Queen Of The States

Josephine Saxton was one of the stars of the British new wave during the 1960s, writing a string of intriguing off-beat short stories and complex, challenging novels. But she has had a chequered publishing history. After her third novel, Group Feast, she disappeared from the scene for the best part of a decade, only returning in the 1980s with a series of novels that used science fiction as a means of exploring ideas taken from Carl Jung. The best and most intriguing of these was Queen of the States, which was shortlisted for both the BSFA and the Arthur C. Clarke Awards. The states of the title could refer to the USA, since the heroine, Magdalen, believes she is reigning in the White House. But it more accurately refers to her states of mind, because Magdalen is also a patient in a mental hospital. On yet another level, she has been abducted by insect-like aliens, who are busy exploring her various states of mind. What makes the novel work so well is that Magdalen moves freely between these various realities, and none is privileged, none is clearly and consistently identifiable as either truth or delusion. What emerges, through Magdalen's engaging voice, is a sharp and revealing insight into what it is like in someone else's mind, someone else's view of the world. Saxton's writing is never easy, we don't know from one moment to the next where she is going to take us or what we are supposed to believe. But that is precisely what makes this novel so fresh, so intriguing, and so good.Why it's on the list: There is no-one quite like Josephine Saxton. This novel can be read as straight science fiction, as a mainstream novel, or even as a UFO abduction narrative, or as all three of these at the same time.