solaris and I can confirm the disappointment. The problem with older, famous sci-fi is always that most of the good ideas became mainstream since the publication. So even ideas that seemed original at the time now taste stale. I would not say this is the only problem of this book.