a stunning achievement in speculative fiction a voyage to arcturus has inspired enchanted and unsettled readers for decades it is simultaneously an epic quest across one of the most unusual and brilliantly depicted alien worlds ever conceived a profoundly moving journey of discovery into the metaphysical heart of the universe and a shockingly intimate excursion into what makes us human and unique after a strange interstellar journey maskull a man from earth awakens alone in a desert on the planet tormance seared by the suns of the binary star arcturus as he journeys northward guided by a drumbeat he encounters a world and its inhabitants like no other where gender is a victory won at dear cost where landscape and emotion are drawn into an accursed dance where heroes are killed reborn and renamed and where the cosmological lures of shaping who may be god torment maskull in his astonishing pilgrimage at the end of his arduous and increasingly mystical quest waits a dark secret and an unforgettable revelation a voyage to arcturus was the first novel by writer david lindsay 18781945 and it remains one of the most revered classics of science fiction this commemorative edition features an introduction by noted scholar and writer of speculative fiction john clute and a famous essay by loren eiseley