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A review by thomasgoddard
Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
5.0
This was one of the best books I've read recently. I'm a big fan of the author, as his novel Starmaker made a lasting impression on me. This was equally wonderful.
It's written as a future human explaining the history of humanity across the span of aeons. From our modern world through leaps in technology and lapses onto dark ages that persist for millennia. We rise and fall and rise again and we evolve and adapt and populate new worlds. And we achieve such feats! It's darkly hopeful. That's the only way I can explain it. Some of the future is bleak. But so much is spectacular and miraculous and it left me with such a sense of emotional motion sickness. I had to step away after it ended and come to terms with the fact that I will never see all of this play out. I have to make do with the span we have already had; from microorganisms to monkeys. Which is pretty amazing in its own right.
Top notch sci-fi. It'll make your head spin with the sheer scope. And it was written in 1930! Two billion years is over all too quickly, it really kept me engaged and I think I'll read this again and again.
It's written as a future human explaining the history of humanity across the span of aeons. From our modern world through leaps in technology and lapses onto dark ages that persist for millennia. We rise and fall and rise again and we evolve and adapt and populate new worlds. And we achieve such feats! It's darkly hopeful. That's the only way I can explain it. Some of the future is bleak. But so much is spectacular and miraculous and it left me with such a sense of emotional motion sickness. I had to step away after it ended and come to terms with the fact that I will never see all of this play out. I have to make do with the span we have already had; from microorganisms to monkeys. Which is pretty amazing in its own right.
Top notch sci-fi. It'll make your head spin with the sheer scope. And it was written in 1930! Two billion years is over all too quickly, it really kept me engaged and I think I'll read this again and again.