Star Maker

This book is only for serious fans of the science fiction genre. It's the better of Olaf Stapledon's two classics, the other being Last and First Men. For casual fans this book offers little or nothing.

Star Maker is a history of the universe. It starts from the primordial animal creatures and follows them as they develop intelligence, telepathy, become a group mind, and finally become a galactic hive mind and even later, a universal hive mind. Sprinkled throughout this history is the story of their quest to learn about the Star Maker, the Creator being who breathed the universe into existence.

Star Maker glorifies communist ideals, which must have made sense back in the 1930s but seems rightfully quaint today. And the Star Maker himself is no Judeo-Christian God. He is not all-loving and full of perfect grace, mercy, and justice. But even so, the universal hive mind concludes that whatever the Star Maker is like, he is to be praised and worshiped for those traits. For the traits of created beings are not the traits of the Star Maker, and the standards of right and wrong that apply to created beings cannot be extended to judge the Creator.