A Voyage to Arcturus
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Subjects: Science fiction; Psychological fiction; Quests (Expeditions) -- Fiction; Life on other planets -- Fiction
Description: <p>On hearing the title <i>A Voyage to Arcturus</i>, one might picture an astronaut strapping themselves into a rocket and flying into space for a swashbuckling adventure. Nothing could be further from what this book actually is.</p>
			<p><i>Voyage</i> is in fact a fascinating, bizarre, bewildering, and thought-provoking sort of acid-fueled <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-bunyan/the-pilgrims-progress"><i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i></a>: a philosophical allegory told through the frame of a psychedelic gender-bending journey to an alien planet.</p>
			<p>After a terrifying séance, the protagonist, Maskull, is offered the chance of an adventure on a different world. He agrees, and the reader follows him on his blood-soaked path through lands representing different philosophies and ways of life as he searches for the world’s godhead, Surtur. Or is it Crystalman?</p>
			<p><i>Voyage</i> features fiction wildly ahead of its time, and is hardly classifiable as either science fiction or fantasy; one might even say that the book is better approached as a philosophical work than a straightforward narrative. It’s not a book for a reader seeking simple fiction, but rather for a reader seeking a thoughtful, imaginative, and totally unexpected exploration of philosophy and of life.</p>
			<p>Decades ahead of its time, <i>Voyage</i> was praised by contemporaries like <abbr>C. S.</abbr> Lewis and <abbr>J. R. R.</abbr> Tolkien, and by modern authors like Clive Barker and Alan Moore. Many modern reviewers consider it a masterpiece of 20th century fiction and the work of an underappreciated genius. A century later it boasts a significant cult following, having inspired movies, plays, albums, and even operas, as well as a modern sequel by famous literary critic Harold Bloom—the only work of fiction he ever wrote.</p>