Word: ambien
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Sirian Experiments, unfortunately, recapitulates as much as it adds. The primary subject is once again the catastrophe that overtakes Shikasta (earth). The observer this time is a woman named Ambien II, a virtually immortal emissary from Sirius. She was in on the original cultivation of Rohanda-Shikasta. She retains a proprietary interest in the ailing planet, and visits it every eon or so. In addition to the unfolding spectacle of human savagery, she sees some spectacular sights. She happens to be flying over in a small bubble of a spaceship when the planet suddenly tips over from its upright axis...
While keeping tabs on Rohanda, Ambien II begins to believe that Canopus is far more advanced than Sirius. The Sirians are technological wizards, but every millennium or so they discover that their ever more sophisticated machines have rendered more people useless and unhappy. Ambien suspects that the Canopeans have achieved a wisdom that transcends this problem, and she initiates a friendship with Klorathy, a senior Canopean administrator, in the hope of prying his secrets away. The job is not easy. He has the habit of answering a question with another question. He is also given to interstellar bromides: "Everything...