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mrlinds's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing I've read so many sci-fi books without really knowing about this.
A great broad stroke voyage through this and every other universe.
Bit hard to read and I started to nod off a couple times, but a few good kicks on christianity and society as a whole, and super imaginative. Way ahead of it's time.
A great broad stroke voyage through this and every other universe.
Bit hard to read and I started to nod off a couple times, but a few good kicks on christianity and society as a whole, and super imaginative. Way ahead of it's time.
jonzard's review against another edition
3.0
For being written in 1937 it is mind blowing. As a read in 2016, it was good but ultimately just an okay read. Worth reading if you're interested in science fiction.
carter_20's review against another edition
4.0
Supremely imaginative in every conceivable dimension!
greg_brown's review against another edition
5.0
A very, very different book, but really cool once you get into it. Mr. Stapledon was one imaginative man.
euthalius's review against another edition
3.0
+ full of fascinating, absolutely mind-blowing ideas
- not much of a plot, and after a while quite hard to read
- not much of a plot, and after a while quite hard to read
christensen5's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
marc129's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
I have conflicting feelings about this book: I could just as well give it 1 star or 5 stars. The British science fiction author Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950) certainly had an unbridled imagination. This was already evident in his phenomenal Last and the First Men (1930), a reconstruction of more than 2 billion years of human history (you read that right: 2 billion years). In this book, Star Maker (1937), he even goes a step further: he lets a British man look back on a cosmic journey of years along solar systems with inhabited planets, entire galaxies and ultimately the Creator/Star Maker himself. Once again, the strangest creatures, civilizations and cosmic empires pass by, in an increasingly intense succession and interconnection. Again I was impressed by Stapledon’s knowledge and use of the astronomical science of the time, I just think of his description of multiverses. Most notable is his emphasis on cosmic interconnectedness: starting with the methods of ‘psychical attraction’ and ‘disembodied flight’ that he uses to transport his narrator through space (and time) faster than the speed of light, along with an ever-increasing number of mentally interconnected entities, and culminating in a collective mind that encompasses the entire cosmos, a truly impressive image: “Each world, peopled with its unique, multitudinous race of sensitive individual intelligences united in true community, was itself a living thing, possessed of a common spirit. And each system of many populous orbits was itself a communal being. And the whole galaxy, knit in a single telepathic mesh, was a single intelligent and ardent being, the common spirit, the ‘I’, of all its countless, diverse, and ephemeral individuals.”
But Stapledon was also a child of his time (the interbellum), and that is shown, for example, in his long digression on racial differences, in the many references to fascism and capitalism, and in his very cyclical view of the development of civilizations. It is this constant rise and fall of civilizations, and especially the sometimes arbitrary destruction and annihilation of entire worlds, galaxies and even universes that raises fundamental, existential questions in the narrator: “As we searched up and down time and space, discovering more and more of the rare grains called planets, as we watched race after race struggle to a certain degree of lucid consciousness, only to succumb to some external accident or, more often, to some flaw in its own nature, we were increasingly oppressed by a sense of the futility, the planlessness of the cosmos.”
And so our narrator in his quest ultimately ends up with the Star Maker, the creator of everything. And – as might be expected – this ‘encounter’ is expressed in true Dantesque terms: “I saw, though nowhere in cosmical space, the blazing source of the hypercosmical light, as though it were an overwhelmingly brilliant point, a star, a sun more powerful than all suns together. It seemed to me that this effulgent star was the centre of a four-dimensional sphere whose curved surface was the three-dimensional cosmos. The star of stars, this star that was indeed the Star Maker, was perceived by me, its cosmical creature, for one moment before its splendour seared my vision.”
But the big question is of course how this Supreme Being could remain so indifferent to all these destroyed beings and worlds. In an attempt to explain this, Stapledon presents us with the image of a kind of Ultimate Laboratory Technician in a permanent creative mood, experimenting both within and outside of time (clearly Stapledon has read Augustine), with ever-reconfigured universes, a formidable, endlessly learning entity. This may seem an attractive intellectual image (which, by the way, comes close to the image of God in process theology), but from a human-existential point of view it seems to me an emotional sign of weakness.
The scope and depth of what Stapledon touches upon in this novel may safely be called phenomenal. But in all honesty I must say that the accumulation of descriptions and experiences is so overwhelming and sometimes so very detailed that it eventually becomes very difficult to follow, and – as far as I am concerned – also a bit long-winded. Hence my allusion to the choice between 1 or 5 stars. So I will cowardly refrain from giving a rating, but this is without a doubt one of the most remarkable writings of the first half of the 20th century
joeytitmouse's review against another edition
4.0
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 first occurrence of such concepts as a Dyson Sphere (no, not named as such). It's beautifully written, and I've posted many quotes from it here, there were many, many more that I've skipped with unfortunance.
However as a philosophical piece I'm not as excited. He holds to a theory of panuniversal unity and community, that I have trouble getting into. It just feels a little forced. But the rest, just gorgeous. It's really something that you have to experience.
Now, there is a clear sense of warning. The inevitable crisis facing Stapledon writing this in 1937 quickly manifested itself as the Second World War, and you can see his fears growing within the pages.
You know that "Galaxy Song" in the Monty Python movie The Meaning of Life? Yea, if that you find humbling, you will love this book.
Another tip, and this is especially valid if you read at precisely the right speed; I read the beginning, where our hero leaves his body and explores the sun system while listening to the prelude to Tristan und Isolde. That's just nothing short of glorious.
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 first occurrence of such concepts as a Dyson Sphere (no, not named as such). It's beautifully written, and I've posted many quotes from it here, there were many, many more that I've skipped with unfortunance.
However as a philosophical piece I'm not as excited. He holds to a theory of panuniversal unity and community, that I have trouble getting into. It just feels a little forced. But the rest, just gorgeous. It's really something that you have to experience.
Now, there is a clear sense of warning. The inevitable crisis facing Stapledon writing this in 1937 quickly manifested itself as the Second World War, and you can see his fears growing within the pages.
You know that "Galaxy Song" in the Monty Python movie The Meaning of Life? Yea, if that you find humbling, you will love this book.
Another tip, and this is especially valid if you read at precisely the right speed; I read the beginning, where our hero leaves his body and explores the sun system while listening to the prelude to Tristan und Isolde. That's just nothing short of glorious.
kleonora's review against another edition
5.0
Verdict: A rapidly expanding Space Odyssey filled with the condensing sparkly nebulae of future scifi and also the meaning of life.
It very quickly became apparent to me that Star Maker would not be your typical romp through the stars, seeking out new worlds and new civilizations etc, etc. Which isn’t to say it doesn’t boldly go where no man has gone before, it does, but just not typically. Perhaps not boldly, either. Star Maker; Contemplatively going where no man has gone before! Yes, that’s better.
Anyway, I wasn’t exactly thrilled that this book was looking like more of an essay than an adventure, but the prose was lovey – clear and wondering – so I maintained optimism and read on. I was impressed by the science of the book. (written in 1937 btw) This was a man that knew his stars and relativity. As you may have surmised, description is key when the main character is a disembodied viewpoint and this was the meat of the book. Stapledon combines his extensive scientific knowledge of time, space, evolution and behavioural psychology with a fantastic imagination and as a result creates ALL the scifi. This, my friends, is the mother lode.
Uplifting, artificial planets, hollow earths, hive mind organisms and the United Federation of Planers it’s all in here first. Enjoy as Olaf invents The Matrix:
“During my last years on the Other Earth a system was invented by which a man could retire to bed for life and spend all his time receiving radio programs. A vast system of automatic food-production, and distribution of liquid pabulum by means of pipes leading to the mouths of the recumbent subjects, would be complemented by an intricate sewage system.
Children, if future generations were required, would be produced ectogenetically. The World Director of Broadcasting would be requested to submit psychological and physiological specifications of the ideal "listening breed." Infants produced in accordance with this pattern would then be educated by special radio programs to prepare them for adult radio life. They would never leave their cots, save to pass by stages to the full-sized beds of maturity.”
Incidentally, the idea was a big hit on this particular planet, but that’s neither here nor there. What Star Maker is a book jam packed with ideas. I couldn’t stop reading it. Every chapter was a new envisioning of extraterrestrial evolution and each subsequent subject was more and more exotic in keeping with the novel’s expanding scope. We move from Earth to alien planets to solar systems to star systems to the galaxy to the universe to beyond time and space. In the end we crash back down into the heather heath we started in. It’s all quite poetic really.
That’s the other thing about this book, in addition to be chock full of scifi imaginings it’s also incredibly philosophical. This can be a good or bad thing, but with Star Maker it’s easily good. The whole story acts as an unfolding of Stapledon’s universal understanding and quite frankly I’m sold. Why are we here? Where are we going? What is love? What is God? Olaf offers perfectly reasonable answers to each of these questions. It’s Scientology without the evil-twin goatee and I’m a convert. Better understanding of life the universe and everything through science fiction. It’s a motto I can really get behind.
Title: Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
When: May 2012
Why: ebook+scifi=imam gunna read you at work!
Rating: 5
It very quickly became apparent to me that Star Maker would not be your typical romp through the stars, seeking out new worlds and new civilizations etc, etc. Which isn’t to say it doesn’t boldly go where no man has gone before, it does, but just not typically. Perhaps not boldly, either. Star Maker; Contemplatively going where no man has gone before! Yes, that’s better.
Anyway, I wasn’t exactly thrilled that this book was looking like more of an essay than an adventure, but the prose was lovey – clear and wondering – so I maintained optimism and read on. I was impressed by the science of the book. (written in 1937 btw) This was a man that knew his stars and relativity. As you may have surmised, description is key when the main character is a disembodied viewpoint and this was the meat of the book. Stapledon combines his extensive scientific knowledge of time, space, evolution and behavioural psychology with a fantastic imagination and as a result creates ALL the scifi. This, my friends, is the mother lode.
Uplifting, artificial planets, hollow earths, hive mind organisms and the United Federation of Planers it’s all in here first. Enjoy as Olaf invents The Matrix:
“During my last years on the Other Earth a system was invented by which a man could retire to bed for life and spend all his time receiving radio programs. A vast system of automatic food-production, and distribution of liquid pabulum by means of pipes leading to the mouths of the recumbent subjects, would be complemented by an intricate sewage system.
Children, if future generations were required, would be produced ectogenetically. The World Director of Broadcasting would be requested to submit psychological and physiological specifications of the ideal "listening breed." Infants produced in accordance with this pattern would then be educated by special radio programs to prepare them for adult radio life. They would never leave their cots, save to pass by stages to the full-sized beds of maturity.”
Incidentally, the idea was a big hit on this particular planet, but that’s neither here nor there. What Star Maker is a book jam packed with ideas. I couldn’t stop reading it. Every chapter was a new envisioning of extraterrestrial evolution and each subsequent subject was more and more exotic in keeping with the novel’s expanding scope. We move from Earth to alien planets to solar systems to star systems to the galaxy to the universe to beyond time and space. In the end we crash back down into the heather heath we started in. It’s all quite poetic really.
That’s the other thing about this book, in addition to be chock full of scifi imaginings it’s also incredibly philosophical. This can be a good or bad thing, but with Star Maker it’s easily good. The whole story acts as an unfolding of Stapledon’s universal understanding and quite frankly I’m sold. Why are we here? Where are we going? What is love? What is God? Olaf offers perfectly reasonable answers to each of these questions. It’s Scientology without the evil-twin goatee and I’m a convert. Better understanding of life the universe and everything through science fiction. It’s a motto I can really get behind.
Title: Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
When: May 2012
Why: ebook+scifi=imam gunna read you at work!
Rating: 5
eleanorfranzen's review against another edition
3.0
Apparently Stapledon was genuinely surprised when people started telling him he’d written a “science fiction novel”, which actually makes perfect sense once you’ve read it because it’s not really a novel at all. Star Maker's closest generic ancestor is the medieval dream vision; like Chaucer’s narrators, Stapledon’s (never named) is vouchsafed a long journey into the heart of cosmic truth. There’s not much in the way of plot or character development, which hampers a reader’s ability to care, although Stapledon’s theology and conception of universal history (and obsession with “community”) is intellectually interesting. Worth reading, though, mostly because he anticipates huge numbers of science fictional tropes, including the Prime Directive.
If you like what I write (and I freely concede that this particular reading diary entry may have been of no use to you at all, but maybe it diverted you from spreadsheets for a minute or two), why not buy me a coffee?
If you like what I write (and I freely concede that this particular reading diary entry may have been of no use to you at all, but maybe it diverted you from spreadsheets for a minute or two), why not buy me a coffee?