Reviews

Last and First Men-Original Edition(Annotated) by Olaf Stapledon

shelleyanderson4127's review against another edition

5.0

What imagination! Years ago Ursula K. LeGuin wrote that Stapledon was one of her favorite writers--read him and see why. I read this book almost 30 years ago and it still haunts me, as do his other novels.

fran_c's review against another edition

challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

 The strangest book I've read in 2021

This is a strange book indeed. As the preface of the Audible version mentions: "Maybe it's not a novel, but it's surely sci-fi."

Written as an account of mankind aimed at contemporary folks—or, better, Olaf's contemporary folks—it follows humanity for two billion years. Yes, you have read it correctly. Two billion.

There are almost no characters and no plot, and considering it has been written before World War II, the level of ingenuity is nothing short of remarkable. Martians, apocalyptic events, synthetic men; everything goes in this epic journey which starts from a place very much different from what we know happened between 1930 and today.

Read the rest of my 2021 top 10 on my website!

https://www.francsart.com/blog/top-10-books-of-2021

arthurakhadov's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A work of unimaginable proportions! No wander it inspired and was read by all Science Fiction authors and amateurs past and present, a wonderful retelling of a possible futur. The sheer scope and the daring nature of this fiction outweighs any short-term scientific shortcomings. I wish there were more fiction written in such an over reaching and (literally) greater than life style.

nwhyte's review against another edition

http://nhw.livejournal.com/909687.html[return][return]This is an epic story of the future of the human race, starting in the present day (ie about 1930) and ending millions of years from now just before the destruction of the solar system by cosmic catastrophe. I think of Stapledon's epic yet detached tone as a peculiarly English style of writing; I detect it also in Brian Aldiss, Christopher Priest, and especially Stephen Baxter who is in many ways Stapledon's heir.[return][return]The weakest part of Last and First Men for today's reader is, unfortunately, the first section, where he describes a destructive war between England and France (a peaceful and neutral Germany standing by), followed by a succession of European conflicts which seem improbable to us. (In his foreword he hints that this is really a moral parable, a plea for the success of the League of Nations.) Also his instinctive racialism (I think that is the right word) strikes a sour note today. Still there are a couple of interesting hits, such as the sinister political party which adopts the swastika as its symbol, or the much greater longevity of the communist one-party state in China as compared with Russia.[return][return]Then we get onto the meat: the repeated near-extinction of humanity, whether through its own folly or natural disaster, followed by its reinvention of itself; emigration from Earth to Venus and then Neptune, having repelled invasion from Mars in the meantime; huge changes in the human form and lifespan. He achieves very well the epic scale of a few decades in one chapter, centuries in the next, millennia in the next.[return][return]Having said that, this is very much a book of telling rather than showing; his excursions into narrative rather than descriptive prose range from the unconvincing to the embarrassing. (I am thinking particularly of the scene where the nude island maiden brings peace between China and America by having sex with the negotiators.)[return][return]Yet despite its weaknesses, this deserves to be on the classics list. I think Stapledon's influence, directly or indirectly, reverberates through the sf of the rest of the twentieth century.

davelikestrivia's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

rpbperry's review against another edition

3.0

This was indeed a tedious read. I appreciate the fact that this was one of the first, if not the first "future history" books of its kind; I appreciate the fact that Olaf Stapledon was a philosopher and thinker who was speculating on the nature and future of mankind. If you stick with the story, it does take you on a breathtaking eons-long journey through the many ups and downs of human evolution, but the lack of narrative makes it a bit of an ordeal. As I read this I was struck many times with the fact that this was written in 1930; in some ways many of the technological and biological advancements postulated for future incarnations of the human race seem very plausible from our current twenty-first century perspective. Things like biological engineering, ecological control, terraforming. But there are also avenues of development that were understandably missed altogether in 1930. This was an age before the splitting of the atom became a fact, before television, and certainly before anything like the internet or any kind of mass interactive communication could even be contemplated. So the relative absence of these topics in the future history are noticeable to us now. And also to me, the writer's obsession with race, sexual mores, and social outlooks cannot help but label him a product of his time. This is not a criticism, this cannot be helped; any writer of any time will in some way betray their origins, it's just that those biases loom ever larger as the story is projected into the far distant future. So tedious, yes, but I did enjoy it for what it is. Since then of course we have had many more future histories written. Look to Clarke, to Asimov, to Herbert for much more readable, and in my view much more enjoyable works.

hannahbanana1202's review against another edition

3.0

Well. How do I say this. 'Last and First Men' suffers less from its scope and circuitousness than from the fact that it does not age very well. Some of the stuff is just too goofy - the Martian hive bubbles and the giant brains? Of course, you have to admire Stapledon for the sheer extent of his imagination; but I imagined this book more to be like those parts from 'Earth Abides' where Stewart fast-forwards over a couple of years to show us how even over one generation things can change drastically. Stapledon's work covers millenias! Once in a while a single individual is focused on a little more, it is still such a rush through time and you sort of feel like you're missing out on a lot of good stories.

cjdavey's review against another edition

1.0

Clunky prose, lazy racial stereotyping and disjointed narrative. You can't really blame Stapledon for the comical inaccuracy of the near-future speculative stuff, but even without that this really doesn't have a lot to recommend it.

goranlowie's review against another edition

I pushed through about 25% of this but just had to give up. I really wanted to like it, too, since I loved the recent "adaptation" by Jóhann Jóhannsson. Sadly, this reads like a super dry textbook you'd get in some history class in the 50s in the US. I don't know how Stapledon managed to make a topic like this so mind-numbingly uninteresting, but he managed.

DNF at 26%!

manyhours's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Confident, freewheeling invention for most of the book. Would be far fetched, only he does it with a con man's self assurance and you are buying it.

Quite a few bits of profound philosophising especially from the "cosmology" chapter in the end