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Star Maker

Olaf Stapledon

3.93 · Rating details · 6,657 ratings · 580 reviews

Star Maker is a science fiction novel by Olaf Stapledon, published in 1937. The book describes a history of life in the universe, dwarfing in scale Stapledon's previous book, Last and First Men (1930), a history of the human species over two billion years. Star Maker tackles philosophical themes such as the essence of life, of birth, decay and death, and the relationship b ...more

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Paperback, SF Masterworks, 272 pages

Published November 11th 1999 by Millennium Paperbacks (first published 1937)

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Apr 30, 2018 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fanboy-goes-squee, worldbuilding-sf, 2018-shelf, reality-bending, sci-fi, space-opera

Wow. Just wow. This novel disproves the general assumption that golden age SF is either hokey or unscientific.

In fact, it starts out like a strong hard-SF exploration novel touching on many possible alien races, mindsets, and physiologies, but it dives right down the rabbit hole into vast combined telepathic minds, galactic societies that actually are GALACTIC in scale, telepathic communication with multiple galaxies, and even to the discovery the rich stellar intelligence. That's right. Intelli ...more

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Dec 13, 2008 Manny rated it really liked it

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 28, 2015 H.M. Ada rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: favorites, read-sci-fi, read-philosophical

"...to discover what part life and mind were actually playing among the stars."

I absolutely loved this. Plant people, composite minds, intelligent stars - and an exploration into some of life's biggest questions. This book is a history of the universe, told by an Englishman who mysteriously floats into the sky one night while contemplating its immensity. It does not contain many of the traditional elements of a novel. For example, there are not many "characters" in the traditional sense. But wh ...more

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Jun 07, 2018 George rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi

This is not an easy read, but incredibly important one. The author takes us on a journey of ideas and concepts and in process completely alters our sense of scale, both spacial and temporal. Stapeldon was truly a pioneer of SF for bringing us truly big ideas.

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Apr 05, 2013 Stuart rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, classic-sf, galaxy-spanning

Star Maker: The grandest vision of the universe
(Posted at Fantasy Literature)
Star Maker is perhaps the grandest and most awe-inspiring vision of the universe ever penned by a SF author, before the term even existed, in 1937 by the pioneering English writer Olaf Stapledon.

Although some readers might think that this book was only outstanding for its time, I would say it remains an amazing tour-de-force today, and has clearly inspired many of the genre’s most famous practitioners, including Arthur Star Maker: The grandest vision of the universe
(Posted at Fantasy Literature)
Star Maker is perhaps the grandest and most awe-inspiring vision of the universe ever penned by a SF author, before the term even existed, in 1937 by the pioneering English writer Olaf Stapledon.

Although some readers might think that this book was only outstanding for its time, I would say it remains an amazing tour-de-force today, and has clearly inspired many of the genre’s most famous practitioners, including Arthur C. Clarke, with its fountain of ideas about galaxies, nebulae, cosmological minds, artificial habitats, super-heavy gravity environments, an infinite variety of alien species, and telepathic communications among stars.

This may be the only novel I’ve read that essentially has no individual characters. A nameless narrator sits on a hill contemplating the stars, when without warning his consciousness is transported into space, and he starts rushing towards the nearest stars. He discovers he can control his speed and direction, and proceeds to search for stars with intelligent life. Initially his search is fruitless, and the oppressive loneliness of space discourages him.

Eventually he discovers other intelligent minds, and joins in a collective mind with them. We are then treated to a mind-blowing series of encounters with ever greater and stranger life forms, as the scale expands by increasing series of magnitudes, until individual galaxies and universes have formed united spirits and proceed to seek the ultimate creator of the universe. To give you an idea of his writing style, below is a brief passage. The entire book is written like this, so it may not be your cup of tea if you like quirky characters, intricate plots, or pithy dialogue.

When at last our galaxy was able to make a full telepathic exploration of the cosmos of galaxies it discovered that the state of life in the cosmos was precarious. Very few of the galaxies were in their youth; most were already far past their prime. Throughout the cosmos the dead and lightless stars far outnumbered the living and luminous. In many galaxies the strife of stars and worlds had been even more disastrous than in our own. Peace had been secured only after both sides had degenerated past hope of recovery. In most of the younger galaxies, however, this strife had not yet appeared; and efforts were already being made by the most awakened galactic spirits to enlighten the ignorant stellar and planetary societies about one another before they should blunder into conflict.

The communal spirit of our galaxy now joined the little company of the most awakened beings of the cosmos, the scattered band of advanced galactic spirits, whose aim it was to create a real cosmical community, with a single mind, the communal spirit of its myriad and diverse worlds and individual intelligences. This it was hoped to acquire powers of insight and of creativity impossible on the merely galactic plane.

The book culminates with a brief but searing encounter with the omnipotent and yet imperfect Star Maker, who created all the universes in an endless series of efforts to improve upon the last, never satisfied, yet deriving ultimate meaning through those acts of creation. Olaf Stapledon’s descriptions of the Star Maker's efforts in the final part of the book are truly mind-bending, and bring to mind the latest ideas of quantum universes, infinite probabilities, the curvature of space-time, and the origins of the universe. It is a staggering achievement, still more incredible considering this was published in 1937. ...more

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Jul 22, 2015 L.S. Popovich rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star, sf-masterworks, science-fiction, british-irish-welsh-scottish

Stapledon manages to make it into the classical science fiction canon while dispensing with the traditional methods and inventing his own brand of speculative storytelling. This novel is pure speculation in the grandest sense. A consciousness, very like an astral projection of a human, explores outer space. Once intelligent life is encountered, it observes, then incorporates knowledge from that race and moves on to the next. I like the fact that even with god-like powers, the primary concern of ...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Helen (Helena/Nell) rated it it was amazing

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 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. ...more

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Jan 05, 2009 Kiri rated it it was ok · review of another edition

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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May 18, 2019 Oleksandr Zholud rated it really liked it

This is a SF novel from 1937, it shows a way the genre could have gone. It is like a dinosaur, it is great in some aspects and modern animal can go green with envy for their advantages but ultimately it was unfit, so the evolution done its deed.

The story follows the narrator’s journey through the space and time of the universe. It can be split into five major parts:
Part one, the physical universe. The narrator (soul?) goes from the Earth and travels across the galaxy. He sees different stars and This is a SF novel from 1937, it shows a way the genre could have gone. It is like a dinosaur, it is great in some aspects and modern animal can go green with envy for their advantages but ultimately it was unfit, so the evolution done its deed.

The story follows the narrator’s journey through the space and time of the universe. It can be split into five major parts:
Part one, the physical universe. The narrator (soul?) goes from the Earth and travels across the galaxy. He sees different stars and their life-cycle, found out that there are rarely any planets around. Planets in the goldilocks zone are even rarer. Ones with life are rarer still, for many planets lose their atmosphere or fall prey to celestial calamities. And a sentient life is rarest of all.
Part two, the first encounter with aliens. After despairing to find any, our narrator discovers new people (throughout the novel all species are essentially people even if they are hive minds or trees), who are similar to humans but with worse hearing and better olfactory. There follows their physical and social descriptions, the later ones clearly a response to current day (1930s) politics. For example,

When its civilization had reached a stage and character much like our own, a stage in which the ideals of the masses are without the guidance of any well-established tradition, and in which natural science is enslaved to individualistic industry, biologists discovered the technique of artificial insemination. Now at this time there happened to be a wide-spread cult of irrationalism, of instinct, of ruthlessness, and of the "divine" primitive "brute-man." This figure was particularly admired when he combined brutishness with the power of the mob-controller. Several countries were subjected to tyrants of this type, and in the so-called democratic states the same type was much favored by popular taste.

In both kinds of country, women craved "brute-men" as lovers and as fathers for their children. Since in the "democratic" countries women had attained great economic independence, their demand for fertilization by "brute-men" caused the whole matter to be commercialized. Males of the desirable type were taken up by syndicates, and graded in five ranks of desirability. At a moderate charge, fixed in relation to the grade of the father, any woman could obtain "brute-man" fertilization. So cheap was the fifth grade that only the most abject paupers were debarred from its services. The charge for actual copulation with even the lowest grade of selected male was, of course, much higher, since perforce the supply was limited.

In the non-democratic countries events took a different turn. In each of these regions a tyrant of the fashionable type gathered upon his own person the adoration of the whole population. He was the god-sent hero. He was himself p divine. Every woman longed passionately to have him, if not as a lover, at least as father of her children. In some lands artificial insemination from the Master was permitted only as a supreme distinction for women of perfect type. Ordinary women of every class, however, were entitled to insemination from the authorized aristocratic stud of "brute-men." In other countries the Master himself condescended to be the father of the whole future population.

Part three follows the description of multitude of sentient races, the wealth for dozens of books: not only similar to us but symbiotic people, composite (i.e. hive mind) people, including birds and insects, giant sentient living ships, tree-humans, sea star people, etc.

Part four describes galactic civilizations, for this is hard SF and no faster than light travel exists, but there is instantaneous communications of the mind and most civilizations reach world-mind superorganism level at some point. Rise and fall of galactic empires, brute force overcome by pacifism. Even stars themselves get sentient.

Part five is the most bizarre. Star maker is the demiurge, who created our universe, but for him (she/it/they) it is not a cherished creation, but a finished picture – he doesn’t care about it and he thinks about his new works. He cares even less for something fickle and evanescent as life, which is so rare and fast (compared with the universe). This is the only religious-philosophical text I’ve met that says ‘god exist, but you don’t exist for him, for you’re too insignificant’.

All this stuff is great. However, only selected few will read through the whole book for the writing is extremely dull. It is page after page of descriptions, akin to old academic books, almost unreadable and clearly not enjoyable.
...more

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Jan 08, 2016 Quentin Crisp rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Quentin by: James Champagne

Shelves: top-100-books

It might be best for me to try and write a review as I go along.

This is the first of 25 books in a list I've drawn up for myself of works of science fiction to read in 2016.

The basic idea of Star Maker is quite simple, but extremely ambitious: If a human consciousness could detach from the body in order to explore the universe, what would it discover? Reading it, I began to wonder why no one else seems to have attempted such an idea, as well as wondering why I had not heard of Stapledon. The tr ...more

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Jan 02, 2016 fromcouchtomoon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

All hail the master Stapledon! With his no plot, no struggle, no conflict, textbookshual novels, hahaha. It stands on its own as a gorgeous and inventive investigation of humanity, but I also can't help but see this as an allegory of pre- and inter-war year tensions, with alien depictions reflecting early 20th assertions of national identity, as if Stapledon is trying to pinpoint the common bit of humanity left in the ruthless world powers of the 1930s. Another for the re-read shelf! Another for ...more

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Jun 10, 2020 Dawn C rated it liked it

I was somehow let down by this one. The foreword waxes on about how mindbrowing and transcending it is, calling it undefinable and not really a scifi novel. Well on that point we can at least agree.

A human learns without any explanation to travel in space and time with his mind, and thus begins a long account of his explorations on other planets where he meets other intelligent beings (annoying called humans when what he actually means is they are humanoid), one which he mindmelts with, and toge ...more

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May 30, 2019 Ed Erwin rated it it was ok

Shelves: sf, book-club

This novel has many great and fascinating ideas in it about the nature of life, the universe, and everything. Far, far too many ideas.

Many of the ideas are still being talked about in modern cosmology. But with a few exceptions (e.g. expanding universe) there is little evidence for any of them.

Fascinating in small doses. Pretty tough to get through the whole thing.

Easier to read than Eureka: A Prose Poem by Edgar Allan Poe, but that's not saying much! ...more

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Jun 29, 2008 Peter rated it it was amazing

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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Jan 05, 2009 Dave rated it it was amazing

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” “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.
...more

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Feb 25, 2010 Nate D rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: As Patrick says, scientists and mystics.

Recommended to Nate D by: Lucy

Shelves: read-in-2010, britain, sci-fi, 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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Jul 10, 2012 Daniel Roy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sf-masterworks, sf

If you like SF stories that project far, far into the distant future, then Star Maker will leave you breathless. I don't think there's a single book in existence that can dwarf the scope and grandeur of this one. How can you write something bigger than the ultimate destiny of all the Universes in existence?

If Star Maker had been published in 2013, it would be a marvel of scope and imagination. But for a book published in 1937, its inventiveness is mind-boggling. I'm left with the same sense of a ...more

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Aug 01, 2014 Metaphorosis rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014-rev, reviewed

reviews.metaphorosis.com

3.5 stars

A man suddenly acquires the power to travel mentally throughout all dimensions of the universe, from creation to conclusion. He traces the development of many kinds of life while seeking signs of a postulated creative force.

This is possibly the dullest interesting book I've read, or vice versa. It's seldom that it takes me this long to complete a book (even the dread Alexandria Quartet felt faster), and it could almost be said of this novel that I "could

reviews.metaphorosis.com

3.5 stars

I believe I've read some of Stapledon's work before, though I don't recall when or what - perhaps Last Men in London. In any case, I wasn't sure what to expect.

What I found was a book with an amazing scope (literally the entire lifespan of the universe, and more), and an astounding creativity. Stapledon tosses off interesting and novel ideas every few pages, including the original Dyson sphere. He postulates intriguing intelligences, species, societies, cultures, lifeforms, you name it. There's a mountain of fascinating material in here.

Unfortunately, he presents it all in a style so determinedly dry that it's hard to stay awake for the marvels. Even allowing for the period (1930's), the prose is so clinical that it begs to be treated as an academic report, to be put down in favor of something more engaging. It's a shame, because if you can keep your mind focused, there's a lot here to like.

The main story kicks off on "Other Earth", with what seems a thinly-veiled polemic against capitalist materialism. It ends somewhere in the cosmos with what seems a thinly-veiled paean to religious creationism. But neither of those impressions is really accurate, for in between is a steadfastly logical exploration of the concept of human development. This is a 'what if' story in the best way. If it reads more like a thought experiment than a story, that's not inaccurate.

'Human', in this book, means roughly 'intelligent life'. Stapledon doesn't discriminate between humans shaped like homo sapiens and symbiotic whale-crab partners. What he cares about is how they develop, and how they'll succeed. Most of them don't. This is not a warm and fuzzy YA story, and to his credit, Stapledon doesn't duck the hard questions. He makes some assumptions, and sets in motion a train of events, but there's no magic happy-ever-after. Instead, there's a genuine exploration of what could happen, and what it would mean.

'What it all means' is a central theme of the novel, and perhaps its reason for being. I found Stapledon's answer to have too strong a religious tinge for my taste, but it's clearly something he (and his narrator) thought long and hard about. Ironically, C.S. Lewis thought Stapledon's answer was "devil worship", so perhaps he hit an unhappy medium after all.

I recommend this book. It's a slow and painful read - much more of a slog than a sprint. But if you persevere, and if you manage to keep Stapledon's ideas in focus, you'll be rewarded. I wish (oh how I wished while I was reading this) that Stapledon had been a lighter writer. He wasn't, but his ideas are worth engaging anyway.

...more

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Mar 18, 2017 Derek rated it liked it · review of another edition

Last and First Men hurt, but I'm back for more. And Stapledon continues to run with his vast future history, now encompassing the universe. It repeats the original structure, with a series of specific, detailed histories that eventually generalize and summarize, pulling back to show the entire grand scope. And in so doing, dares to slot the events of Last and First Men--the entirety of broadly-defined humanity's existence--as less than a footnote, never having joined galactic society and being ...more

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Dec 31, 2012 William Oarlock rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-classics, favorites

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

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Jan 18, 2012 Odile rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, religion-mythology-spirituality, sci-fi, favorites, uk-british

'Star Maker' moved me. Written in the late 1930's, Stapledon was perhaps a bit ahead of his time, or at least, it seems at least as relevant today as it must have been back then.

I would describe the book as a creation myth for the secular age. It is a mystical and spiritual story for those of us who believe in science, and not in a personal God in the tradition of traditional faith, yet who are spiritual seekers all the same.

Based on the astronomical knowledge of the time, Stapledon paints a swe ...more

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May 29, 2008 Weathervane rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: SF fans/people who like philosophy

Shelves: science-fiction

One of the greatest books ever written. Every science fiction fan should read this.

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May 31, 2013 Gendou rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The forward to this book promises "more than science fiction" but, alas, the book delivers something rather less. Part of the problem is, the book is old, written in 1937, before some scientific discoveries were widely accepted/known, and before others were even made. Also, the author isn't very science literate. Just enough to be dangerous.

Basically, the narrator goes on a magical journey through time and space, sees lots of aliens, and meets god "the star maker". The whole story is narrated, a The forward to this book promises "more than science fiction" but, alas, the book delivers something rather less. Part of the problem is, the book is old, written in 1937, before some scientific discoveries were widely accepted/known, and before others were even made. Also, the author isn't very science literate. Just enough to be dangerous.

Basically, the narrator goes on a magical journey through time and space, sees lots of aliens, and meets god "the star maker". The whole story is narrated, and accomplished entirely by "telling" instead of "showing", though this doesn't bother me too much.

A lot of the alien worlds are clever, if a bit half-baked. Take, for example, the tree people. They have an interesting life style, being rooted into place during the day, and free to walk around at night. But his evolutionary exobiology is terribly lacking. Any student of Darwin should find immediate fault with mobile autotrophs.

The author uses a clever technique, to mix two things you don't see mixed on Earth (trees and people), then write about the hybrid product. But Stapledon didn't have the science necessary to do this justice.

The author's writing in terms of vocabulary and prose are quite good. I suspect this is because he's an Englishman. But he uses lots of funny words like "human" and "man" to refer to aliens, which gets confusing. He's doing a British thing where "human" is synonymous with "humane", and where "man" implies a thinking mind.

He uses other words that are shockingly different, in modern reading, than the author seems to have intended. For example, he uses "eugenics" to mean "genetic engineering", but since DNA was not discovered until 1950, I can't fault Stapledon's choice of words. Also, there are bizarre themes of Utopia and galactic Libertarianism that strike me as pitifully naive.

The narrator just asks us to accept unjustified ideas like a whole star that is alive with its own "mind". Writing before the era of computers, he almost gets a pass, but... it's really dumb to say that a star is conscious. He doesn't seem to be up on his science. In the book, stars even get some parasite of their "biological tissues", which doesn't make sense, because no molecules can form in the plasma state of matter... anyway.

For a book that is touted as fabulously open-minded and far-out, I found it terribly myopic (parochial?). The first aliens the narrator encounters are upright walkers who with drably human problems. The narrator makes excuses a lot. Here, he says that the psychic power that drew him to these human-like creatures similar to its possessor. Then, as he meets and is joined by similar creatures, each contributes some difference, so that the coverage of different forms grows ever outwards. Really, the author just needed a convenient way to arrange the book. This trope is lazy.

About those psychic powers. Technology to link minds over large distances using radio would be a cool explanation. But, the powers also draw his consciousness back and forth through time. That sort of causality-violation can't be made paradox free, and so cannot exist as part of any serious science fiction book.

The narrator makes many other poor excuses. When he runs out of ideas on a planet, he just says there isn't time to tell more about it. When something is impossible, the narrator begs forgiveness for being just one mind. When he was part of the traveling psychic space-mind, he could understand everything perfectly well. Yeah right.

Towards the end of the book, we get a tale of god mixing up lots of universes, experimenting with different laws. This is where the story takes a turn for the inane. Star Maker has two separate "spirits" (god and the devil), which he is finally able to express satisfactorily in our universe.

The digression into uninteresting theism is abrupt and has nothing to do with the rest of the book, except to explain away real problems with a non-answer. Why is there struggle and hardship? Oh, because God. Why are there so many galaxies full of rare and precious life? Right, because God. You might as well replace God with Boobs. Why Boobs? Because Boobs, that's why.

Lest my scathingly positive review leave you confused, I enjoyed reading it (thus the 4-star rating) but find enormous fault in its contents. No contradiction there. ...more

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Mar 30, 2011 Mark added it

Shelves: being-set-aside-for-a-more-auspicio

Have had to finally admit defeat on this one. perhaps i shall return to it at some point, I know i put Jude the obscure aside when I was about 20 and then took it up again and read it about 15 years later. the problem with that scenario would be the sneakiest suspicion that 15 years would take me way past any interest I would have in completing a novel i find totally porridge-like in its stodginess. I think it might be one to launch myself at when there is nothing else to read in reach but I hav ...more

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May 25, 2008 Nate rated it it was amazing

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. ...more

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Oct 09, 2017 Jerry rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: writers-writers

Star Maker must have been at least a little old-fashioned even when it was published in 1937. Stapledon uses the framing technique of Eddison and others, very much like Hodgson in The House on the Borderland to tell the story of a man who travels the cosmos by intellect alone. It is also more Wells than Wells in its didacticism. There isn’t much of a story here; it’s a journey of observation, explaining how the universe works, from the microscopic level to the divine.

Despite it being basically a ...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Ed rated it really liked it

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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Dec 25, 2009 Ollie rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: people seeking God

Recommended to Ollie by: it was a Xmas present

This book nearly blew my head off so I can only imagine what readers felt when they first encountered it in 1937. Enthralled? Ecstatic? Spellbound? If I were Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes and I found a copy of this book underneath the fallen Statue of Liberty, I'd create a religion around it. It is, after all, a beautiful example of how science fiction can touch theology and make the reader believe momentarily that there is meaning to life.

On a silent, starry night, the narrator of the n ...more

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Jul 10, 2009 Hollis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction

As a work of the imagination, I have never read anything that surpasses this. As a 'science fiction' novel this is definitely in my top ten although it is important to remember that Stapledon was not aware that he was writing anything resembling a work in this genre and indeed had never heard of the genre at all.

This is such a profound book that it seems like a terrible shame that it has only attracted a relatively small reading audience: it deserves much more than the Happy Few who currently co ...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Sam rated it it was amazing

I've never written a review for a book before, but this one left such a strong impression on me that I think I should write one.

First of all, it is not an easy read. The whole book is essentially prose-poetry. There is no dialogue - every page is filled with rich, detailed, poetic descriptions. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it meant that it took me a while longer to finish the book.

Each page is also likely to contain some deep philosophical or spiritual idea. After reading a page or two I nee I've never written a review for a book before, but this one left such a strong impression on me that I think I should write one.

First of all, it is not an easy read. The whole book is essentially prose-poetry. There is no dialogue - every page is filled with rich, detailed, poetic descriptions. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it meant that it took me a while longer to finish the book.

Each page is also likely to contain some deep philosophical or spiritual idea. After reading a page or two I need to stop just to be able to fully appreciate the idea that Stapledon is trying to convey.

In some ways, this is the ultimate sci-fi book. It contains references to actual astronomical facts that were known during the time it was written. It also includes many, if not all, of the classic sci-fi themes: interstellar travel, telepathy, virtual reality, alien invasion, alien civilisation, time travel, dystopian and utopian societies, so forth and so on.

But what makes this book so great for me is how many deep reflective moments there are in the book. Stapledon contemplates human nature, the rise and fall of civilisation, collective consciousness (between humans and alien species), our place in the Universe, competing political ideologies, the origins and nature of religions and gods, mysticism, and (possibly the most mind-boggling concept in the whole book) the idea that planets, stars, galaxies and the Universe itself could be conscious as a kind of super-mind. I love the way he convincingly details how planets, stars and galaxies can have their own unique intelligence and form their own kind of civilisation.

I don't know if Stapledon was familiar with Eastern mysticism and philosophy, but many of the concepts he explores are similar to concepts found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. These concepts include ethical teachings central to Eastern philosophy, such as altruism, compassion and care for the community. Other Eastern concepts explored include the nature of the Self, self-transcendence and the desire to reach a higher plane of existence.

What really surprised me was how psychedelic and trippy many of the ideas and descriptions were. When the protagonist, for example, finally confronts the 'Star Maker', it sounds like an intense psychedelic or religious experience. In fact, many of his descriptions are incredibly psychedelic. I just can't believe that these descriptions are not influenced by a high dose of a drug such as LSD, mushrooms or from a DMT experience.

Lastly, I think the way in which the author describes the Universe - as something immensely vast and complex and mysterious - easily rivals the poetic descriptions of Carl Sagan, or anyone else actually. A bold statement, but I think it's true.

https://www.samwoolfe.com/2018/12/boo... ...more

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About Olaf Stapledon

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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. ...more

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Quotes from Star Maker

“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.” — 25 likes

“All this long human story, most passionate and tragic in the living, was but an unimportant, a seemingly barren and negligible effort, lasting only for a few moments in the life of the galaxy. When it was over, the host of the planetary systems still lived on, with here and there a casualty, and here and there among the stars a new planetary birth, and here and there a fresh disaster.” — 17 likes

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