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Title: Star Maker (SF Masterworks) by Olaf Stapledon, William Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 1-85798-807-8 Publisher: Orion Publishing Group Pub. Date: 1999 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: APOCALYPSE ON THE WIRRAL PENINSULA
Comment: On a suburban hill, presumably on the Wirral (with the foundry beyond the estuary being Shotton or Brymbo), a man falls asleep and experiences not some mere vision of the entire cosmos but a conscious participation in the Creator's whole programme of innumerable cosmoi. This is a compulsive and utterly comfortless book. Keep a sense of humour if you are going to read it attentively, as you may need that to stay sane. It starts at a level familiar to science-fiction readers, and the details of the various alien intelligences have the sort of fascination that one gets in, say, Van Vogt (or even the work that immortally began 'Help, we are surrounded by Vugs'). The vision then advances to the collective telepathic minds developed by some of the civilisations, next to the sentient minds (individual and collective) of the stars themselves, then to similar consciousness possessed by whole nebulae, and finally to direct contact with the Creator. This Creator is not some fount of infinite love and goodness as we might understand those concepts. Our values are not his -- 'Sympathy was not ultimate in the temper of the eternal spirit; contemplation was. Love was not absolute; contemplation was.' Countless disasters and unthinkable suffering are all part of the grand design. Hell itself may be deliberately inflicted by the Creator on those he gives no opportunity to avoid it. To me this scenario seems just as likely as any religious theory of ultimate goodness, which may be basically wishful thinking. Grappling with questions like these by reasoning is like wrestling with a jelly in a high wind -- when we think we have made progress it just closes back in on us from behind. And other than reason what do we have? Belief is just belief -- things may be the way we believe or would rather believe, or they may not. 'I know not "seems"' says Hamlet. 'Seems' may be all we've got.
Back on his suburban hill in 1937, the anonymous visionary contemplates the 'reality' around him. Like many agonising intellectuals of the time, Stapledon partly fell for the monstrous con of Soviet communism. He had no grasp of Realpolitik whatsoever, and Muggeridge's account of the edifice of corruption, chicanery and strategic lying that took in Shaw and other big brains is recommended to any who have not read it. Others of Stapledon's perceptions ring partly 'true' -- '...a world wherein, none being tormented, none turns desperate' is probably a bit much to hope for, given human perversity, but we all know the lengths people will go to when they have 'beliefs', which flourish where there is injustice and oppression.
Can you face this book? In recommending it I am quite aware of the disorientation and unhappiness it may create in some. In others, if it undermines the high ground occupied by those deceptive and destructive phantoms, deeply held beliefs, it may do some 'good'. The bigger questions stay just as they were, of course.
Rating: 3
Summary: Workers of the Galaxy Unite!
Comment: 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 admired yet difficult to enjoy. The scope of Stapledon's imagination is astonishing. Yet because of its broad scope (literally billions of years of time and billions of light-years in space) it is by its very nature general, with little detail and much philosophy. This makes for tedious reading. And the philosophy espoused by Stapledon is Socialism. The theme running through the book is that only when the workers overcome their capitalist masters and control the means of production will a society be able to evolve a world mind -the next stage in galactic evolution. Those societies which do not will be consigned to the dustbin of history.
This attitude is not surprising given when the book was written. WWI demonstrated the failure of monarchy, the Depression the failure of liberal democracy and capitalism. The choice seemed to many in the 1930's, a choice between fascism and communism. And Stapledon chose Lenin; to quote 'we were amazed to find that in a truly awakened world even a dictatorship could be in essence democratic' (Chp 9.1)That would be the Dictatorship of the Proletariat comrade.
Politics aside, it is a seminal work in the history of the genre. It is an amazing work of imagination, even if it does take a great deal of effort to wade through.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Book For Any Time
Comment: Star Maker, by Olaf Stapledon, is an incredible achievement. It was first published in 1937. It is not a conventional novel, so if that is what you are looking for, you should look elsewhere. It is more of a philosophical journey than a conventional story. The nameless narrator takes 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.
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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Title: Last and First Men (SF Masterworks) by Olaf Stapledon, William Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 185798806X Publisher: Orion Publishing Group Pub. Date: 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Last and First Men and Star Maker : Two Science Fiction Novels by Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 0486219623 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1968 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Neuromancer by William Gibson ISBN: 0441569595 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke ISBN: 0345347951 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 May, 1987 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. ISBN: 0553379267 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 02 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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