Stapledon’s looks at humanity through the eyes of a super-canine named Sirius. Through a series of experiments, Sirius is born with human-intelligence. Again, he develops much more slowly than his canine peers, but then develops into a dog with the mind of human.
Stapledon examines humanity’s religion and science. In addition, he focuses on human’s cruelty towards each other and towards “mere animals”. Inthe end, humanity can not tolerate what is different and what it can’t understand.
This is certainly an interesting book and one that will haunt you far longer than it takes to read the novel, but comes across more as philosophical disquisitions, with satirical edges, than as novels proper or science-fiction. It absolutely tore at my heart strings. I was prolonging my finishing the book, as I felt the ending was inevitable, but it didn't hurt any less. I felt so much sadness and wonder at the character of Sirius, the "super sheep dog", imbued not only with human intellect, but also the human frailties of jealousy, love, and questions of the spirit.
My rating: ★★★★★ (5 out of 5 stars) - I loved it!
