| "Probably the most powerful work of imagination ever written." Arthur C Clarke |
Looking at the starry night from an English hillside, the unnamed narrator is snatched from his earthly body and flung through space at impossible acceleration, soon outstripping light. He visits other stars, sees other worlds and alien races, a gallery of SF marvels in documentary rather than story form. (Some of this now seems over-familiar, however fresh and new in 1937: the book drags a little here.) Fellow disembodied intelligences from the galactic community join our hero, sensing something beyond mere matter and energy:
The felt presence of the Star Maker remained unintelligible, even though it increasingly illuminated the cosmos, like the splendour of the unseen sun at dawn.
But the godlike Star Maker is not exactly God, as we see when the scope expands beyond one mere universe to show an endless cycle of creations, many of them being crude and "immature" products of this experimenter's hand. Further "mature" creations follow, foreshadowing the Ultimate Cosmos whose crystalline perfection is not comforting but terrifying. Star Maker's final unsparing evocation of the deep chill of infinity has even been compared to Dante. --David Langford
Genre: Science Fiction
Lord of Light Roger Zelazny | A Canticle for Leibowitz (Saint Leibowitz, book 1) Walter M Miller | The Futurological Congress Stanislaw Lem | Childhood's End Arthur C Clarke |
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Hardback Editions
| Title: Star Maker Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 1849027722 / 9781849027724 (UK edition) Publisher: Benediction Classics Availability: Amazon Amazon UK |
| Title: Star Maker: Scholarly Edition (Early Classics of Science Fiction) Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 0819566926 / 9780819566928 (USA edition) Publisher: Wesleyan University Press Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA Amazon |
| Title: Star Maker Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 0850465400 / 9780850465402 (UK edition) Publisher: Lythway P. Availability: Amazon Amazon CA Amazon UK |
Paperback Editions
| Title: Star Maker Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 1482644460 / 9781482644463 Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform Availability: Amazon Amazon UK |
| Title: Star Maker Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 1618950312 / 9781618950314 (USA edition) Publisher: Bibliotech Press Availability: Amazon Amazon UK |
| Title: Star Maker Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 1604443871 / 9781604443875 (USA edition) Publisher: IndoEuropeanPublishing.com Availability: Amazon Amazon UK |
| Title: Star Maker (Paperback) Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 1849028435 / 9781849028431 (UK edition) Publisher: Benediction Classics Availability: Amazon Amazon UK |
| Title: Star Maker Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 1409209296 / 9781409209294 (UK edition) Publisher: lulu.com Availability: Amazon CA Amazon Amazon UK |
| Title: Star Maker Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 0486466833 / 9780486466835 (USA edition) Publisher: Dover Publications Availability: Amazon UK Amazon Amazon CA |
| Title: Star Maker: Scholarly Edition (Early Classics of Science Fiction) Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 0819566934 / 9780819566935 (USA edition) Publisher: Wesleyan University Press Availability: Amazon Amazon CA Amazon UK |
| Title: Star Maker (S.F. MASTERWORKS) Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 1857988078 / 9781857988079 (UK edition) Publisher: Gollancz Availability: Amazon UK Amazon |
| Title: Star Maker (Classic Science Fiction) Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 0140101527 / 9780140101522 (UK edition) Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd Availability: Amazon CA Amazon Amazon UK |
| Title: Star Maker Edition: Reprint Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 0874774357 / 9780874774351 (USA edition) Publisher: Tarcher Availability: Amazon Amazon CA Amazon UK |
| Title: Star Maker Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: 0417037406 / 9780417037400 (UK edition) Publisher: Littlehampton Book Services Ltd Availability: Amazon CA Amazon UK Amazon |
| Title: STAR MAKER Author(s):: OLAF STAPLEDON ISBN: 0140035419 / 9780140035414 (UK edition) Publisher: PENGUIN Availability: Amazon Amazon CA Amazon UK |
Kindle Editions
| Title: Star Maker Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: B00AN9TNRY Publisher: Availability: Amazon |
| Title: Star Maker Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: B008GTH9OM Publisher: Availability: Amazon |
| Title: Star Maker (August Classic) Author(s):: William Olaf Stapledon, Olaf Stapledon ISBN: B007IK0J6U Publisher: Availability: Amazon |
| Title: Star Maker (Annotated Edition) Author(s):: William Olaf Stapledon ISBN: B0075EVNGO Publisher: Availability: Amazon |
| Title: Star Maker (S.F. MASTERWORKS) Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: B0061QGKEC Publisher: Gateway Availability: Amazon Amazon UK |
| Title: Star Maker Author(s):: Olaf Stapledon ISBN: B0015T6DNI Publisher: Oak Grove Availability: Amazon |
| Title: Star Maker Author(s):: William Olaf Stapledon ISBN: B004OR1WOI Publisher: Availability: Amazon Amazon UK |
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