No products in the cart.
A Voyage to Arcturus
Spine #66
Author
David Lindsay
Translator
First Edition
1920
Heathen Edition
Spring 2026
Refreshed
Pages
308
Heathen Genera
Hi-Sci-Fi, Arriving Soon-ish
Paperback ISBN
978-1-948316-66-8
Hardcover ISBN
978-1-963228-66-3
A low, sighing whisper sounded in his ear, from not more than a yard away. “Don’t you understand, Maskull, that you are only an instrument, to be used and then broken? Nightspore is asleep now, but when he wakes you must die. You will go, but he will return.”
Maskull hastily struck another match, with trembling fingers. No one was in sight, and all was quiet as the tomb.
The voice did not sound again. After waiting a few minutes, he redescended to the foot of the tower. On gaining the open air, his sensation of weight was instantly removed, but he continued panting and palpitating, like a man who has lifted a far too heavy load.
Nightspore’s dark form came forward. “Was Krag there?”
“If he was, I didn’t see him. But I heard someone speak.”
“Was it Krag?”
“It was not Krag—but a voice warned me against you.”
“Yes, you will hear these voices too,” said Nightspore enigmatically.
David Lindsay (1876–1945) was a Scottish author best remembered for the 1920 philosophical science fiction novel A Voyage to Arcturus. Fierce in its pursuit of spiritual truth and a moral universe as harsh as it is luminous, the book carved out a singular place in speculative literature. The story follows Maskull on a stark interstellar odyssey 37 light‑years from Earth to Tormance, an uncanny world orbiting Arcturus, where each landscape is less a place than a metaphysical trial — philosophies made flesh, states of mind given weather and terrain, a gauntlet for the soul where every encounter strips away another layer of illusion in search of what Maskull’s own becoming demands of him. Utterly ignored in Lindsay’s lifetime, the work has survived not by popularity but by revelation, long carrying the aura of a cult scripture: passed hand‑to‑hand, whispered about by writers and mystics, admired for its intensity of imagination and its refusal to flatter the reader’s desire for easy meaning. It is not a comforting book. It is an uncompromising myth of exile and ordeal that detonates logic, sears the mind, and leaves you forever altered.
Test Your Might
Paperback
OTHER RETAILERS
Arriving Soon-ish!
Rate & Shelve It
Hardcover
Arriving Soon-ish!
Rate & Shelve It
“The greatest novel of 20th century . . . a tremendous vision . . . Lindsay possessed towering genius.”
Colin Wilson
The Mind Parasites
Heathenry
Contents
Praise
Details
Heathenry
Coming soon . . .
Contents
Heathenry: Thoughts on the Text
A Voyage to Arcturus
A Voyage to Arcturus
Praise
“The greatest novel of 20th century . . . a tremendous vision . . . Lindsay possessed towering genius.” —Colin Wilson, The Mind Parasites
“David Lindsay—a wonderful writer! A Voyage to Arcturus is a masterpiece! It’s an extraordinary work . . . quite magnificent.” —Clive Barker
“Lindsay was a realist . . . since he singularly refuses to give us even the most provisional final answer to the riddles he sets . . . There is no evasion on Lindsay’s part in leaving his novel on a suspended ending, for that suspended ending is us.” —George Hay, Horror: 100 Best Books
“As a story, its violence and color are enthralling: on a deeper level, it takes us to new worlds of moral experience. And it makes all the symbolic novels of the past ten years look soft.” —The Spectator
“Powerful, stark as the wild dream landscape of Arcturus it so beautifully describes, it makes a tremendous impression on the mind.” —Evening News
“A Voyage to Arcturus demands that David Lindsay be considered not as a mere fascinating one-off, as a brilliant maverick, but as one worthy and deserving of that shamanistic mantle; of the British visionary and apocalyptic legacy.” —Alan Moore
“The book is not allegory but vision. Lindsay’s imagery, often drawn from music, is burning and impressive. He uses words violently and cares nothing of grace . . . But what emerges after sympathetic reading is . . . a sense of the remarkable profundity and coherence of the vision. The message is uncompromising in its purity. The achievement of the book exactly balances the ambition of its intention. This, surely, is rare.” —The London Times
“Arcturus itself is not an ingratiating work; the shelf it occupies is a short one, reserved for titles more often to be found in lists than in reader’s pockets. The message it spells out is no comforting one.” —Fantasy: The 100 Best Books
Details
A Voyage to Arcturus
Heathen Edition #66Published: Spring 2026
Format: Paperback
Interior: Black & White on Cream Paper
Pages: 308 (+2 POD)
Language: English
Annotations: 138 Footnotes
Illustrations: 4
The Heathen Newsletter
Want to be kept in the loop about new Heathen Editions, receive discounts and random cat photos, and unwillingly partake in other tomfoolery? Subscribe to our newsletter! We promise we won’t harass you – much. Also, we require your first name so that we can personalize your emails. ❤️
@heatheneditions #heathenedition
Copyright © 2026 Heathen Creative, LLC. All rights reserved.