Rating: 
Summary: Across the Universe
Review: "Who are we?", "Why are we here?" and "What's it all for?" are questions most of us have probably asked at some point, whether we're going through times of doubt, uncertainty or philosophical musing. Destiny and fate are fuzzy topics that make for deep intellectual discussion, providing much stimulation and irritation for those who like to ponder such matters. "Star Maker" attempts to answer the above questions by taking the reader on an epic voyage spanning the cosmos.The human protagonist becomes a disembodied psychic presence travelling across the immense gulf of space and time, visiting numerous worlds, some of which, like Earth, spawn conflicting cultures and religions. We see evolving star systems and witness the birth and death of countless species before meeting the creator of it all, the enigmatic Star Maker. On our own miniscule speck of a planet (where the book begins) we go about our daily business, struggling to make sense of a senseless existence, living in a world that seems to punish the innocent and reward the wicked. As we soon discover, it's like this throughout the universe. We witness acts of barbarism and atrocity, noble races are wiped out, unwilling (even if able) to defend themselves against less civilised, but no less talented aggressors. Other worlds are simply destroyed by freak twists of fate. All this is of complete indifference to the Star Maker. (How many of us feel grief when we accidentally step on a bug?) On meeting the Star Maker we find that our cosmos is merely one of a series of artistic experiments churned out over the aeons, as the Star Maker strives to create something that meets his satisfaction. Like any artist on an endless quest for perfection, he has to go through several failures in his "immature" phase. Our cosmos is produced in his "mature" phase. Yet it still fails to satisfy him, and even stranger, more incomprehensible creations are brought into being. I suspect John Wyndham got his inspiration for "Chocky" from reading this book, the way the narrator becomes an observer who can inhabit the minds of various hosts. I know Wyndham had read "Odd John". In "Star Maker" there's a lot to take in, even the narrator had trouble understanding a lot of it. 100 billion years of birth and death, hope and despair, good and evil are covered in 253 pages. I read "Last and First Men" two years ago. Even though "Star Maker" is an interesting book which I finished more quickly, I still prefer the former.
Rating: 
Summary: tedious and unrewarding
Review: 'Star Maker' by Olaf Stapledon is more about philosophy than about science fiction, but it has enough of both to make all kinds of fans happy. The author covers the history of, well, almost everything. He travels through space and time, back and forth, to explore everything from intelligent stars to the alien civilizations that rise ands fall, from simple plant-men to massive utopias. Always, he is also looking for the Star Maker, God, the Great Creator.
He even links this book to his first novel, 'Last And First Man', by talking about some periods in mankind's history, like the war with Mars. This book is all about scale. Yet while I enjoyed this book it didn't feel as well planned, as detailed as 'Last And First Man'. But I'm not sure a book of 272 pages could be said to be lacking in details. Its scope is vast and giving too many details might of limited it, framed it into too small a canvas. Olaf is using wide strokes of his huge brush to build this story.
With a forword by Brain Aldiss and a interesting glossary, I would suggest this book for both sci-fi fans, people looking for God in what seems like a godless universe and also people who just enjoy philosophy.
Rating: 
Summary: A classic in more than one way...
Review: 'Star Maker' by Olaf Stapledon is more about philosophy than about science fiction, but it has enough of both to make all kinds of fans happy. The author covers the history of, well, almost everything. He travels through space and time, back and forth, to explore everything from intelligent stars to the alien civilizations that rise ands fall, from simple plant-men to massive utopias. Always, he is also looking for the Star Maker, God, the Great Creator.
He even links this book to his first novel, 'Last And First Man', by talking about some periods in mankind's history, like the war with Mars. This book is all about scale. Yet while I enjoyed this book it didn't feel as well planned, as detailed as 'Last And First Man'. But I'm not sure a book of 272 pages could be said to be lacking in details. Its scope is vast and giving too many details might of limited it, framed it into too small a canvas. Olaf is using wide strokes of his huge brush to build this story.
With a forword by Brain Aldiss and a interesting glossary, I would suggest this book for both sci-fi fans, people looking for God in what seems like a godless universe and also people who just enjoy philosophy.
Rating:
Summary: A milestone.
Review: Although I just began reading novels a few years ago, I could tell Star Maker was no regular book. I often found myself struggling with Stapledons long explanations , but also dumbstruck by his grand description of the Star Maker. After I finished the book I went outside and looked at the stars, then proceeded to put on headphones and listen to "Also sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss. It was then that I got a glimpse of what this book was really about.
Rating:
Summary: A vast journal of cosmological contemplation
Review: I have no idea how I missed this book after all these years. Perhaps it is best that I found it now and not earlier, for it is the supreme example of speculative thinking about the future in my experience. I can't think of another book in the science fiction genre that I could compare it to, for nothing else comes close. This is the story of a man who takes an evening walk out upon the hills behind his home, only to be seized and swept away by a cosmic vision that seems to span the aeons. At first, he seems to be a single, disembodied point of consciousness with the ability to move at will among the stars. Then, he is drawn to a world of man-like creatures where he comes to enter into telepathic union with one of the natives. He and his host come to explore the entire history of this world before shoving off, together, to explore the other inhabited worlds of the galaxy. They are joined, one by one, by other simular explorers as they come to wander an incredible diversity of inhabited worlds. Slowly, they come to see the larger story of the galaxy, and then the entire cosmos. They see world after world unite into various forms of utopian "world minds." Then they see these world minds reach across the galaxy to colonise other worlds, and to make contact with other intelligent species. Finally, after aeons of conflict and struggle, all the galaxy is united into one great telepathically linked Galactic Union. Yet even this is but the beginning, for the next step is to make contact with the other galaxies- and with the stars and nebula themselves (for it turns out that the great cosmic bodies of the universe are themselves intelligent.) And when this is accomplished, all three great living super species press on into the higher dimensions of existance to make contact with the Creator himself- the Star Maker.... I understand that Stapledon spent part of his youth in Egypt, that would partially explain the ease at which he spans great extents of time, as well as, the rise and fall of great civilizations. Of course, he was also educated at Oxford, which would explain the simularities to Neoplatonism. At any rate, like the narrator, it is hard to believe that Stapledon didn't experience a vision of Cosmic Consciousness himself to inspire such a magnificently complex and profound work. Oh yes, this book is not written like a conventional novel. In fact, there is not a line of conventional dialog in it. It is instead, an extremely concentrated journal of idea after significant idea. As for the ideas, not only does the science hold up remarkably well for a book written in 1937, but if you read closely you find hints of the big bang, the holographic universe, morphogenic fields, the multiverse, cybernetic reality, etc., etc., etc. It reads rather like the journal of a classically educated Englishman of before the war. No, check that, it reads like journal of a classically educated genius....
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely should not be considered a novel.
Review: I started this book in a Science Fiction class at Florida International University. I finished this book because I wanted to pass. First of all, there are no characters in this book. Character is what most readers look for when reading a novel, but you won't find a character to identify with here. Plot is another reason people read; it's hazy here at best. Finally, the most importan reason poeple read is for story. You definitely won't find one of those here. If this was slotted under the "Imaginative Philosophy" section, I might have held the book in higher regard. That's pretty much what "Star Maker" is, a philosophical mind trip through entire universes. I was reminded many times of Plato's _Republic_ while reading this, and indeed it seems like Stapleton was extending his philosophical exercise to cover an entire universe. So, if you want to tackle philosophical issues, this book is okay. If you're looking for a novel (like I was), with a story and characters--and entertainment, damnit!--then run as fast as you cn from this one.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely should not be considered a novel.
Review: I started this book in a Science Fiction class at Florida International University. I finished this book because I wanted to pass. First of all, there are no characters in this book. Character is what most readers look for when reading a novel, but you won't find a character to identify with here. Plot is another reason people read; it's hazy here at best. Finally, the most importan reason poeple read is for story. You definitely won't find one of those here. If this was slotted under the "Imaginative Philosophy" section, I might have held the book in higher regard. That's pretty much what "Star Maker" is, a philosophical mind trip through entire universes. I was reminded many times of Plato's _Republic_ while reading this, and indeed it seems like Stapleton was extending his philosophical exercise to cover an entire universe. So, if you want to tackle philosophical issues, this book is okay. If you're looking for a novel (like I was), with a story and characters--and entertainment, damnit!--then run as fast as you cn from this one.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Existential Adventure
Review: If you're still seeking the answers to infinity and the source of existence, this one's for you. A heady delivery--meant to be pondered and absorbed rather than hurried through. It allows even the most cynical and intelligent reader to suspend disbelief for a while, indeed, even to dare to hope to believe that the described experience may be a factual accounting of an astonishing adventure. We hope for that because the author actually holds out the promise that, this time, we may actually get a glimpse of a real and ultimate answer. In the end, we are alone again in the midst of all this, none the wiser, but definitely enriched.
Rating:
Summary: One night when I had tasted bitterness...
Review: It must be about 10 years since I read this transcendental novel (after reading a recommendation in that amazing history of science fiction co-written by Brian Aldiss) and the flavour still lingers. It is nothing short of a speculative history of the universe! Recently, listening to the Brian Eno song Spinning Away (on the Wrong Way Up album, recorded with John Cale), I thought I detected a connection or two... has Brian read Olaf? I'll be rereading Star Maker very shortly.
Rating: 
Summary: Workers of the Galaxy Unite!
Review: 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.
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