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A review by kleonora
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
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