Star Maker

I must first point out why I got into the business of writing and reviewing books. My interest in and claim of alien abduction, led me to evolve from writing on UFO forums to co-writing a book about my experiences. In addition to this, I was inspired to employ my memories of alien abduction in a novel which I called, `The legend of the Starmaker'. My novel was written before I became aware of Olaf Stapledon's masterpiece, the `Star Maker', which for many people will be hard to believe. There are a few similarities between the two works but `The legend of the Starmaker' is not in the same league in terms of intellectual content. It is this point of intellectual content which highlights my attributes as a writer. I am not the sort of person one would assume would become a writer, I am only of average intelligence and my unusual writing career was born out of a need to explain further to people about my alien abduction memories.Reading Olaf Stapledon's `Star Maker' was for me, as with many other people, very heavy going and in some parts of the book, I had to stop reading for very long periods. I often felt like I had been punched in the head and been in a boxing match. Each sentence is laced with, on average, three or four deep intellectual concepts. If one tries to speed read the book, as I ended up doing, you are still forced to pause and try and understand at least thirty percent of the deep intellectual concepts, or you will quickly lose the meaning and rhythm of the story. This is truly a book for intellectuals but I am sure that many of them will also find it hard to read. As I started to read the book, I had the idea that perhaps the difficult task of reading the complex passages would reward me with a lasting video of images in my mind, images which unfold and reveal multitudes of information about a complex story. Well it turned out that rather than video images, I was left with a profundity of concepts. Concepts which when I had the mental strength and time, I could explore by looking up the various passages in the book which would then become a kind of encyclopaedia or reference book. And this brings me to the point of why I think `Star Maker' is a masterpiece; it is because the book literally covers everything. Every concept and notion about evolution, mind, spirit, politics and travel through the cosmos is studied and explained in great detail, if anything is missing it must surely be of only trivial importance. One comes to the conclusion that the book, through its logical unfolding, proves how life must be in the cosmos and indeed my alien abduction experiences can confirm many of the things Olaf Stapledon has written, especially to do with political ideas.I looked like many people do, for attributes of a conventional novel and really the only place where similarities of a conventional fiction book stood out was in the descriptive passages of `The Other Earth'. At times this piece of writing was like reading H G Wells' descriptive passages in his novel `The First Men in the Moon', which I thought was not a bad standard to copy. But I think overall `Star Maker' has to be written the way it is, a kind of evolving list of concepts and ideas. If it had been written in a conventional plot and storyline way, there would be too much distraction and deviation from Olaf Stapledon's ideas which it is claimed are centred on the study of evil. One other fun piece to read is the description of the plant-men, where plant and animal combine and the more animal part can separate and fly through the air to search pastures new. This was up with the best science fiction.At first I wanted to give this book four stars because it is difficult to read but then I thought no, if I claim this book is a masterpiece, which it is, I am forced to give it five. I struggled to read the parts concerning spiritual evolvement; the part of the book which studied a race's exploration and colonisation of space was much easier to read. The final part of the book which described the behaviour of the `Star Maker' was, like most of the book, detailed and satisfying in as much it makes one wonder if this is truly how God is.

I am torn on writing this since it's been so long since reading this book. While it's much easier to review a book I've just read, I think there is some value in reviewing books from long ago. Especially if they made an impression upon me as this one did. Where details falter, other things take their place. Maybe even more valuable things. In the end, maybe books aren't about remembering every detail or even the names of characters, perhaps it's more about what we carry away with us (and sometimes what we don't).This is another book I lent to someone never to see again. Years ago, I found it on Amazon only to find some stupid Hollywood novel of the same name at my doorstep (that went right back in the mail). I found it recently when searching for another book suggested by a friend. I was happy as could be and also downloaded another one of the authors titled THE LAST AND FIRST MEN.What I remember most of this story was that so many of the configurations of human-like creatures from other planets were so like a game I used to play as a child musing about how different our HUMAN CONFIGURATIONS could be and what that would be like. The opening, if I recall, had the main character on a hillside looking up at the night sky and then falling up into the sky as he started his journey onto other worlds in the cosmos. I was laying in bed when I read this looking out my window ~ I could imagine floating up up and away. Very powerful imagery.While the book is categorized as Science Fiction, it struck me as very PHILOSOPHICAL in nature. I could be recalling this wrong since it's been so long, but I do recall parallels to human prejudice just in different forms. As the main character moved on, it struck me as becoming less and less personal and more like the eye of the creator. A strange merging of creator and creation with a side of BEING JOHN MALKOVICH.The idea of how we humans look at TIME through such a small window ~ one that the universe experiences as less than one blink of the eye is worth our attention. I love pondering time. I have no sense of time, yet I do love pondering all the ways it might be. A delicious guilty pleasure of mine.As the story progresses, it goes from different species and civilizations to the idea that everyone and thing in the cosmos are intelligent beings. And, what's more a COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS links us to the cosmos and everything in it. And finally the main character meets a DETACHED CREATOR. I found this interesting and thought of it along the lines of when I create something as a writer or artist. While creating whatever it is, I can feel very attached and protective of it. But once it's finished and some time has passed, I don't find myself quite as attached and rather feel more of a connection to my creation now that I am unhindered by attachment. That is more what I imagined the Star Maker to be, unattached yet still connected to his creation. But like most artists, when something is done being created we step back and let it be. Now with an ever changing creation with so many moving parts as the cosmos, this seems an odd thing to do. But really, from the vantage point of the artist of such a big undertaking, it may be more like a moving piece of art where all the creation set into motion was the art created and what results is the Star Maker becoming less attached and more connected.I will be dipping my toe into this novel again. I may have more thoughts this many years later that never occurred to me upon my first read. And, I'm sure I've forgotten much of what struck me years ago on my first read.

I just couldn't fathom how anyone in their right mind would find this novel in any way shape or form entertaining.It reads like a dictionary, the author describes what happens to the chap what he does, where he goes, what they do, but its almost devoid of any dialogue, doesn't show but tells instead, and reads like the author was writing a synopsis then decided that was good enough and had that published instead.It's a truly boring repetitive read, missing so many chances to show rather than tell, and you feel like you waste your time reading this trash as that is what the book is.

I managed to get 31% into this and then just had to give up trying. I really couldn’t manage any more of it.Imagine that William’s favourite book is Gulliver’s Travels and he decides to have a go at writing a sci-fi version of it having read Brave New World just before starting. I think that pretty much sums up the first 31%.The problem is that while Gulliver’s Travels and Brave New World are both very good books, and both are very well written and keep the reader’s attention, Star Maker is tedious, dull and plodding: at least that’s how i found it to be. I can imagine for its time it was very exciting, but sadly some books just don’t age well and i think this is one of them.I don’t feel that it’s bad enough to warrant a place on “The Deleted” page, so it will get a reprieve and stay in my Amazon lists for now and i may give it another go at some future date when i’m feeling a lot better about life and stuff.

After reading and thoroughly enjoying Last and First Men I had to read this other rated classic by Olaf Stapledon and I was not disappointed. If the scope of the first book was staggering then this book blows that away by several orders of magnitude. In this book he turns away from the history (both past and yet to come) of the human race and examines the possibilities for life on first an interstellar, then galactic and finally on a universal scale.On scope and imagination alone this is a fascinating read, but delving deeper there are some brilliant ideas which kept me glued to the pages. Unfortunately it's not an easy read. While it does contain the character of the narrator and encounters with other individuals this isn't story that simply follows the events of the plot. This is more an exploration of ideas, although I would say that it's a little less dry than the author's earlier work.It suffers from a few other issues. The most obvious is the gulf of understanding that has changed since this book was written. Some of the science is very outdated (as you would expect) and while it is noticeable it doesn't undermine the scope of thought the book invokes. Although I did find the repeated assertions that something was beyond human understanding a little tiresome.Another issue for me was the last section. I'm actually in conflicted opinion about this section as it stands very different from the bulk of the book. On one hand it's an excellent modern (ish!) take on Paradise Lost (which is my favourite story of all time) while on the other the nature of the Star Maker is at odds with the more scientific leanings of the earlier chapters.It's a difficult book to rate as I can see why people would struggle with it. However based on the ideas that it inspired in me while I was reading and the outstanding journey it took me on I would say that this easily deserves its classic status. It's one not just for science fiction fans but anyone that holds an interest in life and its place in the universe.

This is a book of ideas about intelligent life and humanity; the tiny pettiness of individuals and what we could be. Stapledon writes beautifully, in my opinion, however I can see how many find his style and use of lexis difficult (especially if you aren't fascinated by his ideas). He has a PhD in philosophy and this comes across in his writing, this is not a a fast paced action novel and certainly doesn't read like a standard novel (neither does his other great work "the first and last of men"). He uses the freedom of writing fiction to keep the ideas coming thick and fast without becoming bogged down in justifying them.I cannot recommend this book more highly, it is not just a sci-fi novel, it's a book which will really make you think about the infinite, fragile, futures of humanity. There's a reason why so many of his so many of his contemporaries (many who have made huge cultural impacts) rate him so highly, you owe it to yourself to find out why.

I bought this book because it's synopsis really intrigued me. Unfortunately,the protagonist's trek through the cosmos, which comprises 90% of it, proved to be a tedious and over-long trudge through largely uninteresting details of the various habitats and lifeforms encountered. I would have much preferred the author to have taken a higher-level,conceptual view of the cosmos rather than merely trawling through one list of characteristics after another ad infinitum.Nevertheless, the book is saved to dome extent by its ambitious theme and its stirring and somewhat inspirational final short chapter which are responsible for my rating of 2.