Word: canopus
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...technological science fiction appears to have ended. Who needs to read about imaginary rocket ships and interplanetary voyages when he can read about the real thing? The age of psychological and mythological science fiction, however, is definitely under way. Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos novels are notable for using a futuristic setting to peer into man's past and speculate on his future. If Lessing is the Athena of the genre, Frank Herbert is its Homer...
This is the third installment of a space saga that Author Doris Lessing calls Canopus in Argos: Archives. That running title is matched by the pace of Lessing's production: three good-sized novels in the past 16 months. Shikasta (1979) tells of a primitive, beautiful planet called Rohanda, which is being jointly colonized by the two vast galactic empires of Canopus and Sirius. A misalignment of cosmic forces throws Rohanda awry; its developing inhabitants stop listening to their wise tutors and begin behaving suspiciously like members of the human race. The Canopean overseers sadly change the place...
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...
...Lessing's admiration for Canopus of ten nudges her from telling into preaching. In fiction, the knowledge that one character has all the answers works against suspense. The realization that those answers are not forthcoming puts great strains on patience. But another vol ume is reportedly on the way, and others are likely to follow. The Sirian Experiments may be a small misstep on a long journey. To be continued...