They eventually begin to trace the course of civilization, in anticipation of a great unity of minds that will reveal the being–the Star Maker, as he calls it–that created the universe. Soon both of them learn to leave their bodies and travel together, eventually meeting up with a large group of like-minded individuals, who travel together backward and forward in time, seeking more like themselves. He discovers a species of beings similar to humans, with similar lives and problems, and is able to attach himself to one of them. He quickly learns he is drifting through both time and space and soon he learns to control his course. Star Maker (link to Wikipedia this time) is the story of an unnamed protagonist who, unexpectedly, finds his consciousness adrift in the universe. The book was published in 1937 in the UK. The book I picked up was his Star Maker(link is to Amazon you can get the Kindle edition for $0.99–note he’s listed as “William Olaf Stapledon”).

There’s nothing like starting at the top and so I started with the first name listed in the article, Olaf Stapledon (-).

However, I do like to cover interesting things as I cover them and so occasionally entries from the list of award winners may show up here. I don’t need another series (especially considering that I have multiple Doctor Who review series running over at the Time Lord Archives as well). I already have The Great Reddit Reading List to work through and frankly, it’s going to take me a very long time to do that. I will say up front that I’m not planning to make a series of posts about this. Naturally, I was hooked at once! And so, I assembled a list of authors and books, using the article I linked above, and set out to dip my toes in this particular forgotten pool of science-fiction. Unlike most literary awards, it’s not an award for a particular book it’s for the author, and so various works by each author may fall under this umbrella. This award, founded in 2001, exists to recognize and promote some of the great science-fiction authors of the past, who may have fallen out of print and out of common knowledge. To that end, I recently discovered the existence of the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award.

It’s not that I have anything against them it’s just that I’m so far behind on great books of the past that I’ll never catch up!īut I’m not alone in this, nor in my love for–especially–classic science fiction. There’s a good reason for that: I rarely read new or very recent books. If you’ve been with me for awhile–or at least long enough to know me for book reviews–you may have noticed that I rarely cover new or very recent books.

Star maker by olaf stapledon