by Nicholas Cockayne

Created on: February 19, 2008

One of the greatest, and one of the few true, end of the world novels is 'Starmaker' by the talented but little recognised Olaf Stapledon.

It is one of the greatest end of the world novels because of the incredible scope of Stapledon's writing, and one of the only true ones because not only does Stapledon describe the end of the world as we know it, but also of the cosmos and all of existence as well. Now that really is an end of the world novel!

'Starmaker' (1937) is Stapledon's tale of the adventure and observations of an English man who is sitting on a hill, quietly contemplating his life when he unexpectedly begins an astral or psychic journey; one that will encompass the very length and breadth of existence itself. Searching the universe for other life the traveller eventually observes many other worlds, joins other similarly questing beings to form a huge amalgamated consciousness and generally moves beyond the limits of human existence in every way.

With a narrative timeline measured in billions of years Stapledon's novel is at first a little hard to grapple with as he uses and explores the universe through scientific conventions and notions that the layman reader may be unfamiliar with. Yet it is soon clear to the reader that although Stapledon relates and explains the whole histories of different planets and species, much of what is described can be considered analogy and explorations of the possibilities and consequences of very human systems of thought; such as Fascism, Communism, philosophy, and spirituality.

Where 'Starmaker' really excels is in the descriptions of the biology and social structure of these aliens, making them sufficiently unworldly to be more than simple mock or satirical representations of human societies, yet also retaining enough recognisably human traits to allow the reader to relate to what is being described. In all the worlds he explores the traveller finds the same struggle, the struggle between a sentient being's 'higher' and 'lower' impulses and desires; a struggle that is all too human.

Just as the struggle within the book is clearly that of humanity so too are the potential consequences of failing in this struggle. Stapledon tells the tale of planets and species wiped out by their own flawed natures, their inability to rise above conflict, their religions, their greed. Whether destroyed by war, cosmic accident, environmental disaster, or just sheer bloody mindedness, the fates of the aliens Stapledon describes, and the

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