1 | [[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/StarMaker_1812.jpg]] |
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3 | ''Star Maker'' is a 1937 ScienceFiction novel by Creator/OlafStapledon, and a sequel of sorts to ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen''. When he decided that the former book -- which chronicled the entire (future) history of humankind -- had not been nearly ambitious enough, Stapledon followed it up with a history of the entire universe, culminating in a brief glimpse into the nature and history of God himself (the titular Star Maker). |
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5 | Like ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen'', the story's viewpoint grows broader and broader as it progresses, though this time it is a broadness not only of time but of space. After examining several individual alien societies in some detail, the book's perspective gradually pulls back from a planetary to a galactic scale, then to a universal scale, and finally to a viewpoint that encompasses the Star Maker himself and all of his various created universes. |
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7 | Also like its predecessor, it's told through the framing device of a man (Stapledon himself, presumably) being given this "guided tour" of reality telepathically by advanced beings from the future. |
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9 | ---- |
10 | !! This novel provides examples of: |
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12 | * AnAesop: It is important to love your neighbor, and to balance action with contemplation. |
13 | * AlienGeometries: [[spoiler: Not all of the Star Maker's creations are Euclidean. There are even some that are made of sound, some have time but lack space.]] |
14 | * AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: Many aquatic civilizations stagnate in industry due to the difficulty in creating fires underwater. |
15 | * AlienNonInterferenceClause: [[spoiler: During the time of the United Empire's conquests, a star cluster with a very advanced race of symbiotic telepaths ignores the pleas of pacifist populations until they themselves are attacked.]] |
16 | * ArtEvolution: [[spoiler: The Star Maker's motivation to create a new universe after he is done with the previous one.]] |
17 | * BizarreAlienBiology: Many strange examples, the least exotic being a species similar to human that [[{{Squick}} regurgitate the cud to feed their young.]] |
18 | * BlueAndOrangeMorality: [[spoiler: The stars, as well as the Star Maker.]] |
19 | * CreationMyth |
20 | * DeflectorShields: Necessary for interplanetary travel to protect against impacts from space dust. |
21 | * DysonSphere: The [[UrExample actual origin of the concept]] (Dyson himself said they should have been called "Stapledon spheres"), though it's mentioned only briefly. Other types of [[SpaceStation Space Stations]] are more common. |
22 | * TheEmpire: What some of the advanced civilizations end up as. |
23 | * [[spoiler: EvilCannotComprehendGood: The warlike civilizations end up succumbing to the telepathic entreaties of an advanced star cluster, with societies geared for conquest unable to transition to peaceful ways of life and collapsing.]] |
24 | * TheFederation: What the other civilizations become. |
25 | * GeniusLoci: Later space civilizations eventually create sentient planets. |
26 | * GodIsEvil: [[spoiler:Or at least remarkably callous toward the suffering of his creations.]] |
27 | * HeavyWorlder: The beings designed to inhabit the white dwarfs, after there are few "living" stars left. |
28 | * HiveMind: Several of the species the author visits have this, like a few InsectoidAliens. A single specimen is just an animal, but a shared consciousness of a swarm is an equivalent of an individual. |
29 | * HollowWorld: The artificial planets as well as all the "dead" stars eventually. |
30 | * HumanoidAliens: Many of the planets visited, like the first one, have inhabitants with familiar bipedal anatomy. |
31 | * InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: [[Literature/LastAndFirstMen The entire history of humanity from the first to the last men]] leaves absolutely no impact on the history of the galaxy, let alone the universe. |
32 | * IntangibleTimeTravel: The protagonist travels through both time ''and'' space this way. The various planets he (and his companions) visit are scattered throughout every age of the Galaxy. |
33 | * MentalFusion[=/=]AssimilationPlot: A symbiotic race eventually replaces physical symbiosis with a mental one. Later civilizations have species-wide telepathy that grants them a shared consciousness. [[spoiler: This later spreads to most of the universe.]] |
34 | * TheMultiverse: [[spoiler:Some of the Star Maker's later creations consist of more than one universe.]] |
35 | * NoSuchThingAsAlienPopCulture: Thoroughly {{Averted}} with the description of the Other Earth whose inhabitants have taste as a primary sense, and therefore a more gustatory media as opposed to a visual one. |
36 | * NotSoDifferentRemark: [[spoiler:Having become a part of the multigalactic overmind, the protagonist remains unaffected by the suffering of civilizations and individual beings, reasoning that their suffering ultimately serves a higher purpose. Yet he is horrified to find out that the Star Maker himself is just as indifferent to his own suffering for the very same reason.]] |
37 | * PlantAliens: An entire subgroup of intelligent lifeforms, with one species switching between sessile and motile modes playing a key role in galactic evolution. |
38 | * PostHistoricalTrauma: The mental anguish caused by various species succumbing to accident or nefarious means occasionally affects the explorers' minds, sometimes slowing down or even stopping their ability to travel across space. |
39 | * ThePowerOfFriendship: [[spoiler:Progression into higher stages of being requires the ability to live in a community of diverse minds.]] |
40 | * StarfishAliens: Several examples. |
41 | ** {{Subverted}} with the Echinoderms, intelligent beings that evolved from a starfish-like creature but ended up with a humanoid body plan. |
42 | ** In general, the book describes a great many very bizarre life forms, including living ships and [[spoiler:intelligent stars and nebulae]]. |
43 | * [[spoiler: TheStarsAreGoingOut: Some sentient stars explode themselves to rid them of the interfering planetary beings. Thankfully, this stops eventually.]] |
44 | * TheSymbiote: A few species, particularly one between an aquatic fish-like species and a land-dwelling arachnoid race. [[WeAreStrugglingTogether The tension between their different lifestyles]] underpins their planetary evolution and history. |
45 | * SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: Those on a high-enough plane of existence are literally incomprehensible to the explorers until they themselves become more acquainted with more advanced modes of thinking. |
46 | * TelepathicSpacemen: Telepathy turns out to be one of the key ways to communicate across the stars. |
47 | * {{Utopia}}: From planetary to galactic ones. |
48 | * VertebrateWithExtraLimbs: On planets populated with intelligent centaurs. |
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