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A review by nwhyte
Darkness and the Light by Olaf Stapledon
3.0
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3009482.html
I'd read Star Maker and Last and First Men by the same author; Darkness and the Light is on the same lines, but not as good. It's a story of two parallel future histories of humanity, which bifurcate at a decision point where a movement of spiritual and political awakening in Tibet either is crushed, in the timeline that leads to the human race being defeated by rats, or leads the world to new levels of civilisation, in the timeline that ends with humanity's transcendence. You can't accuse Stapledon of having small ideas; however, this is not really a novel, in that I don't think there is a single named character or a line of actual dialogue. There are six better-known Stapledon books (the two above-named, also Odd John, Sirius, Last Men in London and Nebula Maker) and there are good reasons why this is not in the top half dozen.
I'd read Star Maker and Last and First Men by the same author; Darkness and the Light is on the same lines, but not as good. It's a story of two parallel future histories of humanity, which bifurcate at a decision point where a movement of spiritual and political awakening in Tibet either is crushed, in the timeline that leads to the human race being defeated by rats, or leads the world to new levels of civilisation, in the timeline that ends with humanity's transcendence. You can't accuse Stapledon of having small ideas; however, this is not really a novel, in that I don't think there is a single named character or a line of actual dialogue. There are six better-known Stapledon books (the two above-named, also Odd John, Sirius, Last Men in London and Nebula Maker) and there are good reasons why this is not in the top half dozen.