Star Maker
Olaf Stapledon
I have no idea what to do with this book, and it is posing a serious challenge to my inner grading system. The book is good, there's no doubt about that, but it wasn't very engaging. It is making me incredibly torn, because my experience of the book after reading it has been much greater than it was whilst reading. In this, the book is somewhat similar to A Farewell to Arms (which is conveniently coming up). If nothing else, Star Maker is intriguing: its premise promises a tour of the galactic whole, and whatever may lie beyond. At its simplest level, the book is a tour of speculative existence, ranging from the almost human to the great power that creates the cosmos.
It may be hard to see how a work of such scope could be so...boring. The worlds Stapledon describes are imagined in vivid detail, and the relevance to human affairs (both in 1937 and today) is clear enough to provide clear allegories while avoiding that much-hated preachiness. The problem is that the narrator almost doesn't exist. All we know about the man traveling through the universe(s) is that he is an Englishman who lives on a hill. The book only has one named character, a somewhat important figure who nonetheless lacks significant characterization. The focus of the book is on its descriptions of worlds and their social systems, not on creating an interesting narrative that binds the reader to the work. I consider myself an efficient reader, but I struggled through the book. It constantly gave me the feeling that there is much to unpack, but such an effort seemed to me too daunting: I like my stories with characters and plot.
Despite this (almost debilitating) limitation, it is clear that Stapledon has much to tell us about cooperation and human relations. By examining how other worlds and races have developed successfully and by looking at the reasons for their demise, Stapledon reveals a philosophy of coexistence that is compelling and educational. I believe that there is much to learn from this book, if one can only get through it. The mechanism of travel is in and of itself worth looking at; by accessing and amassing consciousnesses, those individuals involved gradually build up a critical mass not unlike a computer network (think Last.fm or other sites that create recommendations).
This insight and others convince me that Stapledon has a lot to say in this book. Unfortunately, these conclusions and insights do not function within a gripping narrative. The book reads more like a philosophical treatise, which may have thrown me off a bit. I'd hate to be unfair; I did not enjoy slogging through the endless descriptions but at the same time I have gone back over certain parts and discovered incredible things. I say that this is a good book to have and come back to, maybe to read in installments after the first time. There is a lot to digest, but I believe that it is worth the effort.
Grade: B
Olaf Stapledon
I have no idea what to do with this book, and it is posing a serious challenge to my inner grading system. The book is good, there's no doubt about that, but it wasn't very engaging. It is making me incredibly torn, because my experience of the book after reading it has been much greater than it was whilst reading. In this, the book is somewhat similar to A Farewell to Arms (which is conveniently coming up). If nothing else, Star Maker is intriguing: its premise promises a tour of the galactic whole, and whatever may lie beyond. At its simplest level, the book is a tour of speculative existence, ranging from the almost human to the great power that creates the cosmos.
It may be hard to see how a work of such scope could be so...boring. The worlds Stapledon describes are imagined in vivid detail, and the relevance to human affairs (both in 1937 and today) is clear enough to provide clear allegories while avoiding that much-hated preachiness. The problem is that the narrator almost doesn't exist. All we know about the man traveling through the universe(s) is that he is an Englishman who lives on a hill. The book only has one named character, a somewhat important figure who nonetheless lacks significant characterization. The focus of the book is on its descriptions of worlds and their social systems, not on creating an interesting narrative that binds the reader to the work. I consider myself an efficient reader, but I struggled through the book. It constantly gave me the feeling that there is much to unpack, but such an effort seemed to me too daunting: I like my stories with characters and plot.
Despite this (almost debilitating) limitation, it is clear that Stapledon has much to tell us about cooperation and human relations. By examining how other worlds and races have developed successfully and by looking at the reasons for their demise, Stapledon reveals a philosophy of coexistence that is compelling and educational. I believe that there is much to learn from this book, if one can only get through it. The mechanism of travel is in and of itself worth looking at; by accessing and amassing consciousnesses, those individuals involved gradually build up a critical mass not unlike a computer network (think Last.fm or other sites that create recommendations).
This insight and others convince me that Stapledon has a lot to say in this book. Unfortunately, these conclusions and insights do not function within a gripping narrative. The book reads more like a philosophical treatise, which may have thrown me off a bit. I'd hate to be unfair; I did not enjoy slogging through the endless descriptions but at the same time I have gone back over certain parts and discovered incredible things. I say that this is a good book to have and come back to, maybe to read in installments after the first time. There is a lot to digest, but I believe that it is worth the effort.
Grade: B
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