Last and First Men, abridged edition
A Story of the Near and Far Future
Olaf Stapledon author Matthew de Abaitua author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:MIT Press Ltd
Publishing:25th Aug '26
£17.99
This title is due to be published on 25th August, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

A dazzling work of science fiction to which Dune, the Foundation trilogy, and 2001: A Space Odyssey owe a major debt. Narrated telepathically by one of the Last Men, Olaf Stapledon s epic history of the future caused a literary sensation when it first appeared in 1930. Over the course of two billion years, it seems, ever more alien versions of humankind will rise and fall developing every sort of utopian and dystopian civilization only to descend into savagery again and again, until eventually the Earth s resources are depleted. This abridged edition takes us from the fall of the First Men to the initial efforts of the Fifth Men, the last Terrestrials, to colonize other planets!
ENDORSEMENTS
“Last and First Men is a seminal work of cosmological sf a philosophical examination of the future evolution of humanity, inspirational to Arthur C. Clarke and so many of Stapledon’s successors. Great to see it included in the MIT Press’s Radium Age series.”
—Charles Stross, Hugo and Locus award–winning author
“No book before or since has had such an impact on my imagination; the Stapledonian vistas of millions and hundreds of millions of years, the rise and fall of civilizations and entire races of men, changed my whole outlook on the universe and has influenced much of my writing ever since.”
—Arthur C. Clarke, New York Times (March 6, 1983)
ISBN: 9780262054621
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
304 pages