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Star Maker

3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 · rating details · 1,755 ratings · 130 reviews

This 1937 successor to Last and First Men offers another entrancing speculative history of the future. Cited as a key influence by science-fiction masters such as Doris Lessing, its bold exploration of the cosmosventures into intelligent star clusters and mingles among alien races for a memorable vision of infinity....more

Paperback, 192 pages

Published May 19th 2008 by Dover Publications (first published 1937)

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Mar 28, 2013 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, transcendent-experiences, pooh-dante

There's a theory that, no matter what the author appears to be writing about, really he's writing about himself. I find this theory quite appealing, and, even though I don't believe it 100%, I think it's often a good way to try and understand why you like a book.

Star Maker is an interesting test case. In an earlier book, Last and First Men, the author described the billion-year future history of the human race. Now, he has expanded the scope into a history of the entire universe. The human race...more

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Jun 29, 2008 Peter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An amazing, challenging tour of the universe through the eyes of a cosmic voyager growing gradually into a transcendent vision of Creation and Eternity. Mixes everything from Einstein to Buddha and astrophysics to strange life forms in megagravity environments. Never read anything like it. Great prose style, and especially remarkable for the fact it was written just as WWII was a gathering storm. That is, pre Zen in the West, pre marijuana and LSD, pre Fritjof Capra, but more in tune with the Co...more

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Apr 29, 2010 Dave rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-fiction, fiction, arkham

“Star Maker”, by Olaf Stapledon, is an incredible novel by an author whose contributions to science fiction are unique and serve as inspiration to many of the greatest works in the field. It was Stapledon’s fourth novel and was first published in 1937. Narrated by the same voice as narrated “Last and First Men” the novel is a sequel of sorts, but at the same time it has a much larger scope and thus there is no noticeable overlap between the two novels. As with “Last and First Men”, “Star Maker”...more “Star Maker”, by Olaf Stapledon, is an incredible novel by an author whose contributions to science fiction are unique and serve as inspiration to many of the greatest works in the field. It was Stapledon’s fourth novel and was first published in 1937. Narrated by the same voice as narrated “Last and First Men” the novel is a sequel of sorts, but at the same time it has a much larger scope and thus there is no noticeable overlap between the two novels. As with “Last and First Men”, “Star Maker” is not a conventional novel, so if that is what you are looking for, you should look elsewhere. It is a philosophical journey rather than a conventional story with a traditional plot and characters.

The narrator takes the reader on a journey through the universe and through time, starting on a hill near his home, and ultimately finding the creator of the universe, i.e. the Star Maker. He witnesses the entire life of the universe, and joins with many other minds from other civilizations throughout the galaxy. It is tempting to use phrases like “for its time” when describing this book, but it is a remarkable work for any time. I am sure that some of descriptions of civilizations and their scientific achievements would change if it were written today. However, the statement that the book makes would likely remain the same.

One does not need to read “Last and First Men” (or “Last Men in London” for that matter) to read this novel. The few remarks made in the narration that reference “Last and First Men” will not cause the reader any difficulty. They pass by almost unnoticed, as the reader’s focus is on the amazing scope and vision which are contained in this novel. Stapledon’s works are not the easiest reads, but they are well worth the effort. The echos of Stapledon’s ideas can be read in the works of numerous authors and in some of the greatest works of science fiction.

This book was tied for 13th on the Arkham Survey in 1949 as one of the ‘Basic SF Titles’. It also was tied for 30th on the 1975 Locus All-Time poll for Novels; and 32nd on the 1998 Locus All-Time Poll for Novels written prior to 1990. This particular edition includes a Foreword by Brian W. Aldiss, and also includes A Note on Magnitude, Time Lines, and a Glossary all created by Olaf Stapledon. This is the 21st of the SF Masterworks paperbacks released by Victor Gollancz Books. If this is an indication of the quality of work they have done throughout the series, then it is a very worthwhile series to own.
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Dec 31, 2012 Oliver Charlesworth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 25, 2012 Ed rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I got this from a list of books on io9 that were "books everyone talks about and no one reads." It was apparently very influential, and I can see why.

First the negative: Like most old fiction (1930s here), this book has a problem with pacing. For the most part it reads like a history textbook, with occasional personal interjections and foreshadowing along the lines of, "Pay attention, these guys will be important later."

That said, it's interesting enough to overcome that issue and keep you (me)...more

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May 17, 2011 Jordi Balcells rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Cualquiera interesado en ciencia ficción

Recommended to Jordi by: Stephen Baxter

Shelves: ebook

No es una novela ni es ciencia ficción, por mucho que así la clasifiquen por ahí. Es un ensayo filosófico sobre la vida, el universo y todo lo demás. Lo que pasa es que es muy especulativo y habla de astronomía, de inteligencia artificial, de exobiología, de psicología, de física, etc. Y claro, ya se sabe que un libro que habla de un futuro y del universo tiene que ser ciencia ficción sí o sí, ¿verdad?

Premisa: un señor inglés se pone a mirar las estrellas y tiene un viaje astral de eones a lo la...more No es una novela ni es ciencia ficción, por mucho que así la clasifiquen por ahí. Es un ensayo filosófico sobre la vida, el universo y todo lo demás. Lo que pasa es que es muy especulativo y habla de astronomía, de inteligencia artificial, de exobiología, de psicología, de física, etc. Y claro, ya se sabe que un libro que habla de un futuro y del universo tiene que ser ciencia ficción sí o sí, ¿verdad?

Premisa: un señor inglés se pone a mirar las estrellas y tiene un viaje astral de eones a lo largo y ancho del cosmos por el pasado, el presente, el futuro y otras realidades. En ese viaje encuentra sociedades similares a la nuestra, describe su funcionamiento, cómo han llegado hasta allí, y sus triunfos y fracasos. Algunas evolucionan a un pensamiento / espiritualidad superior (rollo Antiguos de Stargate) y otras se extinguen por su propia mano, la de otros o por desastres naturales. En este viaje busca el sentido de la vida y el Hacedor de estrellas, el Creador o el dios supremo. A veces tiene tintes religiosos, muy cristianos y a veces es más neutral, místico sin más.

Este libro se publicó en 1937 en el Reino Unido, por lo que se podría decir que su autor estaba muy preocupado por lo que se le venía encima a Europa y al mundo con la guerra por la supremacía entre superpotencias, con el aumento de la intolerancia y de los extremismos políticos. Por eso el primer tercio del libro trata de cómo sociedades de seres en un momento evolutivo similar al nuestro pueden superar sus diferencias y unirse en un ideal común para llegar a ser una mente planetaria, manteniendo su independencia como seres. Vamos, comunismo versus liberalismo y cómo encontrar un equilibrio satisfactorio. La segunda parte del libro trata de la unión entre especies más o menos distintas para aumentar el campo de acción de esta mente "enjambre". Y la tercera parte del libro mejor no digo de qué trata por no desvelar acontecimientos.

El libro se merece cinco estrellas por su gran relevancia en la historia de la ciencia ficción. Aldiss, Clarke, Borges y Lewis son algunos de los autores que más han reconocido su admiración por el libro, según la Wikipedia. El físico Dyson reconoce que sacó la idea de sus famosas esferas de Dyson de este libro. Aunque no lo mencione la Wikipedia, he reconocido guiños claros al viaje astral de los personajes de 2001 y 2010 de Clarke (no he leído los otros libros de la saga), a la Fundación de Asimov (sociedad galáctica, uso de la telepatía como unión y arma de control mental) y a Las naves del tiempo de Baxter por su viaje astral a lo largo de la historia del universo. Y seguro que se me escapan nombres importantes que ahora no se me ocurren o que no he tenido ocasión de leer. Es increíble lo que consiguió Stapledon en 1937, está al nivel de Verne o Wells y su nombre casi se ha olvidado en comparación con estos grandes.

El problema es que no es una novela, es un libro de filosofía. No se le notan demasiado los años en el lenguaje, pero sí las ideas complejas y muy desarrolladas y las frases larguísimas, algo que dificulta enormemente la lectura y que hace de este libro un remedio perfecto para el insomnio. Por eso debo quitarle una estrella, porque es aburridísimo salvo en contadas ocasiones. Quizá en español se haga más soportable, al estar nosotros más acostumbrados a las frases largas.

Ejemplo de frase larga que hay que leer cinco veces para entender:

The crude spiritual "material" which he objectified from his own hidden depth for the formation of his new creature was molded to his still tentative purpose with more sympathetic intelligence, with more respect for its nature and its potentiality, though with detachment from its more extravagant demands.

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Feb 16, 2012 Jeff Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The rating of this book is more based on its SF historical significance for being quite ground breaking for 1937.

The plot itself is much like his first book "Last and First Men" in that book he provides a history of mankind that transcends millions of years to the end of mankind. The culture-building and description of various civilizations over that period is quite imaginative, but rather dry as it is told as history with little plot involved.

In Star Maker there are similar themes but instead o...more

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Mar 03, 2011 Jonathan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is true Science Fiction. That is, with the emphasis heavily weighed on Fiction. I find too many Sci-Fi authors get caught up with the Science wand miss out on the opportunity to narrative meaningful, allegoric and absorbing tales. Olaf Stapledon does not make this mistake. In fact, it was not until after its publication that he discovered the Science Fiction tendencies that the novel held (a genre he had hitherto never heard of).

Stapledon wrote this novel primarily as a way to explore phil...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

An epic and deeply influential work of science fiction, STAR MAKER borders on philosophy and theological speculation. Its main narrative focuses on an average Earthling, a "modern" man (circa 1937), who contemplates the stars while sitting on a hillside... and then his consciousness leaves his mortal form behind, setting forth on a journey to another planet. Our unnamed, everyman narrator discovers another world of intelligent beings, communes with another contemplative mind, and slowly joins a...more An epic and deeply influential work of science fiction, STAR MAKER borders on philosophy and theological speculation. Its main narrative focuses on an average Earthling, a "modern" man (circa 1937), who contemplates the stars while sitting on a hillside... and then his consciousness leaves his mortal form behind, setting forth on a journey to another planet. Our unnamed, everyman narrator discovers another world of intelligent beings, communes with another contemplative mind, and slowly joins a growing alliance of intelligent souls seeking to understand the nature and purpose of the Universe. This free-ranging collective mind roams through all of space and time as author Stapledon paints a stunning and eerily convincing complete history of life in the universe -- sketching the rise and falls of civilizations beyond human ken, describing the alien, incomprehensible intelligence of living stars and nebulae -- all building up to a final quest for the creator of this cosmos, the "Star Maker".

But whatever you think they're going to find, you're just not thinking big enough. Stapledon's breathtaking vision constantly explodes the limitations of ordinary imaginations. The thumbnail sketches of alien civilizations and their tragic histories may grow a bit tedious in the mid-section, but the pay-off is well worth the journey as it all culminates in a description of cosmogenesis that is at once humbling and awe-inspiring, deeply spiritual and yet fully informed by the most current scientific theories of his era.

And for a 75 year old book, it all holds up impressively well -- if the prose is sometimes a bit dusty, the thinking behind it still feels startlingly fresh and contemporary. When Stapledon touches on the state of the world in which he's writing, his clear-sighted vision is painfully accurate. His penetrating understanding of the grim specter of fascism and the inevitable scale and the inevitable conflict adds weight to his more esoteric thoughts. A man who can see so clearly through the tumult and chaos of his own era may prove to be a trustworthy guide through the dimmer, esoteric reaches of the deep future and beyond.

Highly recommended, STAR MAKER is at once a mindblowing, expansive vision and a deeply moving parable for a world at a crisis point. (less)

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Aug 16, 2012 Clea rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: big-disappointments

Today I finished Star Maker, by Olaf Stapledon, and the first thing that comes to my mind is that this isn’t a novel, it is more of a treatise or a manifesto, though seeing how this is supposed to be science fiction those labels don’t quite fit either. Well, whatever the correct noun happens to be, this thing is way too long and wordy for my liking.

Okay, as you may have guessed by now I would rate this book as a major disappointment, especially considering that Sirius has long been one of my fa

...more

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Sep 25, 2009 Nate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If a weird, science-named cult religion had spun off from this book, rather than by a pulp writer named Hubbard twenty years later, I would have no hair, no material possessions, and you would find me at your door with fliers to join. My only complaint is the heavy reliance on telepathy as the medium for movement and character interaction. Also, there isn't much plot, in any traditional sense, which is probably why no one ever reads this book.

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Jan 01, 2013 Helen (Helena/Nell) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a novel -- is it a novel? If it is a novel it has no plot and no developed characters. The time scale is so huge as to be unimaginable (Stapledon's imagination is also unimaginable). The narrator starts as 'I', then turns into 'we', sometimes 'human', then a cosmic consciousness; and at one point something like (but not exactly) a demi-god. Oh weird, this is so weird. This might be the weirdest book I have ever read.

How is it compelling with no plot? How can you care what happens next wh...more This is a novel -- is it a novel? If it is a novel it has no plot and no developed characters. The time scale is so huge as to be unimaginable (Stapledon's imagination is also unimaginable). The narrator starts as 'I', then turns into 'we', sometimes 'human', then a cosmic consciousness; and at one point something like (but not exactly) a demi-god. Oh weird, this is so weird. This might be the weirdest book I have ever read.

How is it compelling with no plot? How can you care what happens next when the main character is no more than a point of view? How do you centre yourself in the book when it zooms from world to world, galaxy to galaxy, aeon to aeon? I don't know. But somehow you do.

The narrator does starts as a human being. I think the first sentence is completely wonderful: "One night when I had tasted bitterness I went out on to the hill." On the hill, he looks at the stars and then suddenly he finds himself "soaring away from [his] native planet at incredible speed. . . I was not troubled by the absence of oxygen and atmospheric pressure. I experienced only an increasing exhilaration and a delightful effervescence of thought." And so it goes on, like an astonishing, amazing dream.

The narrator encounters many forms of life, many different kinds of intelligence. On some of these, he dwells for a paragraph or two in fabulous detail. For example, I loved this bit: "Many of these early universes were non-spatial, though none the less physical. And of these non-spatial universes not a few were of the 'musical' type in which space was strangely represented by a dimension corresponding to musical pitch, and capacious with myriads of tonal differences. The creatures appeared to one another as complex patterns and rhythms of tonal characters. They could move their tonal bodies in the dimension of pitch, and sometimes in other dimensions, humanly inconceivable. A creature's body was a more or less constant tonal pattern, with much the same degree of flexibility and minor changefulness as a human body. Also, it could traverse other living bodies in the pitch dimension much as wave-trains on a pond may cross one another." It's like David Attenborough on speed.

I said there was no normal plot to draw you through and connect things. There is, however, a question. The narrator starts by staring at the stars, into which he is drawn in a kind of dream or vision. I think it is a vision. I totally believed in it. Not believed that it was true - I don't mean that - believed that the vision was a genuine experience. I still feel quite sure Olaf Stapledon did all this in his own head, was somehow drawn into it inexorably and as a visionary, not as an ordinary writer. Oh -- I forgot the question. It is 'Who, or what, is the Star Marker?' The narrator goes in search of God.

I loved the complex experience of finding the Star Maker. Yes, he does find him. But no spoilers here! He finds both an answer and no answer, the only kind of resolution I could be happy with. This is too truthful a book to come to a conclusion anything less than profound.

In some ways, I think the book is about size. It encompasses a vast time scale. In fact, it goes right outside of time. And distances inconceivable. But it looks the other way too, at the microscopic. There's a Note on Magnitude at the end, where the author says "Immensity is not in itself a good thing." Somehow this book is both immense and only 253 pages long.

On the front cover, there's a quote from Arthur C Clarke. I'm normally allergic to blurb, but - well - Clarke says: "Probably the most powerful work of imagination ever written." I'd go with that.(less)

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Dec 16, 2012 Phillip Kay rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The other day I finished re-reading a book I first read nearly 20 years ago...Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker. I am just as amazed at its imaginative scope as I was 20 years ago. Re-reading it now I recognise many of my basic ideas, probably derived from a first reading of the book: the value of community; the idea of sentience applied to other life forms; the 'livingness' of all creation; the idea of harmony as essential to an approach to 'god'. Stapledon's book has been compared to Dante's. I find...more The other day I finished re-reading a book I first read nearly 20 years ago...Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker. I am just as amazed at its imaginative scope as I was 20 years ago. Re-reading it now I recognise many of my basic ideas, probably derived from a first reading of the book: the value of community; the idea of sentience applied to other life forms; the 'livingness' of all creation; the idea of harmony as essential to an approach to 'god'. Stapledon's book has been compared to Dante's. I find the language beautiful, the thought intricate and marvelously well-constructed: at once a deeply felt work of spiritual vision, a work of incredible imaginative scope, a detailed reasoning of the possible construction of reality, a work of fiction that carries the reader along despite its complexity, and a work of poetry.

Star Maker was written in 1937. It caused a sensation at the time (H G Wells was still alive, a potent example of philosopher-opinion shaper-novelist). After a few years it was forgotten, until in the 60s academics took up 'popular culture' and a canon was constructed for science fiction. Neither Wells nor Stapledon would have been interested in science fiction...

Stapledon uses the dream metaphor, just as ambiguously as Dante. Dante in the middle of his life finds himself in a dark wood (a metaphor which becomes 'real' to form the poem). Stapledon lies on a hill top, thinking of mortality and looking at the stars. He falls asleep and dreams/has a vision/is transported through the solar system. Travelling from star to star he finds another earth, where similar but distinct beings to humans go through many of the struggles, disasters and triumphs which have marked human history. So Swift might have written, though Stapledon is philosophically detached. Soon he is caught up in a spiritual union with a member of this other species and finds he is part of a group mind, in itself more than its two components can contribute to it.This new 'I' voyages further and finds many other species in the galaxy with some of whom the group 'I' melds to form a greater, more perceptive 'I' which is able to see and understand much more. Soon not merely a world mind, not merely a galactic mind but a cosmical mind is possible. This new mind becomes aware of the mode of being of suns and the galactic clouds themselves. The cosmical mind has inklings of the nature of the Star Maker, and through these inklings conceives of other creations and of their possible nature. The act of creation gives it some idea of the nature of the Star Maker, seen as an evolving being for whom creation and all possible cosmos is merely a stage.

Star Maker combines two modes used in other books by Stapledon, most notable Last and First Men. One is the concept of the group mind with powers of perception and realisation much greater than any single being. The other is that of scope, whereby what is seen is gradually revealed in a larger and yet larger context.Stapledon often uses this scale, playing up and down it as it were to create points by making a rapid change of perspective. And yet...as modern astronomy and nuclear physics confirm, the further one sees the more one realises how much more is unseen. The end of all this realisation is to accept that the most that is possible of a cosmically united mind is to accept one's part in the life of the Star Maker. Acceptance becomes joy. By realising to the extent of one's power the possibilities inherent in community, in living and striving for a whole greater than one's own needs, one can align oneself in the activities of 'god' as he ceaselessly (to us) creates himself.

Stapledon realises that much of this can become perverted and gives space to analyses of this. He also attempts to deal with the primary conflict caused by our perception of evil. His answer is that evil is a relative value (as when good comes of evil - temporal scale, or when evil to some results in good to the whole - spacial scale). He also sees evil as part of creation, serving some unknown purpose. The Star Maker is beyond good and evil, one of the many ways he is unknowable.

The book stimulates while it satisfies. Both a completed work of art, formally unified, it is also an exploration of concepts which can never be known. It's scope is such that it powerfully urges its readers to continue that exploration.(less)

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Jan 18, 2011 figura4 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Definire questo romanzo ambizioso è dire poco. L'obiettivo di Stapledon infatti è raccontare la storia dell'intero cosmo.
Si parte dalla coscienza disincarnata del protagonista che inizia timidamente ad esplorare le stelle, per arrivare a descrivere la coscienza collettiva dell'universo al cospetto del proprio creatore, lo "star maker", il costruttore di stelle (qui si sconfina ovviamente nel teologico).
Il tutto assume un valore ancora maggiore se si considera che l'opera è stata scritta poco pri...more

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Mar 10, 2010 Diosibundo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was like like no other book I had ever read.

The lead character walks to the top of a hill on a dark night contemplating the fate of the world. The year is 1937. Stalinism, Facism, Capitalism clashing all over the globe, global war is coming. Feeling tiny and insignificant, the narrator turns to the starry sky. The universe, vast beyond comprehension, makes him feel even more insignificant and pointless.

As he lays there contemplating, the narrator is lifted out of his body and drifts away fr...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Rose rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I heard somewhere once that back in the early 20th century authors got paid by the length of their writings. Stapleton must have made a mint on this one. Don't get me wrong, he basically wrote about the beginning and end of our universe and everything in between. I can understand why this book would have influenced so many to write epics of their own. It does spark the imagination.

If this book was written now, in a time when authors seem to write more for the story rather than for length, I kno...more

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Sep 24, 2010 D-day rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker is a sequel of sorts to his earlier book Last & First Men. Whereas L&FM dealt with the fate and evolution of humankind, Star Maker concerns the fate and evolution of the universe. The unnamed narrator passes through time and space in an out of body experience, discovering the history of the universe both past and future, with the ultimate goal of understanding the nature of the Prime Creator- The Star Maker.
Like L&FM Star Maker is a book that is easily adm...more

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May 19, 2013 Tonari rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Un libro estremamente affascinante, ricco di inventiva e meraviglia, ma a tratti difficile da seguire, specialmente alla fine.
Meravigliosa cronaca dell'universo del suo presente, futuro e passato, fino alla fine e oltre, a altri universi. E' fantascienza? In parte, ma �� pi�� la visione del cosmo di Stapledon messa per iscritto, un saggio filosofico mascherato da racconto.
Questo lo rende anche un romanzo sui generis, poco mostrato e molto raccontato per cui se siete fan dello "show don't tell"...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Nazer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Для своего времени (1937г) вещь необыкновенно революционная и даже по сей день беспрецендентная по широте полета мысли. (Процитирую вики: Идеи Олафа Стэплдона оказали большое влияние на дальнейшее развитие фантастической литературы, прежде всего на творчество Брайана Олдиса, Артура Кларка (который признал влияние Стэплдона на свой роман «Конец детства»), Станислава Лема, Джона Райта, Альфреда Ван-Вогта, Дорис Лессинг. Герберт Уэллс позаимствовал ряд идей Стэплдона для сценария к фильму «Облик гр...more

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Feb 25, 2010 Nate D rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: As Patrick says, scientists and mystics.

Recommended to Nate D by: Lucy

Shelves: sci-fi, britain, interwar-maladies

It is near impossible to imagine a novel with a greater scope than this one, which spans all of cosmic eternity from big bang to the energy death of the universe... and perhaps beyond. In Stapleton's convulsively expanding reference frame humans are almost immediately inconsequential, and shortly thereafter almost any reference to specific planet or even solar system. Some narrative momentum and personal attachment is sacrificed to the remarkable breadth, but this is necessary, and he gets aroun...more

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May 15, 2013 Mark Peters rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Can't believe I've been reading sci-fi (on and off it must be said) for over twenty years and never read this genre defining work by Stapledon. On the blurb K.S.Robinson says that plots that could be expanded into novels pepper the book like stardust and I couldn't agree more. I wonder did Lucas read it; evil Empires, a coalition of planets against them and artificial moons. Sound familiar? So many staple tropes from sci-fi are literally dumped onto the page as if they were self-evident or commo...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Kian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-masterworks

Some books can be likened to running a 5k race. They don't take too much preperation, they take a short amount of energy, and whilst satisfying and enjoyable, the feeling is somewhat short-term. Other novels look to take the reader on a marathon. Each page is painstakingly detailed, full of ideas and scope, leading to a such an epic conclusion you are left completely exhaused and needing a week to recover.

Reading Star Maker has the physical effect of running several marathons back to back, with...more

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Dec 10, 2011 David added it · review of another edition

Oh, my god (sorry Lord) but over just the first few pages, I've found 8 quotes worth taking hold of. More to come.

People, I've completely forgotten to keep reading this book. There are too many others that have caught my attention. I'll get back to it in a month or so, I hope!

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Sep 01, 2009 Nick Poniatowski rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow. This book is probably one of the best science fiction books I've ever read. If you enjoy books for their "world building," then this one will astound you. Stapledon lays out the history of our universe from the big bang to the death of the galaxies, while recording the intricacies of individual lives of creatures from single-celled beings of lust to symbiotic world-spirits. As if that's not enough, the book goes on to describe God--the Star Maker--and all of his "other creations," universes...more

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Jan 23, 2009 Kiri rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

I really wanted to like this book, especially given its glowing reviews and being hailed as early sci-fi with lots of great ideas, etc., etc. It does contain some really cool ideas about extraterrestrial species (and some somewhat less accessible/relevant/persuasive ideas about the organization of the universe), but it reads like a textbook. There is no real character/narrator, just a frame story about "mental interstellar travel" that allows the text to move around from planet to planet. There...more

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Sep 03, 2011 Chelsea rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, 2011

This book was utterly phenomenal. It's a strange book, with barely the semblance of a plot, and seems to function more as a treatise on an imagined universe rather than as a novel. Stapledon's prose is stunning throughout, and his vision of the universe and its Star Maker is simply mind-blowing. It's amazing to me that all of it could have been contained in any man's imagination, let alone put into words. What makes Star Maker so wonderful, though, is the fact that Stapledon treats all of his qu...more

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Aug 03, 2007 Lboogiepeace rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: topfavs

I really loved reading this book, which was recommended to me by a good friend. It sometimes raised more questions than answers, but that's good for us. Highly recommended, although you should probably be in a bit of a philosophical mood.

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Apr 10, 2012 Aaron Arnold rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, read-in-2010

If you're a big sci-fi fan, like I am, reading old stuff is always interesting, not only for the stories but also to see how the authors who actually created science fiction tell those stories. Star Maker was written in 1937 England, and is clearly the product of an intelligent, philosophical, somewhat Marxist rationalist trying to make sense out of the most desperate time period of the 20th century. Think Bertrand Russell plus Arthur C Clarke. Very thinly veiled in the account of a man who is t...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Taro Shijuukara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, philosophy, adventure, english, religion

A very interesting book, if an overly ambitious one.
Our hero, sitting on a hill in his home of England, disembodies and first explores his countryside, his planet, his sun, solar system, xenosolar stellar systems, foreign planets (here begging his joining with other minds), foreign galaxies, the entirety of space and time, foreign cosmos, and beyond.
It's heavily philosophical, to a point that I find it very difficult to understand. As a piece of science-fiction I find it marvellous. We have the...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Adrian Sherlock rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of the most brilliant things I've ever read, Olaf Stapledon leaves the rest of the science fiction genre in the shade, he was really something else. Pure speculative imagination, with doses of philosophy and social/political satire, this book tackles the biggest of the big questions and topics about life, such as creation, the meaning of life and God. And it even takes time out to make some damning allusions about broadcast entertainment and people who want to give in to an existence of mind...more

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About Olaf Stapledon

Excerpted from wikipedia:
William Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.

Stapledon's writings directly influenced Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Stanisław Lem, C. S. Lewis and John Maynard Smith and indirectly influenced many others, contributing many ideas to the world of science fiction.

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Trivia About Star Maker

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Quotes from Star Maker

“Barren, barren and trivial are these words. But not barren the
experience.” — 6 people liked it

“Sitting there on the heather, on our planetary grain, I shrank from the
abysses that opened up on every side, and in the future. The silent
darkness, the featureless unknown, were more dread than all the terrors
that imagination had mustered. Peering, the mind could see nothing sure,
nothing in all human experience to be grasped as certain, except
uncertainty itself; nothing but obscurity gendered by a thick haze of
theories. Man's science was a mere mist of numbers; his philosophy but a
fog of words. His very perception of this rocky grain and all its
wonders was but a shifting and a lying apparition. Even oneself, that
seeming-central fact, was a mere phantom, so deceptive, that the most
honest of men must question his own honesty, so insubstantial that he
must even doubt his very existence.” — 5 people liked it

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