The Sykaos Papers is a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by the historian E. P. Thompson

E. P. Thompson

Edward Palmer Thompson was a British historian, writer, socialist and peace campaigner. He is probably best known today for his historical work on the British radical movements in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in particular The Making of the English Working Class...

, first published in 1988 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc using the ISBN numbers 0747503273, 9780747503279.

The novel, while often humorous and satirical, clearly reflects Thompson's historical-Marx

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

ist outlook and firm anti-military stance.

The story records the experience of humanoid alien, the Oitarian, Oi Paz on Earth (Sykaos). To summarise the plot here is the full title of the work:


The Sykaos Papers,
being
An Account of the Voyages of the Poet Oi Paz to the System of Strim in the Seventeenth Galaxy; of his Mission to the planet Sykaos; of his First Cruel Captivity; of his Travels about its Surface; of the Manners and Customs of its Beastly People; of his Second Captivity; and of his Return to Oitar.

To which are added many passages from the Poet's Journal, documents in Sykotic script and other curious matters.

Selected and Edited by
Q
Vice-Provost of the College of Adjusters.

Transmitted by Timewarp to
E. P. Thompson

Plot

An alien is sent to live among Earthlings. He describes his adventures in journal form. At first he looks like a young human but as he begins to experience more of life on Earth he begins to age and develop characteristics like Earthlings. He falls in love with an Earthling woman and decides not to go back to his home planet. Events proceed and he and his mate end up on a Sykaosian ship while Earth is destroyed. The alien and his mate bear a male child named Adam. The novel switches from first-person perspective to an account by authorities on Sykaos. Adam, possessing more characteristics of Earthlings than Sykaosians begins to get into trouble and eventually leaves Sykaos with his mate Eve.

External links

• The Sykaos Papers at Google Books