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Last and First Men

Olaf Stapledon

First published 2000 · 3360 pages

A sweeping, god-like chronicle of humanity's future across billions of years that will leave you staring into the cosmic void.

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What it feels like

Reading this book feels like stepping out of your own life and viewing the entire lifespan of humanity from the vantage point of a god. The pace is steady and relentless, eschewing traditional character arcs for a sweeping, documentary-style chronicle of civilizations rising and falling across billions of years. The prose is dense, formal, and deeply philosophical, demanding slow, contemplative reading. It immerses you in a mood of profound cosmic melancholy and awe, shrinking our present-day anxieties into mere blips on a vast evolutionary timeline. It is a visionary, mind-expanding experience that will delight readers who crave grand, existential science fiction and are willing to trade intimate storytelling for breathtaking, terrifying scale.

Mood
  • cosmic
  • awe-inspiring
  • melancholic
  • existential
Tone
  • philosophical
  • detached
  • visionary
  • clinical
Pace
steady
Themes
deep time · evolution of humanity · cyclical history · cosmic insignificance · rise and fall of civilizations
The writing
Dense, formal, and chronicler-like, reading more like a sweeping historical textbook of the future than a traditional narrative.
The arc
Moves from a recognizable anxiety about human folly into a vast, detached, and ultimately transcendent acceptance of cosmic mortality.
Who it's for
Readers who crave mind-expanding concepts and philosophical science fiction over character-driven plots.
Content notes
  • existential dread
  • mass extinction
  • war
  • eugenics

About the book

One of the most succinct and accurate renderings of mankind's present state of mind and future progression. It documents the future of man from the start of WW2 and continues until the Sun engulfs the earth, and beyond. Considering this book was first published in 1931, it is remarkable, both in its honesty as regards human nature, and in its phenomenal span. By the time we reach chapter 3 of the 16 in this book, it is already 2300 AD and you feel like you have had the viewpoint of a God. So intense is the writing, that a few pages can take you hours to read and weeks to think about. What a writer, what a visionary. Of particular interest to me was the laconic way he can sum up an entire country's culture and people, and the accuracy of prediction in the first part of the book.

All budding politicians should be forced to read this book. It should be part of any politics curriculum. Strikingly accurate and plausible portent of homo sapiens future. Read in the context of 2002, it is easy to see mankind's current folly and the extrapolation of current scientific endeavours. For example, we may achieve global peace ("An Americanised Planet"") for a few millennia, but at the cost of spiritual and intellectual freedom and development. When the "Fall of the First Men" happened, recovery took a very long time:-

"Later, when the epidemic was spent, even though civilisation was already in ruins, a concerted effort of devotion might yet have rebuilt it on a more modest plan. But among the First Men, only a minority had ever been capable of wholehearted devotion. The great majority were by nature too much obsessed by private impulses."

Sounds like the malaise of current homo sapiens.

The theme of continual physical exertion and constant movement of attention as an underpinning for the lifestyles of all successful social inhabitants was beautifully described. This is so true of today's and future societies. No pause for reflection or contemplation. The abandonment of philosophy as a science in the future. The pig-headed clinging to pagan artefact or idol worship, rather than logic.

Description from Open Library.

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