"The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five" takes place among … "concentric shells"—six of them—which, we are told in "Shikasta," surround the planet in a way reminiscent of the spheres of ancient cosmology. Each shell or Zone represents a different "level of being." Zone Six, the only one really dealt with in "Shikasta," is the innermost (or lowest), a place where disconsolate souls wander about or line up for reincarnation on the planet. Zone Three, where the action of "The Marriages" begins, is at the midpoint of the hierarchically arranged spheres; from there we descend to Zone Four and, briefly, into Zone Five. We also catch glimpses of the higher, more ethereal Zone Two. Zone One remains unmentioned and unimaginable.

Far from being science fiction as we generally think of it, "The Marriages" takes the form of a medieval romance, in which a lovely queen is...