Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Alfred A. Knopf (New York, 1981). 1st edition, 1st printing. 288 pages. $11.95.
Description
The third in Doris Lessing's visionary novel cycle Canopus in Argos: Archives. It is a mix of fable, futuristic fantasy and pseudo-documentary accounts of 20th-century history.
User reviews
LibraryThing member anamuk
The best of the archives so far.
Ambien II is a Sirian administrator who has been supervising experiments on the Southern continents of earth/shikasta. Like the Canopeans she becomes aware of the presence of Shammat (who seem to find the Sirians approachable). It provides a complimentary view to
I found it more interesting than Shikasta, whether this is because the ideas have been developed more or that 3 books into the series I was more at home I can't say. It is however well written, provoking SF very much worth reading
Ambien II is a Sirian administrator who has been supervising experiments on the Southern continents of earth/shikasta. Like the Canopeans she becomes aware of the presence of Shammat (who seem to find the Sirians approachable). It provides a complimentary view to
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Shikasta but goes further and gives us more insight into Canopean ideas & ideals.I found it more interesting than Shikasta, whether this is because the ideas have been developed more or that 3 books into the series I was more at home I can't say. It is however well written, provoking SF very much worth reading
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LibraryThing member Stevil2001
This novel retells the history of Earth from the perspective of the Sirian Empire, a long-standing rival of Canopus, though they don't ever seem to be involved in all-out war. It's primarily narrated by Ambien II, a member of the Five that rule Sirius, and shows an alternate perspective to the
I did continue to wonder whether or not the books were being written with the level of self-consciousness that Canopus might not really be "all that." You have a protagonist who is so enthralled by them that it is often difficult to tell.
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events depicted in Shikasta... sort of. It's not exactly an alternate perspective, for though Ambien starts out antagonistic to Canopus, the novel details her slow conversion (over vast eons of time!) to Canopean beliefs, and it's written at a point where she has been converted, so the whole book is very heavily in favor of Canopean ideology. I liked it more than I did Shikasta, mostly because there were more moments where I connected to Ambien than there had been with Johor. She's put in an unfortunate position of no longer being accepted by her people in Sirius, but she's not (and never will be) one of the people of Canopus, either. (Now that I think about it, she's a lot like Al•Ith in The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five.) I especially liked the parts where Ambien went undercover on Earth, and encountered the agents of Canopus. Like Shikasta, however, the long fictional history eventually grew too repetitive to be interesting, though in this case the ending was absolutely killer.I did continue to wonder whether or not the books were being written with the level of self-consciousness that Canopus might not really be "all that." You have a protagonist who is so enthralled by them that it is often difficult to tell.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
if we wanted to, we could have crammed our planets with billions of genera, species, races—as they once had been. When we wanted, they could be left empty. We could—and did—maintain some planets, for special purposes, at high levels of population, and leave others virtually unpopulated. While
As our philosophers asked, and argued.
We, the administrators, had been watching Canopus: she was not acquiring ever more colonies. She was stabilised on what she had. She had far fewer than we . . . she was developing and advancing them . . . But that was not how we saw it then: I have to record that we despised Canopus, that great neighbour of ours, our competitor, our rival, for being satisfied with such a low level of material development and acquisition.
In the first book in this series, agents from Canopus told the story of the planet known first as Rohanda the beautiful and then as Shikasta the broken. This book tells the story from the point of view of the Sirians, who shared the planet with the Canopeans, having been allocated the southern parts of the planet for their experiments. Ambien II, an administrator from Sirius whose contacts with Rohanda and Canopus span hundreds of thousands of years, and she writes this book at a time when she has finally come to understand Canopus. The Sirians have never understood the way that Canopus manages their planets and develop the races that live there, and have always resentfully believed that Canopus is being needlessly obscure and deceitful, when the refused to explain the nature of the Link, and answer every question about why they are acting in a particular way by
saying that it was because of the Necessity.
Although this book takes place in prehistoric times and does not go deeply into the stories of individual humans as in the latter part of "Shikasta", I think I preferred "The Sirian Experiments" in some ways. Ambien II may be a colonial administrator to her very core, who refers to the less highly-developed races in her change as animals, but the story she tells is a personal one, looking back regretfully at her struggle to understand Canopus and come to terms with her betrayal of her original Sirian beliefs.
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all these variations on our basic problem were attempted, our space drive had been stabilised. We had discovered that no matter how forcefully we swept out into space, gathering in suitable planets as we found them, incorporating them into our general plan, we took our problems—or rather, our problem—with us. What did we need all these new colonies for? What was their purpose? If they had special conditions of climate, then we could tell ourselves they were useful—for something or other; if they had new minerals, or large deposits of those already known to us—they were used. But suppose we went on acquiring colonies and reached the number of a hundred . . . a thousand . . . what then?As our philosophers asked, and argued.
We, the administrators, had been watching Canopus: she was not acquiring ever more colonies. She was stabilised on what she had. She had far fewer than we . . . she was developing and advancing them . . . But that was not how we saw it then: I have to record that we despised Canopus, that great neighbour of ours, our competitor, our rival, for being satisfied with such a low level of material development and acquisition.
In the first book in this series, agents from Canopus told the story of the planet known first as Rohanda the beautiful and then as Shikasta the broken. This book tells the story from the point of view of the Sirians, who shared the planet with the Canopeans, having been allocated the southern parts of the planet for their experiments. Ambien II, an administrator from Sirius whose contacts with Rohanda and Canopus span hundreds of thousands of years, and she writes this book at a time when she has finally come to understand Canopus. The Sirians have never understood the way that Canopus manages their planets and develop the races that live there, and have always resentfully believed that Canopus is being needlessly obscure and deceitful, when the refused to explain the nature of the Link, and answer every question about why they are acting in a particular way by
saying that it was because of the Necessity.
Although this book takes place in prehistoric times and does not go deeply into the stories of individual humans as in the latter part of "Shikasta", I think I preferred "The Sirian Experiments" in some ways. Ambien II may be a colonial administrator to her very core, who refers to the less highly-developed races in her change as animals, but the story she tells is a personal one, looking back regretfully at her struggle to understand Canopus and come to terms with her betrayal of her original Sirian beliefs.
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LibraryThing member otterley
This is in some ways quite a light hearted book, with moments of comedy as well as the more dominant didactic tone that characterises Lessing's science fiction. The lead character here is a female bureaucrat from the planet Sirius and the book tells her story of her interactions with the planet
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Canopus and, amongst other things, the evolution of our planet in which both more evolved societies have an interest. As ever, the chronological sweep and consistency of imagination is impressive - Lessing's science fiction universe is intellectually and rigorously coherent, and holds a mirror up to our understanding of our realities. But at the same time, this is a novel about growth and about the mistakes made along the way and as such has freshness, light and humour as well as pathos and tragedy. Show Less
LibraryThing member questbird
This is my second reading of this book, and this time I read it immediately after 'Shikasta', to which it is a companion piece. It's fair to say that this book does not stand on its own and would even be baffling if one had not read Shikasta first. Unlike the other books in the Canopus in Argos
Sirius is a materialistic empire. Its technology has conquered transport, communication, ageing, mortality, physical labour. But its immortal citizens have nothing to do: there is an existential crisis in the empire. Ambien II is one of the Five, immortal technocrats who semi-secretly run the Sirian Empire. Her interest in and envy of Canopus draws her to Rohanda, where she encounters the Canopean agent Klorathy. Klorathy shows her things on Rohanda/Shikasta which makes her begin to question herself and her Empire.
Ambien II is quite a dry and at times obtuse narrator (think of an immortal university bureaucrat and you might get the idea), so parts of this book can be heavy going at times. The structure is not innovative like Shikasta's. It is interesting to regard it as a very long companion document to Shikasta. It tells a somewhat long-winded tale of galactic evolution.
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Archives series, this one is closely coupled to the first. However it provides an interesting second perspective on that work. Where Shikasta was from the points of view firstly of Canopus and later various people of the stricken Shikasta, 'The Sirian Experiments' is told by a single narrator: Ambien II of Sirius, Canopus' galactic rival and neighbour.Sirius is a materialistic empire. Its technology has conquered transport, communication, ageing, mortality, physical labour. But its immortal citizens have nothing to do: there is an existential crisis in the empire. Ambien II is one of the Five, immortal technocrats who semi-secretly run the Sirian Empire. Her interest in and envy of Canopus draws her to Rohanda, where she encounters the Canopean agent Klorathy. Klorathy shows her things on Rohanda/Shikasta which makes her begin to question herself and her Empire.
Ambien II is quite a dry and at times obtuse narrator (think of an immortal university bureaucrat and you might get the idea), so parts of this book can be heavy going at times. The structure is not innovative like Shikasta's. It is interesting to regard it as a very long companion document to Shikasta. It tells a somewhat long-winded tale of galactic evolution.
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Subjects
Awards
Booker Prize (Longlist — 1981)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1981
Physical description
288 p.; 9.4 inches
ISBN
0394512316 / 9780394512310
Local notes
Inked on first page: "Mary Howland".