Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of The New York Times wrote in a review of this book that "the effect of the story is powerful and immediate – with all the drama of good polar-exploration literature, and the eloquence, at its best, of the King James Bible.

She has come to feel that individuality is a 'degenerative disease'... She seems ... to be in the process of junking not only traditional narrative and conventional characters but the details of feeling as well..."[4] The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 can be read as a stand-alone book, although it does make reference to the planet Shikasta, introduced in the first book of the Canopus series.

Planet 8 has a warm temperate climate and, under Canopus's skilled guidance, the inhabitants live comfortably and at peace with themselves and their world.

By the time the glaciers reach the wall, much of the vegetation in the south has been destroyed by snow and ice and conditions grow worse.

In time, when the population is now faced with starvation, the wall, which was only a temporary barrier, gives way and the glaciers start over-running settlements in the south.

Lessing explicitly likens this view of the pride in sacrifice and self-transcending to the expectations and propaganda imagery of World War I soon after.

[6] The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 was adapted for the opera in 1986 by composer Philip Glass with story-libretto by Doris Lessing.