I was pointed into the direction of this book by an acquaintance and now that I got around to it I must thank this acquaintance, because Stapledon's Star Maker is unlike any other science fiction I have read. This book is epic on a cosmological scale, a journey through space and time to the outer reaches of both - and beyond. The sociological, psychological and societal analyses of the alien species found by the book's protagonist are enormously interesting and largely realistic despite the fantastical nature of the conscious entities encountered. The fact that the contents of this book aren't completely ridiculous more than 70 years after it's conception render it a true masterpiece of science fiction. ( )

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

Star Maker must rank as one of the most ambitious and challenging books ever written, if it does not gain the top spot in the list. Olaf Stapledon has attempted to do no less than write about the entire history of the universe.

The story starts off with a lone Englishman, contemplating his life on a hill. Suddenly, he becomes insubstantial - he can see through the world, through to the other side, and beyond. The Englishman decides to take advantage of his state, to explore and see what he can learn.

What he learns in the course of his travels is the story we are presented. We go from the narrator meeting his first alien race. The race he meets is remarkably humanoid, and in a similar social situation, but this is explained quite well later on. The story gets more fantastical from there - we are introduced to a far more diverse set of alien species, from symbiotic races to sentient plants, Dyson spheres, terraforming, and creating artificial planet systems are just some of the things mentioned in this book. All of this is accompanied by philosophic ideas that give you food for thought long after you put your book down.

All the while throughout the novel, the narrator constantly tries to use his experiences to explain the nature of the Starmaker, the creator of the universe. We get a lot of different perspectives about religion, and the nature of God, and far more besides that.

There is a lot to think about in this novel, due to the sheer scope of what is presented. We start off in the small town that the Englishman lived in, but the scope of the story rapidly expands from there - we expand our view to cover the continents, then the world, and it only gets more epic from there. A galaxy-wide religious war is began, fought, and defeated in less than a single chapter. The story of humanity is dismissed away in less than a paragraph. Such scope really puts the reader in their place.

Certainly, there are some parts of this novel that are dated - ideas about planet formation, the age of the universe and so forth, but that is a minor detail, easily dismissed. The science of what occurs does not matter in terms of the story, because the nature of the story is beyond mere scientific details, and the story itself is written in such a manner that the details of the science contained in the story really do not matter.

My simplistic summary here simply do not do Starmaker any justice. If you are interested in religious ideas, in philosophy, or in science fiction, I would suggest that you take look at this book.

Here is a link to view the work for free: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601... ( )

I think that Olaf Stapledon's "Last and First Men" is one of the great classics of science fiction. Unfortunately "Nebula Maker" is much weaker, in my opinion. But if you like Stapledon's other books, this one is worth reading too. ( )

A remarkable account of the history of the universe. It affirms the value of each action for good, no matter how invisible or insignificant that action may feel.