Reviews

If you want to mine it for ideas for your own fiction, it's a four star. Lots of great stuff. If you're looking for entertainment, it's a two star: The problem with a future history is there aren't any characters or plot, so it's a bit hard to maintain an interest.

acsg's review

Go to review page

adventurous reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

kartooch's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I cannot believe this book was written so many decades ago. It is amazing in its imagination and description of potential futures while being still relevant for today's world. There are some words and expressions that we would frown upon nowadays but this is more a reflection of past misconceptions. Some of the evolution of future mankind's are a bit repetitive but overall this is not affecting the reader

Content Warnings

oneironaut's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

super amusing to see someone i the 30s predicting the next 100 years so wrong. also upset it took millions of years for space travel to happen at all. wish the first men were less focused on BUT. overall some very cool concepts.

theaurochs's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.0

Yeah, it's one of those books. Written solidly in the nineteen thirties, this 'classic' of the genre is very much rooted in the sensibilities of the time. We're telling the future of the human race; provided that the human race is just men. Because obviously women could never do anything worth mentioning, not even several hundred million years in the future when the species has evolved beyond all recognition. This is also peak eugenics- future man is said to have features such as the "stoicism of the British race" or the "passion for dance of the Negro race" or the "affinity for money of the Jewish race". That's a big old bucket full of yikes from me, thanks. This is just the on the nose stuff too; there are so many comments about "racial awakenings" or "races of submen" that it makes me want to scour me skin with a cheese grater just to feel clean after reading it.
This sweeping look at the future of mankind is less of a sci-fi novel and more an excercise in speculative anthropology- don't expect to care about anything happening on an emotional level; the tone is detached and clinical throughout. In addition to the gross racial tones though, it also suffers from a genuine lack of real scope. Imagine thinking that any culture could survive for multiple thousands of years with essentially no progress or change- I don't think Stapledon really had any way of conceiving what effects his changes would have, and as a result this feels hollow and meaningless.
Besides, any decent author would have used the backdrop of worldbuilding which this book so clearly is as just that- backdrop to some actually interesting storytelling. Not so here, it really is just a taxonomical look at various periods in Man's future evolution.

Best condemned to the dusty shelves of history and swiftly forgotten. Sure he expressed some strong imagination and I'm glad that it has inspired subsequent, better writers, but there is no good reason for a modern reader to pick this one up, even for the context.

oldpapapopnlock's review

Go to review page

dark hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Content Warnings

More...