Although best known for her mainstream novels,
Doris Lessing had occasionally used science fiction
themes in her work before tackling this ambitious
project, most notably in The Four Gated City
(1969) and The Memoirs of a Survivor (1975).
However, it was not until she launched the Canopus series with Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta
(1979) that she completely embraced the form.
Her choice of an extensive interstellar culture as a
setting for her most ambitious work confounded
many mainstream critics, and since no effort was
made to market them as science fiction, there was
little attention paid in that venue either. Subsequent volumes in the series consist of The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five (1980),
The Sirian Experiments (1981), The Making of the
Representative for Planet 8 (1982), and The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire (1983).
Although the novels are set in the same
universe, they are not strictly speaking a series.
Each stands alone and serves to illustrate another
personal crisis, the resolution of which is usually
some transcendent event, colored by Lessing’s Sufi
mysticism. The Canopean Empire spans many star
systems and races and believes that it is responsible
for overseeing the development of less advanced
races, helping them to escape from the lure of selfdestructive violence and eventually evolve into a
mature and peaceful culture. The planet Shikasta is
actually Earth, and in the opening volume an alien
visitor comes to Earth in the late 20th century
to help shepherd us through dangerous times,
which include a third world war. Although the
Canopean representative intends to help avoid a
major conflict, he and the reader eventually discover that it is inevitable, and not necessarily entirely unhealthy, unless it escalates beyond all
possible control—which nearly happens in this case.
In The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four,
and Five, a theoretically utopian planet is in the
midst of an unprecedented crisis, a plague of infertility, which can be overcome only if the structured
segregation of their society is broken down. Each
zone consists of a distinct geographical type and is
home to a distinct personality profile, but the long
separation threatens the entire population with extinction. The Canopeans force the issue by arranging a marriage between the ruling families of two of
the zones, and what follows is a comedy of manners with some genuinely funny scenes as the two
disparate personalities adjust to one another. Although there is a somber note at the end, Lessing’s
purpose is obviously to suggest that human diversity and toleration are essential to the future of the
race and that indeed it is the things that make us
different that also make us strong. The story also
contains some satiric commentary on social norms,
and underlines the necessity for political conflict in
order to preserve a society’s health.
In The Sirian Experiments, one of the rulers of
that world begins to question the political philosophy that governs their relationship with other peoples as well as their own, and her efforts to
convince her colleagues lead to trouble. Lessing includes an indictment of certain aspects of colonialism: Her people experiment on less advanced
species, ostensibly for their own good, but not always with the desired results. The tone is much
more serious than in the previous books, and the
conclusion less cheery. Lessing asserts the importance of science and technology as a tool by which
to improve the human condition. The story involves the efforts by a planetary populace to slow
the onset of a new Ice Age. Unfortunately, despite
their best efforts, their culture is irreversibly
changed and they can survive only by undergoing
an almost mystical transformation.
The concluding volume, The Sentimental
Agents in the Volyen Empire, is the closest to traditional science fiction, but paradoxically it is the
weakest of the set. In a remote part of the galaxy, a
diminutive empire is being studied by Sirian agents
planning its assimilation into their sphere of influence. The act of observation inevitably causes
changes in the observer. Lessing’s science fiction
novels are clearly meant as parables, each examining one or more aspects of the struggle of society to
resolve its conflicting priorities and desires, and
most of all the human need to aspire to something
greater. At one time Lessing indicated that she
planned to extend the series, but no further titles
ever appeared.