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thearbiter89's review against another edition
4.0
I don’t ordinarily read proto-Golden Age science fiction - being of a pre-WW2 vintage, they can come across as embarrassingly dated at best; offensive at worst. And at first glance Last and First Men might seem to hew to the stereotype of books that would today seem hopelessly retrograde in thinking.
I mean: the use of the gendered “Men” to describe humanity; the race-based, eugenic biases inherent in positing the future of humanity as being a journey through “eighteen races of men”; the notion that Neptune and Venus could act as habitable sanctuaries of an (albeit much-evolved) human species.
And the book, which is less a narrative than a glorified “future history” - all expository worldbuilding and zero character-building - can seem rather emptily self-serving by modern standards, like reading an RPG sourcebook to an invented world that nobody cares about. It doesn’t help that the first four chapters, that go into excessive detail into the next thousand years of human existence (before proceeding to devote, in log-progression, the same number of pages into describing the developments of the next two billion years), is embarrassingly off the mark (he predicts the next great war as occurring between England and France, in a time when fascists like Hitler and Mussolini were already accruing worrisome amounts of power. Although he does get some details broadly right - like positing the bipolar tensions between the US and a resurgent China).
Also, the prose is often clunky and old-timey - which really brings to mind the question: did people read better back then, or did everyone just attempt to get by with a rudimentary and grasping understanding of what the intellectuals in society wrote? (That would actually explain a lot, though.)
Ultimately, though, the book surpasses the categorizations that modern readers might relegate upon it by the sheer ambition and inclusiveness of its vision. It posits the billion-year march of the human race as a teleological one, sure, but it is a heroic attempt at establishing a Universal Mind - a communitarian consciousness, comprising the telepathically-linked minds of all of humanity, able to apprehend its place in the universe beyond the ken of any one individual.
In that sense, while Stapledon posits the selective breeding of humans towards that goal, it is at its heart an inclusive ethos that celebrates the unity of diverse views, rather than a fascistic, exclusionary vision of one sub-unit of humanity above others. It might be a question of semantics - Stapledon invokes successive “races” of humanity but they are in truth a continuous “species” - making the notion of “Man” not a narrow, gendered, or biological term describing Homo Sapiens Sapiens, but a universal and inclusive term that encompasses all thinking beings that strive towards the moral and spiritual goal of universal self-awareness. It’s not really all that different from the modern notion of posthumans as inheritors of the human philosophical project.
But even as Stapledon tries to portray these latter-day humans, so advanced as to be utterly beyond our understanding, he frames it as a dialogue between the last humans and the first - a mutual communicability that speaks to the common ground between minds. And in portraying the ultimate failure of even these impossibly advanced Men to achieve their vision before they are wiped out by a stellar catastrophe, he sets the entirety of human experience in its proper, minute context amidst the ineffable expansiveness of cosmic history.
In these senses, even as Stapledon uses dated eugenic and race-based concepts, he subverts and surpasses them into a more universal, inclusive, yet existentially-terrifying vision light-years ahead of his time: a feat that firmly places him in the deserving ranks of science fiction giants.
I give this: 4 out of 5 antimatter guns
I mean: the use of the gendered “Men” to describe humanity; the race-based, eugenic biases inherent in positing the future of humanity as being a journey through “eighteen races of men”; the notion that Neptune and Venus could act as habitable sanctuaries of an (albeit much-evolved) human species.
And the book, which is less a narrative than a glorified “future history” - all expository worldbuilding and zero character-building - can seem rather emptily self-serving by modern standards, like reading an RPG sourcebook to an invented world that nobody cares about. It doesn’t help that the first four chapters, that go into excessive detail into the next thousand years of human existence (before proceeding to devote, in log-progression, the same number of pages into describing the developments of the next two billion years), is embarrassingly off the mark (he predicts the next great war as occurring between England and France, in a time when fascists like Hitler and Mussolini were already accruing worrisome amounts of power. Although he does get some details broadly right - like positing the bipolar tensions between the US and a resurgent China).
Also, the prose is often clunky and old-timey - which really brings to mind the question: did people read better back then, or did everyone just attempt to get by with a rudimentary and grasping understanding of what the intellectuals in society wrote? (That would actually explain a lot, though.)
Ultimately, though, the book surpasses the categorizations that modern readers might relegate upon it by the sheer ambition and inclusiveness of its vision. It posits the billion-year march of the human race as a teleological one, sure, but it is a heroic attempt at establishing a Universal Mind - a communitarian consciousness, comprising the telepathically-linked minds of all of humanity, able to apprehend its place in the universe beyond the ken of any one individual.
In that sense, while Stapledon posits the selective breeding of humans towards that goal, it is at its heart an inclusive ethos that celebrates the unity of diverse views, rather than a fascistic, exclusionary vision of one sub-unit of humanity above others. It might be a question of semantics - Stapledon invokes successive “races” of humanity but they are in truth a continuous “species” - making the notion of “Man” not a narrow, gendered, or biological term describing Homo Sapiens Sapiens, but a universal and inclusive term that encompasses all thinking beings that strive towards the moral and spiritual goal of universal self-awareness. It’s not really all that different from the modern notion of posthumans as inheritors of the human philosophical project.
But even as Stapledon tries to portray these latter-day humans, so advanced as to be utterly beyond our understanding, he frames it as a dialogue between the last humans and the first - a mutual communicability that speaks to the common ground between minds. And in portraying the ultimate failure of even these impossibly advanced Men to achieve their vision before they are wiped out by a stellar catastrophe, he sets the entirety of human experience in its proper, minute context amidst the ineffable expansiveness of cosmic history.
In these senses, even as Stapledon uses dated eugenic and race-based concepts, he subverts and surpasses them into a more universal, inclusive, yet existentially-terrifying vision light-years ahead of his time: a feat that firmly places him in the deserving ranks of science fiction giants.
I give this: 4 out of 5 antimatter guns
taseenmuhtadi's review
4.0
Ambitious. That's the best way to describe the novel. For a book that was published in my grandfather's time, it has aged quite well. What sets this book apart is the focus on humanity; not on the technology, not on the number of solar systems colonized, but on humanity itself.
Compared to space operas of today, where faster-than-light travel and advanced technology is combined to give rise to galaxy spanning empires with multiple alien races, humans in this book lives out their lives in the confines of this solar system. Advanced technology is there, but not gone deep into, more focus is given on the mental and spiritual development of humans. Which is probably why this book is still relevant after all this time.
Stapledon's vision of the development of human intelligence and thinking is extremely deep. The dream of building a society that is harmonious and at peace with all it's members is something we all can aspire for. His vision of human society is one where humans set aside their differences and solved the problems of the world instead of focusing on mindless expansion is something a lot us hope for.
It would be amazing if humans could build a society like the one envisioned in this book, it would be a long time from now, but one can always hope. And that is probably the enduring charm of this book.
Compared to space operas of today, where faster-than-light travel and advanced technology is combined to give rise to galaxy spanning empires with multiple alien races, humans in this book lives out their lives in the confines of this solar system. Advanced technology is there, but not gone deep into, more focus is given on the mental and spiritual development of humans. Which is probably why this book is still relevant after all this time.
Stapledon's vision of the development of human intelligence and thinking is extremely deep. The dream of building a society that is harmonious and at peace with all it's members is something we all can aspire for. His vision of human society is one where humans set aside their differences and solved the problems of the world instead of focusing on mindless expansion is something a lot us hope for.
It would be amazing if humans could build a society like the one envisioned in this book, it would be a long time from now, but one can always hope. And that is probably the enduring charm of this book.
ericb237's review
1.0
Didn't like this at all. Reads a lot like a history book and touches philosophical themes in some sense but wasn't really enough to grab my attention.
doctortdm's review
5.0
I am so grateful to have learned of this book via Goodreads. Stapledon truly authored a rare, imaginative story without characters. Did he capture what it means to be human?
thomcat's review
4.0
Man is Music - now that's a moral that I can get behind.
Written in 1930, this book covers two Billion years of history, which is far more sweeping than any other epic sci-fi novel. I especially enjoyed the tribulations of the First Men, with quite a few scary parallels to recent history.
After that, the book slows down a bit, despite the narrator apologizing for not covering things in detail. Wikipedia has a nice breakdown of all the descendents of men; suffice it to say it is quite a collection, living on three planets. Alien invasion, natural cataclysms, global warming - this book has it all.
Yet it wasn't ideal. I felt I was missing some message here, something more than sweeping history. Perhaps a bit of pondering will help. Until then, I want to rate this somewhere between 3 and 4 stars - rounding up to four as I think back on the stories of the First Men.
Written in 1930, this book covers two Billion years of history, which is far more sweeping than any other epic sci-fi novel. I especially enjoyed the tribulations of the First Men, with quite a few scary parallels to recent history.
After that, the book slows down a bit, despite the narrator apologizing for not covering things in detail. Wikipedia has a nice breakdown of all the descendents of men; suffice it to say it is quite a collection, living on three planets. Alien invasion, natural cataclysms, global warming - this book has it all.
Yet it wasn't ideal. I felt I was missing some message here, something more than sweeping history. Perhaps a bit of pondering will help. Until then, I want to rate this somewhere between 3 and 4 stars - rounding up to four as I think back on the stories of the First Men.
somewhatclear's review
1.0
L'idea era veramente buona, giuro. L'ho apprezzato moltissimo. Ma il modo in cui era scritto mi ha ucciso completamente l'entusiasmo.
Ho un debole per il worldbuilding da sempre, per cui quando ho leggiucchiato su wikipedia la trama di questo libro per la tesina della maturità mi sono ripromessa di leggerlo. L'ho letto. E' stato un parto gemellare con ventordici ore di travaglio, e si vede, visto che ci ho messo letteralmente quasi un anno a leggerlo.
E' un libro che va studiato, non letto. Non è solo un romanzo di fantascienza, è una cronaca storica. I fatti sono presentati esattamente come un saggio storico sulla storia dell'umanità.
In due parole, carino, ma pesante.
Ho un debole per il worldbuilding da sempre, per cui quando ho leggiucchiato su wikipedia la trama di questo libro per la tesina della maturità mi sono ripromessa di leggerlo. L'ho letto. E' stato un parto gemellare con ventordici ore di travaglio, e si vede, visto che ci ho messo letteralmente quasi un anno a leggerlo.
E' un libro che va studiato, non letto. Non è solo un romanzo di fantascienza, è una cronaca storica. I fatti sono presentati esattamente come un saggio storico sulla storia dell'umanità.
In due parole, carino, ma pesante.
kingtoad's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
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
funcharge's review
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
din0_bot's review
5.0
This is a book that inspired the great Sir Arthur C. Clarke. This book deserves more recognition than it gets. It's a true classic in my eyes.
I spent years searching for this book after having learned about its existence in [b:Evolution|66792|Evolution|Stephen Baxter|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390475106s/66792.jpg|2117008], which also projects human evolution into the far future, but takes a more somber tone. As soon as I found it, though, I devoured it. It pulled me away from homework, video games, and sleep. It's not often that a book comes along and entrances me so utterly and completely that it stays with me for years after reading. Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon is one of those few, after [b:Hyperion|77566|Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1)|Dan Simmons|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405546838s/77566.jpg|1383900] by Dan Simmons and [b:Dandelion Wine|50033|Dandelion Wine (Green Town, #1)|Ray Bradbury|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1374049845s/50033.jpg|1627774] by Ray Bradbury.
Stapledon does more than just project scientific speculation about humanity's evolutionary potential two billion years hence; he reaches back, just like the Last Men, into our species' past and draws on all the hopes, fears, dreams, nightmares, joy, and suffering and weaves it through a daisy-chain of numerous variations on the human theme throughout the eons. There are no main characters, save humans and the incredible adversity they face, but Stapledon achieves something that most science fiction (especially during his time) cannot: he evokes powerful feelings of hope and loss on a stage that is incomprehensibly grand and mind-boggling. Nature, in the form of diseases, alien life forms, and the harshness of the planets of our solar system threatens and crushes the humans, but they earn their right to continue evolving by clinging to their foothold and thriving as only life itself can. Moreover, this book began my slow journey into understanding just how precious and fragile life is.
For a narrative whose vehicle is an overview of future history, Last and First Men reaches both emotional and cerebral heights that have remained in my mind for years. The last few pages are especially poetic. Writing this almost makes me want to set aside my fantasy reading just to read Last and First Men again.
I highly suggest this book. It's a piece of sci fi history, and a damn beautiful one at that.
I spent years searching for this book after having learned about its existence in [b:Evolution|66792|Evolution|Stephen Baxter|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390475106s/66792.jpg|2117008], which also projects human evolution into the far future, but takes a more somber tone. As soon as I found it, though, I devoured it. It pulled me away from homework, video games, and sleep. It's not often that a book comes along and entrances me so utterly and completely that it stays with me for years after reading. Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon is one of those few, after [b:Hyperion|77566|Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1)|Dan Simmons|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405546838s/77566.jpg|1383900] by Dan Simmons and [b:Dandelion Wine|50033|Dandelion Wine (Green Town, #1)|Ray Bradbury|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1374049845s/50033.jpg|1627774] by Ray Bradbury.
Stapledon does more than just project scientific speculation about humanity's evolutionary potential two billion years hence; he reaches back, just like the Last Men, into our species' past and draws on all the hopes, fears, dreams, nightmares, joy, and suffering and weaves it through a daisy-chain of numerous variations on the human theme throughout the eons. There are no main characters, save humans and the incredible adversity they face, but Stapledon achieves something that most science fiction (especially during his time) cannot: he evokes powerful feelings of hope and loss on a stage that is incomprehensibly grand and mind-boggling. Nature, in the form of diseases, alien life forms, and the harshness of the planets of our solar system threatens and crushes the humans, but they earn their right to continue evolving by clinging to their foothold and thriving as only life itself can. Moreover, this book began my slow journey into understanding just how precious and fragile life is.
For a narrative whose vehicle is an overview of future history, Last and First Men reaches both emotional and cerebral heights that have remained in my mind for years. The last few pages are especially poetic. Writing this almost makes me want to set aside my fantasy reading just to read Last and First Men again.
I highly suggest this book. It's a piece of sci fi history, and a damn beautiful one at that.