Canopus in Argos : Archives

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful, imaginative, thrilling
Review: I am afraid this book may turn out to have a limited audience: too literary and "unrealistic" for science-fiction fans, and too fantastic for literary types. Too bad, because this is a stupendous book, or rather, series of novels. Some may think it strange that an author with as high-brow a reputation as Doris Lessing would stoop to writing "space fiction" (her term), but she has been incorporating sci-fi elements in her fiction as far back as The Four-Gated City, and maybe farther, depending on your definitions. What is science fiction if not the use of extreme and imaginative settings to point out truths invisible in our crowded world? Science fiction encourages "thinking outside the box," a concept that Lessing has explored in a lifetime of ground-breaking work. What are we? What does it mean to be human? Is there more? Lessing hits these questions with a courageous mind and an arsenal of experience and imagination.

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful, imaginative, thrilling
Review: I am afraid this book may turn out to have a limited audience: too literary and "unrealistic" for science-fiction fans, and too fantastic for literary types. Too bad, because this is a stupendous book, or rather, series of novels. Some may think it strange that an author with as high-brow a reputation as Doris Lessing would stoop to writing "space fiction" (her term), but she has been incorporating sci-fi elements in her fiction as far back as The Four-Gated City, and maybe farther, depending on your definitions. What is science fiction if not the use of extreme and imaginative settings to point out truths invisible in our crowded world? Science fiction encourages "thinking outside the box," a concept that Lessing has explored in a lifetime of ground-breaking work. What are we? What does it mean to be human? Is there more? Lessing hits these questions with a courageous mind and an arsenal of experience and imagination.

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful, imaginative, thrilling
Review: I am afraid this book may turn out to have a limited audience: too literary and "unrealistic" for science-fiction fans, and too fantastic for literary types. Too bad, because this is a stupendous book, or rather, series of novels. Some may think it strange that an author with as high-brow a reputation as Doris Lessing would stoop to writing "space fiction" (her term), but she has been incorporating sci-fi elements in her fiction as far back as The Four-Gated City, and maybe farther, depending on your definitions. What is science fiction if not the use of extreme and imaginative settings to point out truths invisible in our crowded world? Science fiction encourages "thinking outside the box," a concept that Lessing has explored in a lifetime of ground-breaking work. What are we? What does it mean to be human? Is there more? Lessing hits these questions with a courageous mind and an arsenal of experience and imagination.

Rating:
Summary: doris lessing, as usual ,is difficult but provocative
Review: I think that it is fascinating that Ms. Lessing resorts to science (she calls it 'space')fiction to tell her story. It is really several stories and I think each book can be read on its own. They are better read as a whole. I particularly liked the story of the bureaucrat from Sirius. That book is a terrific analysis of a conscientious and pragmatic official who is completely in the dark and how life is gradually illuminated for her. It is a very well written book and I recommend all for any readers but particularly the first, Shikasta, and the Sirius Experiments. ( It has been 10 years since I read these)

Rating:
Summary: doris lessing, as usual ,is difficult but provocative
Review: I think that it is fascinating that Ms. Lessing resorts to science (she calls it 'space')fiction to tell her story. It is really several stories and I think each book can be read on its own. They are better read as a whole. I particularly liked the story of the bureaucrat from Sirius. That book is a terrific analysis of a conscientious and pragmatic official who is completely in the dark and how life is gradually illuminated for her. It is a very well written book and I recommend all for any readers but particularly the first, Shikasta, and the Sirius Experiments. ( It has been 10 years since I read these)

Rating:
Summary: longwinded and boring
Review: she has some very cool ideas here and there
but for the most part, these books just drag on and on and on serving only to make some personal moral/philosophical statement that i think could have been saved for interviews or personal discussion

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant analysis of our civilisation
Review: These 5 novels are difficult reading but well worth the effort. Doris Lessing has taken her uncanny observation of the treachery of mankind and translated it into a narrative as presented by beings from Canopus. What they think of us, how they've influenced us. "Shikasta..." is the most harsh, and the most accurate and my favourite of the set. "The Marriages..." is a beautiful fairy tale. "The Sirian Experiments..." is an alternative view of "Shikasta" and a brilliant depiction of humankind. "The Representative..." is a beautifully written fantasy of a dying planet. "The Sentimental Agents" is a scathing, excellent commentary on the arrogance of rhetoric. Ours, of course... While these novels appear to be science fiction, they really are not. They are "Space Fiction" and are a thought-provoking, sometimes beautiful, but always brilliant view of our world and possible others...

Rating:
Summary: Second book is worth a glance; that's about it.
Review: This entire series is deplorable. The second book held slight interest, but as far as I could tell, had nothing to do with the rest of the series. The ideas are insipid, overused, and uninspired. Long and not worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: Second book is worth a glance; that's about it.
Review: This entire series is deplorable. The second book held slight interest, but as far as I could tell, had nothing to do with the rest of the series. The ideas are insipid, overused, and uninspired. Long and not worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: Love in three dimensions
Review: This second volume of the Canopus in Argos: Archives quintet marks a radical break with the science-fictional style of the first book, Shikasta. Instead, it shares with the fourth, The Making of the Representative for Planet 8, a more mythical, allegorical presentation and an aching lyricism of style. In the Canopean universe, the various Zones correspond to states of spiritual being: in Shikasta, Zone Six is a kind of limbo where people wait to be reborn and where the Canopean agent Johor/George Sherban picks up the two who will join him on Earth as his sister and brother. Zone Three, in this second volume, is a tranquil and apparently untroubled realm where, nonetheless, the birth rate is declining and a certain lassitude has overcome the people. Canopus (named here only as "the Providers" who know what is best and must be obeyed) orders the queen of Zone Three, Al.Ith, to marry Ben Ata, the warrior king of Zone Four - an altogether poorer and cruder place. The bulk of the story follows the progress of this arranged marriage from resentful acceptance on both sides through practical working together to solve their realms' mutual difficulties, to the torments of jealous infatuation and out the other side - whereupon Ben Ata must marry the queen of Zone Five, a realm more primitive and deprived than his own, and Al.Ith has become a stranger to her people. But the Providers really do know best, and the three Zones (and Al.Ith, Ben Ata and the queen of Zone Five) continue to evolve, interpenetrate, and share with each other what is needed from themselves. The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five works equally well as cultural allegory, psychological myth or lyrical love story; it is also a pleasure to read.