Olaf Stapledon

Fist and Faith · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 1:47 am Post subject: Olaf Stapledon

From wiki:

Fist and Faith · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 12:05 am Post subject:

Well, obviously, it took me a long time to read Last and First Men. That's not anything close to a reflection on the quality of the book. I'm a slow reader, and I have sleep apnea. Some days it's harder to read than other days. This book has, literally, no dialog. Zero. There are only a few, maybe three, characters mentioned. Each is quoted for about a paragraph. There is no action on any personal level. In short, it's like a text book, describing the history of humanity.

The history of humanity from a few hundred million years in the future. In a few hundred pages, everything from Einstein's time to the Last Men is given a very brief overview.

So it's not the type of thing that will keep a slow, exhausted person going very easily.

Let me tell you, though, it's a fantastic book. I cannot recommend it enough. He somehow manages to give a surprising amount of depth to hundreds of millions of years. You actually get a pretty good feel for the various species of humans, starting with us, the First Men. The rise and fall of so many civilizations and species; the psychological makeup of each (I understand why Loremaster gives the book such high praise.); the reasons this or that happened... Honestly, it was a joy to read even at the speed I managed.

One note. Our history has already developed different than what's in the book. It's several decades old, after all. And I really can't imagine certain things would not have happened by then. But hey, it's the way it happens in the book. Just read it!

It's free at Project Gutenberg Australian, on this page: http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-n-z.html#letterS
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We are not required to save the world. We are required to stand up as truly as we can for what we love. -SRD

Fist and Faith · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:37 pm Post subject:

And if anyone's interested, the University of Adelaide, which seems to be in Australia, has a bunch of Stapledon's books available. It looks to be legit.
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/stapledon/olaf/
_________________
We are not required to save the world. We are required to stand up as truly as we can for what we love. -SRD