Besides Solaris, his meditations on life and society in The Cyberiad remain some of my favourite science fiction of all time.
The Futurological Congress is also a lot of fun; it's one of his comedies, a satiric look at futurism.
His Master's Voice is advanced level Lem. It's less a novel than a fictional autobiography of a scientist, and while the subject matter is fascinating, it's a bit dry.
The Cyberiad is a classic, but very different and not really sci-fi. It's a collection of absurd, surreal fairytales about a pair of robots. It contains math puzzles and rhymes and lots of weird stuff.
Fiasco, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Tales of Pirx the Pilot and Star Diaries are supposed to be good.
I found Eden (one of his early works) to be a little juvenile and poorly written. It, too, is about first contact gone wrong.
It may be an easier entrypoint than Solaris, at cost of arguably not being as "deep" in its reflections.
Like Blade Runner's relationship to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, it was a lot different than the book, but shares some deep ideas, and stands on its own as a great movie.
The scene in the USC ICT's motion capture studio was riveting, with Robin Wright playing a partly fictionalized version of herself, and Harvey Keitel playing her agent, baring their souls to the giant emotion capturing machine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Congress_(2013_film)
As far as I've read, plot has absolutely zero to do with The Futurological Congress. The only similarity is that there's something in the movie called the "Futurological Congress" and that there's some kind of attack on it.
If you think it's worth seeing, maybe I'll give it another go.
Michael Kandel was Lem's translator for many books including The Cyberiad -- including some brilliant poetry and plays on words!
He's such an excellent translator, it would be interesting to read other stuff he's translated! Any recommendations?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kandel
Kandel is perhaps best known for his translations of the works of Stanisław Lem from Polish to English. Recently he has also been translating works of other Polish science fiction authors, such as Jacek Dukaj, Marek Huberath and Andrzej Sapkowski. The quality of his translations is considered to be excellent; his skill is especially notable in the case of Lem's writing, which makes heavy use of wordplay and other difficult-to-translate devices.
http://www.art.net/Studios/Hackers/Hopkins/Don/lem/HorribleP...
Oft, in that wickless chalet all begorn,
Where whilom soughed the mossy sappertort
And you were wont to bong --
A love poem, lyrical, pastoral, and expressed in the language of pure mathematics. Tensor algebra mainly, with a little topology and higher calculus, if need be. But with feeling, you understand, and in the cybernetic spirit.
http://www.art.net/Studios/Hackers/Hopkins/Don/lem/Femfatala...