Terry Carr was a noted publisher of fanzines and editor of science fiction anthologies. He wrote three novels between 1963 and 1977, of which Cirque was the last.
In Cirque an extraterrestrial visits a future Earth to witness an event which will transform the galaxy. Along the way he's joined by Nikki, a woman cycling through a series of personalities with the aid of a powerful drug, and Robin, a young girl eager to find meaning in a society where individualistic searches for truth are at the center of daily life.
Reading Cirque in 2023, I was reminded of so many "trippy" science fiction novels from the 60s and 70s, everything from Lord of Light to The Eden Cycle, most following in the wake of Frank Herbert's aphoristic Dune, another novel heavy on both philosophy and religion. Was "Religious Science Fiction" ever considered a valid genre? "Philosophical Science Fiction?" Or were these examples of the form too spread out in time to have been grouped together that way?
I have no answer to that question, but I can say that Cirque is at best a middle-of-the-road effort, lacking the depth of more philosophical works, while also lacking the action that would have made it more accessible to less intellectually inclined readers. Its conclusion is also something of a non-event, in that the "revelation" experienced by various characters seems rather obvious from the beginning, and thus not worth constructing an entire narrative around.
I will say this though, Cirque could be the basis for a good science fiction movie. With a little polishing the ending would work much better in a visual medium, and by edging Cirque's characters into more extreme ideological positions the story could be a lot more involving. There's a more compelling story in there, somewhere, it's just that the author failed to bring it to the surface.
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