[[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/StarMaker_1812.jpg]]

''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).

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.

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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!! This novel provides examples of:

* AnAesop: It is important to love your neighbor, and to balance action with contemplation.
* 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.]]
* AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: Many aquatic civilizations stagnate in industry due to the difficulty in creating fires underwater.
* 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.]]
* ArtEvolution: [[spoiler: The Star Maker's motivation to create a new universe after he is done with the previous one.]]
* BizarreAlienBiology: Many strange examples, the least exotic being a species similar to human that [[{{Squick}} regurgitate the cud to feed their young.]]
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: [[spoiler: The stars, as well as the Star Maker.]]
* CreationMyth
* DeflectorShields: Necessary for interplanetary travel to protect against impacts from space dust.
* 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.
* TheEmpire: What some of the advanced civilizations end up as.
* [[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.]]
* TheFederation: What the other civilizations become.
* GeniusLoci: Later space civilizations eventually create sentient planets.
* GodIsEvil: [[spoiler:Or at least remarkably callous toward the suffering of his creations.]]
* HeavyWorlder: The beings designed to inhabit the white dwarfs, after there are few "living" stars left.
* 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.
* HollowWorld: The artificial planets as well as all the "dead" stars eventually.
* HumanoidAliens: Many of the planets visited, like the first one, have inhabitants with familiar bipedal anatomy.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.]]
* TheMultiverse: [[spoiler:Some of the Star Maker's later creations consist of more than one universe.]]
* 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.
* 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.]]
* PlantAliens: An entire subgroup of intelligent lifeforms, with one species switching between sessile and motile modes playing a key role in galactic evolution.
* 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.
* ThePowerOfFriendship: [[spoiler:Progression into higher stages of being requires the ability to live in a community of diverse minds.]]
* StarfishAliens: Several examples.
** {{Subverted}} with the Echinoderms, intelligent beings that evolved from a starfish-like creature but ended up with a humanoid body plan.
** In general, the book describes a great many very bizarre life forms, including living ships and [[spoiler:intelligent stars and nebulae]].
* [[spoiler: TheStarsAreGoingOut: Some sentient stars explode themselves to rid them of the interfering planetary beings. Thankfully, this stops eventually.]]
* 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.
* 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.
* TelepathicSpacemen: Telepathy turns out to be one of the key ways to communicate across the stars.
* {{Utopia}}: From planetary to galactic ones.
* VertebrateWithExtraLimbs: On planets populated with intelligent centaurs.

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