Thriveth reviewed Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
Review of 'Star Maker by William Olaf Stapledon' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I found this book very hard to finish.
I read it having heard it was a classic in early Science Fiction, bringing some philosophy and literary ambition into a genre otherwise dominated by Flash Gordon type pulp zine stories. And, well, the ambition is certainly there. I guess some of the thoughts and ideas in it may also have been novel for its time, but they are heavily dated for today's reader and have mainly historical interest.
The writing style is rambling, overwrought, as full of adjectives as H. P. Lovecraft, although not quite as terrible. On the other hand, Lovecraft knows to keep it short, which is not exactly the case for Stapledon.
One thing that speaks in Stapledons favor is that he has clearly been careful about being up to date with the scientific state of the art of his time. Which is hopelessly outdated today, of course, …
I found this book very hard to finish.
I read it having heard it was a classic in early Science Fiction, bringing some philosophy and literary ambition into a genre otherwise dominated by Flash Gordon type pulp zine stories. And, well, the ambition is certainly there. I guess some of the thoughts and ideas in it may also have been novel for its time, but they are heavily dated for today's reader and have mainly historical interest.
The writing style is rambling, overwrought, as full of adjectives as H. P. Lovecraft, although not quite as terrible. On the other hand, Lovecraft knows to keep it short, which is not exactly the case for Stapledon.
One thing that speaks in Stapledons favor is that he has clearly been careful about being up to date with the scientific state of the art of his time. Which is hopelessly outdated today, of course, but it is pretty interesting to get some insight into what they got right and wrong at the time. He also has a remarkable imagination when it comes to conjuring up alien life forms - there are passages that are genuinely interesting to read for that.
That doesn't change that the book could have been cut down to 25 or 30% of it current length and only gained in quality by it. The format of the story doesn't make it better: the detached journey through countless worlds in the Universe means that just as one world begins to get a little interesting and engaging, it is left behind. Also, Stapledon doesn't use the world to tell a story, but to prove a philosophical point, meaning that he treats his protagonists with a careless detachment that quickly wears off on the reader. No matter which great imagination he displays, ultimately the whole (very considerable) length of the book is basically just an incredibly elaborate wrapping for a surprisingly boring and unoriginal vision of (what he carefully doesn't name as but which is, as plainly as Aslan) God.
So yeah, there's good stuff in this book, even glimpses of greatness in the descriptions of the various worlds and alien species, but they are depressingly thinly scattered in a never ending desert of pompous, unstructured rambling.
