I read this book to see how a Nobel Prize winning author would treat the
science fiction genre.  Science fiction is often the platform from which
an author launches an examination of big social issues, and so it is
here as Lessing looks at questions of colonization, attitudes of
"advanced" nations to less civilized peoples, the problems of a society
whose technical achievements have far outrun its ethical evolution.  And
some authors (for example, le Guin or Brin) can at the same time deliver
a gripping story with believable, if alien, characters whose fate we
care about.  But Lessing cannot.

The narrator is a powerful administrator of a vast empire whose story
is a memoir covering her meddling in the affairs of a pseudo Earth.  She
writes in wooden, deadly prose, many passages in the passive voice, of
experiments on various planets involving lower animals, of projects
interfering with civilizations and people, of social upheavals and
planetary engineering, anonymous and colorless.  Her language isn't
any better when she writes of her own situation: for example  "The other
was Klorathy, who I understood as I thought of him would not regard this
little servant of even the most horrible power with anything but - at
most - a detached dislike."  Of course, this awkward stuff is supposed
to reflect the narrator's shriveled personality; but why subject readers
to such insult?  One does not have to look far in Earth's history to
find officials of great empires who wrote with vigor and eloquence.

A novel must contain believable characters and situations to retain our
interest; this one does not.  Ambien II, one of five ruling Sirian
autocrats exhibits astounding incompetence: she, potentially immortal,
visits primitive societies alone and unprotected, sets foot alone in the
empire of the Incas professing to know hardly anything about them (yet
speaking their language) and is almost sacrificed - she had no emergency
plan, nothing to fall back on, incredible in an individual responsible
for planning Galactic enterprises.  Her job calls for her to undertake
organizing construction work on a barren planet by crews of apes in space
suits press-banged from a backward planet; or performing "scientific"
experiments on altitude adaptation with another unfortunate species.
This in an empire that can move planets out of their orbits and travel
between the stars!  Lessing and Ambien II are as ignorant of Newton as
they are of Darwin, making references to "science" in the story
utterly laughable.

Ambien II's moral education throughout the book is at the hands of
superior being who employs that highly over-rated, low-bit-rate scheme,
the Socratic method, in which the answers are dragged from within the
pupil, never given to her straight out.  It is a frustrating experience
for everyone concerned, especially the reader.
I read this book to see how a Nobel Prize winning author would treat the
science fiction genre. Science fiction is often the platform from which
an author launches an examination of big social issues, and so it is
here as Lessing looks at questions of colonization, attitudes of
"advanced" nations to less civilized peoples, the problems of a society
whose technical achievements have far outrun its ethical evolution. And
some authors (for example, le Guin or Brin) can at the same time deliver
a gripping story with believable, if alien, characters whose fate we
care about. But Lessing cannot. The narrator is a powerful administrator of a vast empire whose story
is a memoir covering her meddling in the affairs of a pseudo Earth. She
writes in wooden, deadly prose, many passages in the passive voice, of
experiments on various planets involving lower animals, of projects
interfering with civilizations and people, of social upheavals and
planetary engineering, anonymous and colorless. Her language isn't
any better when she writes of her own situation: for example  "The other
was Klorathy, who I understood as I thought of him would not regard this
little servant of even the most horrible power with anything but - at
most - a detached dislike. "  Of course, this awkward stuff is supposed
to reflect the narrator's shriveled personality; but why subject readers
to such insult? One does not have to look far in Earth's history to
find officials of great empires who wrote with vigor and eloquence. A novel must contain believable characters and situations to retain our
interest; this one does not. Ambien II, one of five ruling Sirian
autocrats exhibits astounding incompetence: she, potentially immortal,
visits primitive societies alone and unprotected, sets foot alone in the
empire of the Incas professing to know hardly anything about them (yet
speaking their language) and is almost sacrificed - she had no emergency
plan, nothing to fall back on, incredible in an individual responsible
for planning Galactic enterprises. Her job calls for her to undertake
organizing construction work on a barren planet by crews of apes in space
suits press-banged from a backward planet; or performing "scientific"
experiments on altitude adaptation with another unfortunate species. This in an empire that can move planets out of their orbits and travel
between the stars! Lessing and Ambien II are as ignorant of Newton as
they are of Darwin, making references to "science" in the story
utterly laughable. Ambien II's moral education throughout the book is at the hands of
superior being who employs that highly over-rated, low-bit-rate scheme,
the Socratic method, in which the answers are dragged from within the
pupil, never given to her straight out. It is a frustrating experience
for everyone concerned, especially the reader.