Synopses & Reviews
This bold exploration of the cosmos ventures into intelligent star clusters and mingles among alien races for a memorable vision of infinity. Cited as a key influence by science-fiction masters such as Doris Lessing, this classic has left its mark not only in modern literature but also in the fields of social anthropology and philosophy.
Olaf Stapledon's 1937 successor to Last and First Men offers another entrancing speculative history of the future. Its narrator, a contemporary Earthman, joins a community of explorers who travel to the farthest reaches of the universe, seeking traces of intelligence. Along the way, they encounter nautiloid water beings, races of hyperspiders and hyperfish, composite group intelligences, plantlike creatures, and other strange life forms. Their dramatic voyage unfolds against a backdrop of life-and-death struggles on a cosmic scale.
Synopsis
This 1937 successor to Last and First Men offers another entrancing speculative history of the future, exploring intelligent star clusters and mingling among aliens for a memorable vision of infinity.
Synopsis
This 1937 successor to Last and First Men offers another entrancing speculative history of the future, exploring intelligent star clusters and mingling among aliens for a memorable vision of infinity.
Table of Contents
Preface1. The Earth2. Interstellar Travel3. The Other Earth4. I Travel Again5. Worlds Innumerable6. Intimations of the Star Maker7. More Worlds8. Concerning the Explorers9. The Community of Worlds10. A Vision of the Galaxy11. Stars and Vermin12. A Stunted Cosmical Spirit13. The Beginning and the End14. The Myth or Creation15. The Maker and His Works16. Epilogue: Back to EarthA Note on MagnitudeDiagrams