Early sci-fi that I know I read, but don't remember. ( )

I started reading this over a year ago but never got through.

There's really nothing else quite like this book. ( )

Last and First Men

This is one of those books that changed me a bit. The opening's very interesting with its mix of naïvety and wisdom, so he correctly predicts the rise of the EU, but gets the US's reaction wrong (so far). He correctly predicts a second European war, the existence of DNA and it's manipulation, atomic power and the global spread of American culture. And funny too, like the "Gawd 'elp us" bit and the delayed punchline. And the passage about the Negro dancers. I was about to become an apologist for him but it turns into a sharp satire on poor race relations.

But when time starts telescoping and again and again he strikes these magisterial notes as man is reduced to microscopic insignificance and we're just tremors in the opening bars of the music... It just made me realise how inadequate we are with our wars and prejudices, and how embarrassing it would be if future human species could look back at us, or if aliens turned up now, they'd be like, "What ARE you doing?"

And the influence on later sf is obvious. Childhood's End, Dune and Hothouse spring to mind. I would imagine those chapters that didn't remind me of anything have simply inspired books I haven't read yet.

Star Maker

Very clever writing. The opening is a case in point, where you don't know if you're reading science fiction or apocalyptic literature and he plays intellectual games with you. There's so much variety and satire and his imagination is just so fertile.

The problem for me was the middle section of the book. In Last Men you have forwards narrative drive and a clear protagonist. Here, there is no clear protagonist and the unnamed narrator jumps around in time. I realise Stapledon has done this for artistic reasons, but as a reader it doesn't half make reading it bloody difficult. It degenerates into a series of articles of varying levels of interest and it was a real struggle for me to keep going.

Which is a shame as the ending is very well done. It's worth ploughing on to get to it as you come full circle back to revelation. ( )

The world's most effective sleeping pill. ( )