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Alien Embassy

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Ace Books, 1978. Paperback, first American edition. In 22nd-century Africa, a young girl is selected by the Space Communications Administration, and will travel to the stars to communicate and exchange knowledge with their alien inhabitants.

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306 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

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Ian Watson

300 books120 followers
Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

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5 stars
6 (5%)
4 stars
21 (18%)
3 stars
55 (49%)
2 stars
23 (20%)
1 star
7 (6%)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
1,120 reviews9 followers
July 19, 2021
Watson galt als anspruchsvoller SF-Autor.
Hier liefert er einen seltsamen Hippie-Esoterik-SF ab. Sicher ungewöhnlich und nicht ganz uninteressant, auch wenn ich als Skeptiker mit den esoterischen Elementen und dem laxen Umgang mit wissenschaftlichen Tatsachen nicht gerade glücklich bin. Eine Sache, die mich hierbei immer sehr nervt, ist die falsche Darstellung der Evolution als eine gerichtete, absichtsvolle Entwicklung vom Einfachen zum "Höheren".
Zugute halten muss ich Watson, dass er nicht noch mit der Quantenphysik als Erklärungsmuster kam. Bei ihm sind es halt Energiekörper und Chakren. Die sind ja schließlich bewiesen durch die Kirlian-Fotografie, gell?

Es geht wieder mal um die Weiterentwicklung des Menschen zu einer höheren Lebensform.

Es gibt sehr viel philosophisch-esoterische Dialoge. Nicht gerade meine Domäne. Mir kam das großteils auch eher wie Geschwurbel vor.
Zum Schluss war ich froh, als ich durch war.
Profile Image for Socrate.
6,745 reviews272 followers
June 23, 2021
— Intră, Rajit, spuse învăţătorul şi băiatul cu turban îşi urmă ecoul propriilor paşi, în încăpere.
(Astfel trebuie să se fi întâmplat…).
Pe unul dintre zidurile tencuite în alb stătea o şopârlă de culoarea smaraldului, cu membrana gâtului tremurându-i convulsiv. Pe masă se aflau vase de lut, cărţi de şcoală, o statuetă de bronz a unui zeu tibetan în copulaţie cu o parteneră extrem de sportivă precum şi o cutie mare. O fereastră de aerisire dădea afară către şirurile de palmieri şi de arbori înfloriţi, semănând cu o tablă de şah şi de un chinez a cărui tunică verde-oliv, ca şi tocul uzual (care putea să conţină sau nu p armă) îl indicau ca fiind un Dobdob, un membru al poliţiei Administraţiei Comunicaţiilor Spaţiale, Bardo, cea care se ocupa, de asemenea, de toate problemele interne ale lumii.
— Am auzit că atunci când o să te faci mare ţi-ar plăcea să devii lama, nu-i aşa, Rajit?
Băiatul încuviinţă din cap, cu hotărâre.
— Îmi doresc mai mult decât orice altceva!
— Şi de ce? Câteva riduri de amuzament apărură pe faţa chinezului.
— Pentru a vedea India, într-o bună zi… răspunse băiatul.
Chinezul îl întrerupse mânios.
— Nu te simţi bine, aici, în Africa? Aici este la fel ca oriunde în altă parte a societăţii umane. Şi dacă vei fi un lama, cam ce te-ai gândit să-i înveţi pe alţii? Turismul?
Făcu în aşa fel, încât ultimul cuvânt să sune obscen, aşa cum şi era.
— Ce fel de oameni mai călătoresc în zilele noastre?
— Câţiva marinari.
— A, da, cei care transportă provizii! Şi asta numai pentru că nu peste tot sunt suficiente cele existente. Dar chiar şi cele mai mari vase nu au nevoie decât de un echipaj compus din câţiva bărbaţi şi câteva femei pentru a naviga…
— Ştiu că un computer urmăreşte navigaţia.
— Vasul este lumea lor, nu porturile unde se opresc.
Rajit se îmbujoră.
— Dar dumneavoastră călătoriţi, domnule. Nu-i nimic rău să călătoreşti, dacă prin asta contribui cu adevărat la ceva.
— Cel puţin eşti sincer! Oficialii Bardo călătoresc, este adevărat, pentru a coordona lumea şi a avea grijă ca fiecare să fie hrănit, îngrijit şi educat în mod corect. Poate şi pentru a găsi candidaţi pentru zborurile stelare, dacă suntem destul de norocoşi…
Profile Image for Alex Bergonzini.
508 reviews48 followers
July 2, 2018
Me ha desilusionado mucho la historia y eso que al principio parecía interesante, pero llega un momento en que no sabes si es verdad o mentira y el escritor puede utilizar ambos recursos para disfrazar su historia, jugando con reglas inventadas y que te dejan al margen de la historia.

Por otro lado, la manía de los escritores por inventarse pasaje oníricos dando incluso los detalles más despreciables del pasaje, como si al lector le interesase la temperatura de la orina de la estrella unicornio que habla por las orejas en vez de la cola y que da vueltas sobre su eje cada punto y aparte. Vaya manera de meter líneas que no vienen a cuento.

Mención especial se merece la resolución final, cuando te explican el porque de todas las páginas y el destino del hombre, el mundo e incluso el universo. Pero llegados a ese punto, ya no te importa lo que te explique, pues no sabrás si dice la verdad o es una mentira y puestos a jugar, mejor no recomiendo este libro, que aunque apunta maneras, está muy mal resuelto.
Profile Image for Thomas.
2,706 reviews
January 7, 2023
Watson, Ian. Alien Embassy. 1977. 2nd ed. Afterword by Ian Watson, 2006. E-book ed, Orion, 2011.
In his Afterword to the updated edition, Ian Watson explains his goals and inspirations for Alien Embassy. First, he says, he wanted to create a Tanzanian utopia based on his teaching experience there in the 1960s. He tells the story from the perspective of an African woman, Lila, who dreams of flying to the stars. She lives 200 hundred years after the Bad Old Days of rocket ships and environmental devastation. Star travel is now a technologically enhanced out-of-body experience managed by BARDO (Bureau of Astromancy Research and Development Organisation). One briefly inhabits the bodies of receptive sentients in nearby star systems. This experience is not an unmixed blessing, and the universe turns out to be something that Lila never imagined. Watson is a stylist whose influences include Philip K. Dick, Graham Greene, Michael Moorcock, and perhaps Roger Zelazny. His mix of science and Asian mysticism may not be for everyone, but it still works on its own terms. 4 stars.
1,525 reviews3 followers
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October 23, 2025
Lila Makindi grows up in East Africa in a peaceful and harmonious 22nd century world, which has succeeded our own age of extravagance, environmental damage, and warfare. Its citizens know that the Space Communications Administration, better known as Bardo, is guiding the planet benevolently, thanks to contact with wise aliens by means, not of grandiose spaceships, but of psychic travel powered by the sexual techniques of tantric yoga. Wonderfully, Lila is chosen for psychic starflight. But she discovers that in reality mental starflight is spinning a web of protection around the world to safeguard the human race from a malign alien energy force, the Starbeast. Yet is this the true reality? Only when Lila travels to Tibet does she discover the actual, unexpected purpose behind Bardo.
209 reviews1 follower
January 11, 2025
In a future where technology has stopped advancing, an agency has found a way to communicate with aliens using a variation of tantric sex. A young woman named Lila is overjoyed to be recruited into the agency, but her enthusiasm wanes as she learns more about the agency...This is a trippy book. There is a lot of philosophizing, much of it influenced by the Book of the Dead and tantra yoga. Franlky, the book has too much of the philosophy for me but people who enjoy that sort of thing should enjoy the book. I did like the plot and the depiction of the alien cultures. I also really enjoyed Lila, but I liked her frenemy Maimouna even more. I wished she had had a larger presence in the book.
Profile Image for Rutger De Putte.
20 reviews
July 28, 2020
This was an odd one. On the shelf as sci-fi and few pages into the book and you think it’s an anti-technology story with more paranormal elements taken as actual reality. Then it became something which could have been nice, but no, it became a philosophical ride without any mushrooms.

My mind has many frustrations about this book. They all speak to “I”. But I am a dense point curled up in nothingness, unable to see me because I am all me. You are my mirror, and maybe you reflect me so I can be real.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Anton Ketričko.
42 reviews1 follower
November 9, 2021
Like one of the least satisfying books to read.
The masculinity is oozing out of this one. It is so obvious that a man wrote this female protagonist that it made me physically cringe at times.
If read with a huge grain of salt, then the book can be somewhat enjoyable as a laughing stock.

Diving any deeper or trying to make sense of anything. will make your synapses hurt.
I understand that we're dealing with hippie sci-fi here. If this is all that this field has to offer, then - in words of one great thinker of our time - thank u, next
Profile Image for Xabi1990.
2,131 reviews1,395 followers
February 21, 2019
3/10. Media de los 5 libros leídos del autor : 3/10

Ya veis por las notas, "me encanta" el autor.
Profile Image for Stephen Rowland.
1,367 reviews72 followers
December 10, 2020
The weakest Ian Watson novel I've yet read, though it's not BAD. Still packed with his impressive ideas, but far too long and at times tedious.
Profile Image for Rodrigo Aguerre.
28 reviews2 followers
August 10, 2014
Este libro arranco para matar. La idea basica con la que da inicio la trama es muy buena. Basicamente se trata de que a fines del siglo XX la humanidad ha alcanzado un desarrollo tecnologico de tal magnitud que es capaz de viajar a la Luna y a Marte y explorar el sistema solar como nunca antes lo habia podido hacer. Pero por contrapartida el caos que se vive a nivel social es inmenso, la humanidad se ve atestada de pobreza y guerras y mucha desigualdad social. En este contexto se descubre que el cuerpo de los seres vivos posee un campo de energia denominado campo corporal, el cual se logra medir empiricamente y ademas se demuestra que a traves de este campo corporal los seres humanos somos capaces de viajar a las estrellas y ponernos en contacto con seres alienigenas de otros sistemas solares. La incursion en el campo de la meteafisica hace que la ciencia occidental se una con las traiciones de oriente y se provoca un vuelco desde el punto de vista de la ciencia y la sociedad, en donde se deja de lado el desarrollo tenologico para siempre. Con este nuevo enfoque la vida se transforma y pasa a ser muy pacifica y sencilla. La gente vive en paz y en armonia, lo cual se denomina proceso de ecologia social. Ademas de esta idea incial, que a mi me resulto de lo mas fascinante, viene luego todo el tema de las embajadas alienigenas, que es en donde los seres humanos realizan los ritos correspondientes para poder viajar asi a las estrellas, expandiendo su campo corporal, y es tambien en donde se reciben a los embajadores alienigenas, aunque estos pueden vagar libremente por el planeta, a diferencia de los humanos que necesitamos ser recepcionados en el cuerpo de un alienigena que oficia de receptor. Este mas o menos es el punto de partida del libro, estas cosas se describen en los primeros capitulos junto con la personaje principal, que debo confesar me gusto desde un principio y me hizo vivir la experiencia como si estuviera dentro de ella. Mas adelante se empieza a tejer un halo de misterio en torno a las embajadas, sus propositos, sus fines y tambien los alienigenas. En este punto el libro es genial, considero que hasta el 60% del mismo aproximadamente la curva - que habia arrancado alta - continua ascendiendo sin parar. Sin embargo, cuando el libro pintaba para 4,5 estrellas o 5 en funcion del final que tuviera, comienza un gran declibe. Habiendo partido de una idea tan buena y habiendo creado una gama tan amplia de posibilidades en torno a un halo de misterio que normalmente es dificil de conseguir, el libro se decanta por una que en a juicio no es la mas atractiva, pero esto no es lo peor, de ultima el libro igualmente hubiera estado bastante bien, lo que yo considero que termina de arruinar al libro es que la historia se achata bastante durante 2 o 3 capitulos, para finalmente culminar en un delirio tras otro del personaje principal y los otros personajes que forman parte de la trama. Pasado un punto del libro, no se puede leer una frase del capitulo que no contenga una metafora completamente delirante, o una explicacion de algo que no tiene explicacion, con ejemplos ridiculos y completamente sin sentido, honestamente en un punto del libro tuve el enorme deseo de que terminara de una vez porque no veia que fuera a llegar a ningun lado con eso, pero todavia le faltaba mucho por recorrer. Y mientras lo leia, no hacia otra cosa que preguntarme como era posible que hubiera llegado a esto, partiendo de aquel añorado comienzo tan bueno, plagado de tantas buenas ideas, sospechas de conspiraciones y descubrimientos varios que cambiaban el punto de vista del lector asombrandolo. Respecto al final en si, creo que el autor quizo darle un toque de incertidumbre, pero a mi no me convencio para nada, sencillamente me alegre de que terminara para poder pasar al siguiente libro. No lo recomiendo. Me desiluciono completamente.
Profile Image for Nicolas.
1,402 reviews77 followers
October 28, 2008
Ce roman raconte, dans un XXIIème siècle assez étrange, comment, grâce au voyage tantrique, l’humanité a pu gagner les étoiles et visiter d’étranges mondes. Dit comme ça, ça a l’air très excitant, surtout lorsque le récit est raconté par une jeune astronaute du sexe(1).
Toutefois, il y a un certain nombre de bémols à apporter : d’abord, le vol tantrique n’a que peu de rapport avec l’extase sexuelle puisque, comme l’explique l’auteur, le but est de rester sur le seuil de l’orgasme aussi longtemps que possible. Ensuite, toute la partie un peu chaude est totallement noyée sous des tonnes de concepts sur la "philosophie" ou "religion" ou quelqu’autre terme qu’on puisse utiliser pour parler des différentes variantes de la méditation et du yoga. Et encore, il ne s’agit là que de l’accroche.
Car Watson est cultivé : il a lu Dune et sait que tout bon roman de SF doit contenir une bonne dose de Machinations Machiavéliques. Donc, en honnête faiseur de roman SF, il en parsème habilement, ou non, son roman. Et malheureusement, il est plutôt peu doué, car toutes les révélations qu’il nous fait, révélant peu à peu les couches de l’oignon planétaire qu’est cette civilisation du futur, tombent à plat : il n’y a pas de peuples extraterrestres mais une bête astrale ? Franchement, ça n’a pas l’air bien grave puisqu’on se bat contre elle en utilisant le vol tantrique. Il n’y a pas de bête astrale mais une espèce d’humanité du futur cherchant à émerger ? A ce moment-là de la lecture (passé les 3/4), on n’en a plus rien à faire. Et franchement, c’est dommage, parce que le premier peuple extraterrestre, constitué d’unions symbiotiques entre des oiseaux et des arbres, est d’une poésie à tomber, comme peut l’être d’ailleurs cette idée que le sexe nous emmène dans les étoiles plus facilement que ces symboles phalliques à la démesure d’une civilisation en perdition (c’est à peu près le message de l’auteur). Dans le même ordre d’idées, sa dénonciation d’une civilisation technologique est d’une rare élégance, alliant une espèce d’écologie avant l’heure à une critique du progrès technique en tant que voie vers le bonheur. Toutefois, ça aussi ça tombe à l’eau, pour laisser le lecteur dans un marigot de concepts fumeux sur l’évolution de l’Homme qui pourrait considérablement s’accélerer, si l’Homme lui-même pouvait, depuis son futur, guider son émergence.
Lire des bouquins comme ça, ça me gonfle : j’ai l’impression que l’auteur n’a pas cherché à finaliser son idée, qu’il n’a livré qu’un brouillon à peine esquissé, mais rempli d’idées follement intéressantes. moi, par exemple, un bouquin sur le sexe comme moyen de transport m’aurait plu, tout comme l’exploration de mondes étranges. mais il y a certains mélanges qui ne sont font pas, ou alors sous acide. Et c’est sans doute ce qui a dû arriver à l’auteur pour écrire cette vulgaire fumisterie, espèce de mélange grumeleux entre Dune pour les intrigues vaguement politisées auxquelles nul ne peut rien comprendre (parce qu’il n’a jamais été dans la tête de l’auteur que ce soit compréhensible) et Radix pour le récit vaguement initiatique et yogique, mais totallement foiré par un auteur ne sachant qu’à peine qu’un roman nécessite, malgré tout, une certaine forme de construction littéraire. Est-ce que je dois encore, après ça, vous le déconseiller ?

(1) des mots comme "bandant" peuvent surgir dans les esprits les moins préparés
29 reviews1 follower
November 19, 2020
I think this is a book for much younger people, those who have the age to have their first erotic experiments. Although it has some good remarks that would have been helpfull to me if I had read the book so much earlier. Further it is a little bit disappointing because it doesn't go about about real alien adventure but about artificial star flying.
The book seems to be one of a series in which in the last part there is a real alien invasion. Well in that case I have read the best part already years ago but not in English.
I have been searching already for the English original title of "Het sprakeloze revervaat", have asked it already to a friend expert but he doesn't know and nobody could give me an answer. It was this last mentioned book that was so vivacious that I thought Ian Watson was really my preferred writer. Later I sought books from him in libraries, but they are not that easy to find overhere. In any case when I found one I took it with too read it but never one of his books I read afterward had the same effect on me.

I lost the book for several years, something quite irritating now and then, but at last I found it back at the other side of my bed.
17 reviews6 followers
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August 17, 2010
Highly philosophical book.
A little over the edge about the conspiracy hidden another conspiracy.
Sci-Fi elements not very good but well written.
Liked the main character very much, as well as the detailed description of the native life in Africa.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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