The Sirian Experiments: The Report by Ambien Ii, of the Five (Canopus in Argos--Archives)

Lessing, Doris May

ISBN 10: 0394512316 / ISBN 13: 9780394512310

Published by Alfred a Knopf, 1981

About this Item

HARDBACK "HARD TO FIND OUTSIDE THE US," SHIPPED FROM THE UK* Edition: 1st. (States:- First Edition.)* Impression: 1st.* Date of Publication: 1981* Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf.* Binding and cover condition: Black cloth, Gilt title to spine and impressed marks to front and back covers. No bumps or rubs, no visible faults. FINE.* Jacket condition: Coloured design to cover, price clipped. Minimal shelf wear to top edge and to head of spine. In protective library film wrapper. VG++* Contents condition: PRIVATE COPY NOT EX-LIBRARY. Clean, crisp, tight and bright with no reading wear, no marks to text, page edges rough cut, cream coloured end papers . FINE.* Illustrations: None.* Pages: 288 pp. text. ix pp. blank pages at rear.* Description: Doris Lessing continues her thrilling "Canopus In Argos: Archives" series, with this dynamic third novel. Learn the life story of Ambien II, a female official, one of the elite group that has ruled the Sirian Empire for millenia. A NEAR FINE copy of the First US edition with no major faults reduced by price clipping to VG++.* 1981-01-01.

Seller Inventory # 3037

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Sirian Experiments: The Report by Ambien Ii, of the Five (Canopus in Argos--Archives)
• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf
• Publication Date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0394512316
• ISBN 13: 9780394512310
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: y First Edition
• Condition: F/F/VG++
• Seller catalogs:
  • Fiction

About this title

Synopsis

The third volume of Lessing's visionary series is the first-person account of Ambien II, a female ruler of the Sirian empire who slowly realizes how sophisticated the Canopus empire is and attempts to effect a similar society

From the Back Cover

Shortlisted for the 1981 Booker Prize, 'The Sirian Experiments' is the third volume in Doris Lessing's celebrated space fiction series, 'Canopus in Argos: Archives'. In this interlinked quintet of novels, she creates a new, extraordinary cosmos where the fate of the Earth is influenced by the rivalries and interactions of three powerful galactic empires, Canopus, Sirius and their enemy, Puttiora. Blending myth, fable and allegory, Doris Lessing's astonishing visionary creation both reflects and redefines the history of our own world from its earliest beginnings to an inevitable, tragic self-destruction.

'The Sirian Experiments' chronicles the origins of our planet, as the three galactic empires fight for control of the human race. The novel charts the gradual moral awakening of its narrator, Ambien II, a 'dry, dutiful, efficient' female Sirian administrator. Witnessing the wanton colonisation of land and people, Ambien begins to question her involvement in such insidious experimentation, her faith in the possibility of human progress itself growing weaker every day.

"The story Ambien tells is a panorama of the possibilities of civilisation and barbarism, ranging from a matriarchal version of Atlantis to the Aztec cult of human sacrifice. Doris Lessing's interests are strictly terrestrial and the figures from outer space are there to serve as tellers of an earthly tale, providing a new, sometimes startling, perspective on earthly affairs and a largeness of vision beyond the horizon of the conventional novel."
ROBERT ALTER, 'New York Times'

"One of our greatest contemporary writers...Doris Lessing had invented a new cosmology to look at the world in a new way: she is attempting to tackle nothing less than all human life on Earth."
FINANCIAL TIMES