Voyager Classics - Shikasta: Re-colonised Planet 5

Voyager Classics - Shikasta: Re-colonised Planet 5

by Doris Lessing (Author)

Synopsis

Doris Lessing's celebrated space fiction set in an extraordinary cosmos where the fate of the Earth is influenced by the rivalries and interactions of three powerful galactic empires. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection. The story of the final days of our planet is told through the reports of Johor, an emissary sent from Canopus. Twentieth-century Earth, named 'Shikasta, the stricken' by the kindly, paternalistic Canopeans who colonised it many centuries ago, is under the influence of the evil empire of Puttiora. War, famine, disease and environmental disasters ravage the planet. To Johor, mankind is a 'totally crazed species', racing towards annihilation: his orders to save humanity set him what seems to be an impossible task. 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.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 448
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Voyager
Published: 19 Aug 2002

ISBN 10: 0007127766
ISBN 13: 9780007127764

Media Reviews
'Magnificent ... an astouding book that sets out to chronicle the whole world of humanity, spirit, earth, stars, soul, virtue, evil, pre-Eden forever' Myrna Blumberg, The Times 'Profound, relevant and daring' Rachel Billington, Financial Times 'Shikasta is a piercing diagnosis of the unease spreading through our civilization. A powerful fable.' W.L. Webb, Guardian 'Shikasta is at once a brief history of the world, a tract against human destructiveness, an ode to the natural beauties of this earth and a hymn to the music of the spheres.' Time
Author Bio
Doris Lessing was born in Persia in 1919 and brought up in Rhodesia. She first came to England in 1949 and her first novel was published in 1950. She is now widely recognized as one of the greatest writers of the second half of the twentieth century.