Star Maker

This book towers over sci-fi like a looming giant. Source: Here

"It is better to be destroyed than to triumph in slaying the spirit. Such as it is, the spirit that we have achieved is fair; and it is indestructibly woven into the tissue of the cosmos. We die praising the universe in which at least such an achievement as ours can be. We die knowing that the promise of further glory outlives us in other galaxies. We die praising the Star Maker, the Star Destroyer."

In his earlier book Last and First Men, Olaf Stapledon created a billions-year long history of the human race and its future. Written in 1937, Star Maker makes the former a mere footnote in its examination of the history of the entire universe, and those beyond. The sheer scale of this enterprise is so intense as to be nearly paralysing.

The story begins with a nameless narrator sitting on a hill at night, looking up at the stars. Suddenly, he is seized by an unknown presence and is sent soaring away from planet Earth. Journeying across space and time he meets various aliens who join him on this strange journey, coalescing into a super-being observing the future history of this universe, the rise and fall of various alien societies, their conglomeration into a massive pan-galactic hive mind, all culminating in a meeting with the Star Maker - the supreme being behind the creation of this universe and many more.

To call this book a novel, or to judge it as a conventional novel is a little tricky. There is no plot, no developed characters;the former replaced by the passing of time on a cosmic level and the latter changing over time as our narrator travels with different alien beings and becoming greater than the sum of this collective. The argument could be made that keeping the characters as little more than a point of view through which to examine the cosmos can't keep a person invested, and yet it does. The lack of a dramatic arc doesn't hinder the novel in any way from its purpose - an examination of the Universe and the ultimate meaning of our existence.

It's also easy to see the seeds of ideas that writers like Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter and Iain M. Banks would be writing about in their careers - Dyson spheres, hive minds, planet-sized ships, even a glimmer of virtual reality! Stapledon's imagination is in full bloom here, and the imagery of these concepts is stunning. The ending is in its own way heartbreaking, with the galactic hive mind meeting the eponymous Star Maker and finding out its universe, for all the struggles and trials it's witnessed, is only one imperfect copy, a rough draft in the Maker's own quest toward some incomprehensible goal. This book was never going to end with a definitive answer, and neither should it - it may be that contemplation is the intended purpose. 

Stapledon's background in philosophy shines through as well; even with the sketches of alien societies you always see the struggle between digression into conflict and the universal search for truth. A case could be made that his model of the Star Maker is built off of philosopher Baruch Spinoza's model of God - that He is not built like man with his own body and mind but rather that he is the fundamental substance forming the basis of the universe and that all other entities flow from and are parts of. To me that makes the central struggle of Star Maker a universal one - the search for knowledge and purpose, of individuals attempting to understand that which is infinitely, almost incomprehensibly greater than themselves even when rational explanations are hard to find.

If I have any criticisms, they really only remain nitpicks since they didn't adversely affect my experience with this book - a lot of Stapledon's quasi-religious articulations are clearly shaped from a Christian viewpoint though there is mention of East Asian philosophy. Gender gets short thrift also, with the alien species referred to as "Men" and any exploration of this concept is limited to procreation - though for a book written in 1937 perhaps this is more to do with the sensibilities of the time rather than any bias of the author, especially considering his musings in other works such as Odd John (review coming soon!).

It would be remiss, perhaps even impossible to talk about Star Maker without referring to Last and First Men. Both works concern themselves on a narrative level with a narrator learning about the future development of humanity as well as humanity itself; its trials and tribulations, its self-destructive tendencies and on a larger scale the cyclical nature of history, each civilisation rising and falling and hoping its inheritors can rise to greater heights. Star Maker, in its depictions of alien nations, draws its own parallels to the industrial powers of Stapledon's time, using them to rebuke the evils of colonialism, industrialism and unchecked media. He infuses even the most alien societies with an underlying humanity, using them as mirrors to his own time to examine early 20th century events with the unceasing march toward the future - and 80+ years since his time, both LAFM and SM remain more potent than ever.

If you're expecting a conventional narrative then this book will inevitably be disappointing. Star Maker stands as a giant of S.F., never once giving easy answers but no doubt cultivating in readers' minds arguments that will rage on for quite some time.