Star Maker (S.F. MASTERWORKS)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Brian Aldiss calls this 1937 SF classic "the most wonderful novel I have ever read", and its Millennium Masterworks reissue adds admiring remarks by Jorge Luis Borges, Arthur C Clarke, Doris Lessing, Virginia Woolf among others. Olaf Stapledon is better known for Last and First Men (1930), a sweeping history of the future whose early chapters are now embarrassing--but Star Maker leaps straight into a unfurling vision of infinity.
Looking at the starry night from an English hillside, the unnamed narrator is snatched from his earthly body and flung through space at impossible acceleration, soon outstripping light. He visits other stars, sees other worlds and alien races, a gallery of SF marvels in documentary rather than story form. (Some of this now seems over-familiar, however fresh and new in 1937: the book drags a little here.) Fellow disembodied intelligences from the galactic community join our hero, sensing something beyond mere matter and energy:
The felt presence of the Star Maker remained unintelligible, even though it increasingly illuminated the cosmos, like the splendour of the unseen sun at dawn.
But the godlike Star Maker is not exactly God, as we see when the scope expands beyond one mere universe to show an endless cycle of creations, many of them being crude and "immature" products of this experimenter's hand. Further "mature" creations follow, foreshadowing the Ultimate Cosmos whose crystalline perfection is not comforting but terrifying. Star Maker's final unsparing evocation of the deep chill of infinity has even been compared to Dante. --David Langford --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
Classic visionary SF tale of the 30¿s which inspired Arthur C. Clarke
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
So one evening, you are relaxing on a hill near your home ... looking at the stars and contemplating the complexities of the universe.
Soon you have left your own body and are drifting through the universe, searching from planet to planet and seeking the answers to the universe's ultimate questions. And just out of interest, why you and not someone really important like George, Tony or that chap from Fingermouse?
Stapledon takes the reader on a galaxy spanning adventure where we watch the central character struggle to use their very human perception to understand all they encounter. And of course, being human it's equally important to grasp and evaluate the lost grain of ones own life.
Not as deep and sonorous as 'Last and First Men' - but far pacier and more uplifting - this is another fine offering from Stapledon that builds towards a truly awe inspiring conclusion.
And is it just me, but was Fingermouse's demise just a little too disturbing for children's tv? The revenge of a weary traveller?
Soon you have left your own body and are drifting through the universe, searching from planet to planet and seeking the answers to the universe's ultimate questions. And just out of interest, why you and not someone really important like George, Tony or that chap from Fingermouse?
Stapledon takes the reader on a galaxy spanning adventure where we watch the central character struggle to use their very human perception to understand all they encounter. And of course, being human it's equally important to grasp and evaluate the lost grain of ones own life.
Not as deep and sonorous as 'Last and First Men' - but far pacier and more uplifting - this is another fine offering from Stapledon that builds towards a truly awe inspiring conclusion.
And is it just me, but was Fingermouse's demise just a little too disturbing for children's tv? The revenge of a weary traveller?
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book, though for me revolutionary, has not received a lot of the recognition I believe it is worthy of. Firstly, it explores many factors now taken for granted in postmodern fiction, e.g. dislocation, divided selves and a sense of 'numbed' perception. Furthermore, like Frank Herbert and Douglas Adams he is able to weave these themes into the narrative, whilst still maintaining a sense of coherence.
He stays within the confines of the science-fiction genre, yet deals with complex and arbitrary issues which blend philosophy and a deep questioning of cultural values. Comparisons with H.G. Wells and John Wyndham are permissible, but it is his use of philosophy that makes me admire him as a great writer. I have yet to find a writer who has the ability to question so much, yet still maintain an aura of intelligibility.
Clearly, this book is a whirlwind trip and yet one worth taking since this is no ordinary author. He may have gained greater recognition for many of his other books, yet it is this book that gives so much to the reader without taking anything away. You may question what he describes to you, but you will not be able to question his ability to tell it to you.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have to say that when i first started reading this book, i wasn't that impressed by the first couple of chapters. With its slightly antiquated style and perhaps slightly overlong monologues it felt like reading something like Edward Bellamy's 'looking backward'...This was especially the case as I had just read a Phillip K. Dick novel. However, the sheer imaginative scope of this text is phenomenal, an examination of important philosophical themes such as the ability to comprehend the possible purpose of God (the 'Star Maker') masquerading as a mythological history of the universe. When people refer to any novel as influential, what they seem to mean is that the text captures in its form and function the drift of ideas and concepts at any one time and space. In its treatment of God and the potential (in)significance of humanity, Stapledon's novel certainly is that. Should probably one day be studied at school, where children will marvel at a time when writers were more ambitiuous.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
So many words
And then even more words - must have used nearly every one in the dictionary. Given that it must have been quite an achievement to write but I cant help wonder if it was intended... Read more
Published 18 days ago by threequarterslifecrisis
Amazing book!
Highly recommended for science fiction fans!
It is a captivating book, the protagonist goes through the Milky Way and other galaxies and discovers other worlds
It is a captivating book, the protagonist goes through the Milky Way and other galaxies and discovers other worlds
Published 2 months ago by Veronica
star maker
I had read this book years ago and returned to it with pleasure some good descriptions of lifeforms such as the living tree lifeforms and the swiftian tale of the boat whale... Read more
Published 10 months ago by mark1000
Stapeldon - not just an SF author.
I decided to re-read Olafson when I discovered I'd read all the books in my bookcase. I first read First and Last Men some 40 years ago at university and was amazed. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Christopher Wilson
Reads Like Stereo Instructions
I have ten pages left of this thing and I don't know if I can bring myself to read them - every word is like being stabbed in the eye. Boooooo-ring! Read more
Published 13 months ago by Humphrey
Impressive, but rather dull
I should start by saying that the book is very imaginative and shows an excellent grasp of science given it was written in 1937, however the book is pretty dull, and wasn't an... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Gavin Cawley
It's a tough slog
How to describe this entirely unconventional book? Stapledon's long descriptions of imaginary societies reminded me very much of Thomas More's "Utopia" (he uses the word "utopia"... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Rusty
if you want to expand your understanding of life
this is one unmissable book. a fine work.Probably the book that influenced more scifi writers than any other. A personel favorite. Read more
Published 16 months ago by thark
literature at its best
The kind of literature tha stapledon offers is a work of art. I mean that i think his main target is not to offer a plot rich story but to create a pure work of art about the... Read more
Published 21 months ago by babis/greece
Suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the ride
Having greatly enjoyed Stapledon's Last And First Men, I had high expectations for this novel, generally regarded as its larger, more sophisticated sequel. Read more
Published on 3 Jun 2010 by Zarino Zappia
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