Sirius [Mass Market Paperback]

Olaf Stapledon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1964

Sirius is Thomas Trelone's great experiment - a huge, handsome dog with the brain and intelligence of a human being. Raised and educated in Trelone's own family alongside Plaxy, his youngest daughter, Sirius is a truly remarkable and gifted creature. His relationship with the Trelones, particularly with Plaxy, is deep and close, and his inquiring mind ranges across the spectrum of human knowledge and experience. But Sirius isn't human and the conflicts and inner turmoil that torture him cannot be resolved.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950) was born near Liverpool and educated at Balliol College, Oxford and Liverpool University. After spending eighteen months working in a shipping office in Liverpool and Port Said, he lectured extramurally for Liverpool University in English Literature and industrial history. He served in France from 1915 until 1919 with the Friends' Ambulance Unit and then lectured again for Liverpool University in psychology and philosophy. His novels include First and Last Men, Last Men in London, Star Maker and Odd John. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (May 1, 1964)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140019995
• ISBN-13: 978-0140019995
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,939,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Important novel about an intelligent non-human, September 29, 2003

By 

Stefan Jones (Suburbs of Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sirius Pb (Gollancz Collectors' Editions) (Paperback)

Olaf Stapledon is best known for his big-picture future histories, _Last and First Men_ and _Star Maker_. These non-novels imagined the rise and fall of alien and human civilizations on a canvas that spanned galaxies and billions of years of time.

By contrast, _Sirius_, written during World War II and published in 1944, is a story on a much more human scale, despite (as the title suggests) being about a dog. It is a also a far more mature and insightful story than Stapledon's earlier works. It is also a really _sad_ story. . . a genuine tragedy.

Sirius, a mastiff / alsatian / border collie mix with a brain enlarged by _in utero_ hormone treatments, is as smart as an above-average human, but retains the senses and instincts of a dog. His life is not an easy one, despite having loving human step parents and siblings. The novel follows his childhood and education in Wales, his experiences as an anonymous social observer in 1940s London, and his career as a sheep farmer. (What better job for a dog?) We also learn about an affair with his human step-sister, and his painful brooding about his place in the world and the meaning of his strange life.

Science fiction usually does not age well. _Sirius_, by contrast, has become even more important and relevant in today's world, where sheep actually get cloned, and mice have been given larger and more convoluted brains through genetic engineering.

Contrast _Sirius_ with Kirsten Bakis's _Lives of the Monster Dogs_, which was slicker and brighter but is nowhere near as realistic, insightful, or involving.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Forgotten One., May 3, 2004

By 

Dave_42 "Dave_42" (Australia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sirius (Mass Market Paperback)

Olaf Stapledon, is undoubtedly best known for his amazing novels "Star Maker" and "Last and First Men", but if that is all you have read from him then you have missed out on his writings which are in a more traditional style. "Sirius: A Fantasy of Love and Discord", published in 1944, is an excellent book as well, though not on the same scale as those earlier works. It is the story of a "super sheepdog" (Sirius), who was biologically engineered with hormones, and raised along with the daughter (Plaxy) of the scientist (Thomas Trelone). It is a tragic story, in which Sirius struggles between the worlds of his human family and his canine instinct. A unique bond is formed between Plaxy and Sirius that shapes both of their lives.

"Sirius" can stand alone, or be considered part of Stapledon's vast future universe as outlined in his other works. The story is simply on a much smaller scale, and so would not in and of itself be a noteworthy event in books like "Last and First Men" or "Star Maker". Thomas Trelone is Stapledon's Frankenstein, though certainly he does not suffer from the same character flaws as Shelly's famous predecessor. At the same time, Trelone admits that he failed to consider all of the consequences of his experiment, which led to a very lonely and torn character in Sirius. Sirius cannot fit in with humans for many reasons, though Sirius himself focuses on the lack of hands. Sirius also doesn't fit with other canines, as he finds them too simple and only interesting when a female is in heat.

This book was tied for 9th on the Arkham Survey in 1949 as one of the `Basic SF Titles', which was a higher rank than "Star Maker" (tied for 13th) received. Perhaps the main reason this book is no longer as highly regarded as Stapledon's other books is due to the fact that it is a more traditional style of writing. Innovation counts for a lot with the fans of this genre, and over the course of time more traditional works can be forgotten. However, this book should not be forgotten nor should Stapledon's "Odd John", because though they are told in a more traditional manner, they still are uniquely Stapledon, and as such they are both worth reading.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A super-intelligent dog searches for happiness and meaning, May 4, 2002

By 

Kim Boykin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sirius (Mass Market Paperback)

A British scientist bioengineers a dog of human intelligence, and the scientist and his wife raise the dog, Sirius, as another one of their children. The story centers on the relationship between Sirius and his human sister Plaxy. There are interesting details about how being a dog is different from being a human, but essentially this is a story about basic human issues of acceptance, love, identity, purpose, happiness, meaning--issues that are especially difficult for Sirius, as the only one of his kind.

"Sirius" is out of print as a separate novel but is in print paired with another Stapledon novel (that I didn't like as much) as "Odd John and Sirius."

"Sirius" and Stapledon's "Last and First Men" are two of the best science fiction books I've ever read. I wonder why Stapledon's work isn't better known.