The Sirian Experiments

by Doris Lessing

Book Overview

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. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394512316
• ISBN13: 9780394512310
• Release Date: December 1980
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.43 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Surprisingly rich and enjoyable

As with some other reviewers, this was my first Doris Lessing book, and it was a very pleasant surprise. It's not science fiction in the sense of speculative fiction -- it's more of a satire and allegory. While I don't disagree with the reviewers who mention that the main plot of the story is the narrator's inner development, the book is also about much more than that. It has many insightful observations on colonialism, economic growth, bureaucratic politics, the purpose of work and how social change begins, among other topics -- and is more entertaining than preachy in presenting them. (Caveat: if, like the NY Times reviewer of this book when it came out, you require that social commentary in a novel be expressed as a fully-developed philosophical system like Kant's or someone's, you may be disappointed.) The narrator's is not the only character to develop. There are several suspenseful sections, along with many beautifully-crafted descriptions. And at a purely science fiction level, it includes the very plausible observation that the most difficult part of dealing with beings from different planets is adjusting to their respective smells. A book I was sorry to see end; I ordered another in the Canopus in Argos series immediately on doing so.

Lessing is more!

I have a large library. I find myself recommending this book over and over. Moreover, the sender sent me a first edition.

A first-person tale of transformation

At heart, this book is about how people see themselves and each other. The form of the story is a first-person journal, written in a deliberately academic tone.The content, though, is one person's total change of her place in her world. The writer's initial view looks down on the world around her, as filled with inferior beings. After some time and much confusion, she learns to look up towards the higher qualities she might aspire to. The crucial moment in the book may be the phrase, "They should be treated as they treat others." Of course, the author (at that point) can not say "I should be treated ..." From then on, the author's broadening of view accelerates. Lessing may romanticize personal advancement, but is brutally honest about the costs that it can entail. Lessing carefully paces the book to end at the highest point of the story. It's a pleasant change from authors who run out of things to say 50 or 100 pages before reaching the back cover. A small accident of history mars the book only slightly. Many years after the book was written, a new sleep medication was put on the market: Ambien, the name Lessing coincidentally assigned her protagonist. This book has a few slow moments, when that accident of name seemed apt. Still, this is an excellent book for unhurried reading.

Experiment successful

The Empire of Sirius, formerly the enemy of Canopus, has now for some time been its uneasy and mistrustful ally. Though highly advanced technologically, and despite being sophisticated social engineers, the Sirians are suffering some upheaval because of the many members of their population who feel that their life lacks a worthy purpose. Ambien II, a member of the Five who govern the Empire, is befriended by Klorathy, an agent of Canopus, in the course of their mutual dealings upon and around the planet Rohanda. Ambien II's education in the means and motives of Canopus, and her eventual realisation that, doubtless unique in the history of galactic diplomacy, Canopus means what it says and does what it promises, is the major subject of The Sirian Experiments. Doris Lessing has written, "I could like Ambien II better than I do;" which is a pity, for Ambien II, along with Rachel Sherban in Shikasta and the incensed innocent Incent in The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire, is one of the most appealing characters in the quintet. Her growth from efficient, obedient social scientist (who deplores the changing of our planet's name from Rohanda (Fertile) to Shikasta (Wounded) as showing "a mixture of poeticism and pedantry typical of Canopus") into willing pupil, sometime rescuer, and eventually into that amazing paradox, the clear-headed visionary, is a triumph of characterisation. Her report - careful, thorough, just and drily humorous - betters Shikasta in its fusion of the personal with the cosmic, and contains one of the most spectacular set-pieces in the whole series, as well as some of its most poignant personal encounters. The ending is quietly ironic, without the sense of definite progress which was present at the end of the previous two books - the major breakthrough here takes place inside Ambien II herself, though further, exterior victories may just possibly be on the way. This book (not to mention the quintet as a whole) is the kind of thing science fiction was meant to be all about.

Earth through an Alian's Eyes

This was the first Doris Lessing book I ever read. Because the protagonist is a dry technocrat, the writing is written in that style. Nevertheless, I found the book gripping. Lessing gives a fascinating and enlightening perspective of the development of human society as a whole. Of course, the awakening that takes place in the protagonist's mind as she works with the Canopeans has its own gems of wisdom buried in it. Of the five books in Canopus in Argos: Archives, this one is my favorite.