Star Maker

Imagine a guy on Earth who dreams he's flying through space like a ghost, visiting crazy aliens on other planets who build giant brains from stars and fight huge space wars. He teams up with fish-people, bird-people, and whole worlds that think together, seeing the whole universe born, grow up, and meet the super-big Star Maker who makes new universes like toys, but sometimes they're sad or scary because not everything turns out perfect.

Olaf Stapledon's 'Star Maker' (1937) follows an unnamed narrator who, during a moment of personal crisis on Earth, experiences an out-of-body cosmic voyage spanning eons and galaxies. He transcends his human form, merging telepathically with myriad alien intelligences—from ichthyoids on Neptune to avian-humanoids and vast collective minds—witnessing the rise and fall of galactic civilizations, interstellar wars, utopian nebular communities, and dystopian tyrannies driven by biological imperatives and cosmic rhythms. This odyssey surveys the evolutionary pinnacle of matter, where worlds encyst into symbiotic superorganisms and stars are engineered for longevity, culminating in the formation of galactic brains striving for universal enlightenment. The narrative escalates to metaphysical heights as the narrator joins the First Galactic Community and subsequent cosmic symphonies, confronting the indifference of flawed creator-gods and the Star Maker itself—a supreme, experimental intelligence crafting multiverses in pursuit of aesthetic perfection. Through cycles of creation, suffering, and redemption, Stapledon probes the tension between material evolution and spiritual aspiration, portraying a universe where even the grandest intellects grapple with isolation, imperfection, and the elusive absolute. The novel's impersonal, encyclopedic style evokes profound awe and melancholy, influencing cosmic-scale science fiction.