Sirius: A Fantasy of Love and Discord by Olaf Stapledon
144 pages
Published 1944
Read from August 18 to August 19
Rating: ★★★½ out of 5
A quaint intelligent animal fantasy -- if "quaint" is the acceptable term for a tale that ends with an interspecies love triangle and a young woman swearing to a super-intelligent dog, "I'm -- your wife, your dear constant bitch." Before that point, Stapledon indulges in what appears to be his characteristic metier, asking a lot of questions about the purpose of life and the existence of "the spirit" and what it means to be "wide-awake," in a species generally half asleep or unconscious altogether. I can't say this vague mystic mooning means much to me, though Stapledon's perspective -- expressing sympathy for Communism and logical positivism while insisting both are missing a crucial spiritual essence -- seems mostly benign. Overall, though, Sirius had easy charm and earned a moist eye, as all dog novels from time immemorial seemingly must.
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