Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon

A strange and yet compelling book.

A London man falls into a trance.  His disembodied spirit flies out into the universe, travelling further and further away from Earth.  He finds another civilisation and discovers that he can cohabit the bodies of certain individuals of the alien species and experience life through their unique set of senses.

He then embarks on further journeys through the cosmos, taking new companions with him from each of the species he encounters.  Their minds combine to make an increasingly greater intelligence as their numbers swell, until they are able to apprehend the mind of the creator of the universe.  What they discover there is disturbing.

Yes, strange and compelling.  Stapledon maps out the evolution of the universe.  At each step along the way we are introduced to new forms of life.  The author is amazingly inventive in the number of varieties he creates, each with its own mode of surviving and reproducing.  The space in which each episode takes place becomes increasingly large, until the action is being played out across the galaxy.  

Stapledon tells his tale in a clinical, dispassionate but eloquent style.  His descriptions are extensive but never unnecessarily so. And there are deep, philosophical underpinnings to the story.  Here is just one example, taken from near the beginning of the book, echoing a thought the Greek philosopher Heraclitus had almost 2,500 years earlier: 

If he saved all the worlds, but tormented just one man, would you forgive him? Or if he was a little harsh only to one stupid child? What has our pain to do with it, or our failure? Star Maker! It is a good word, though we can have no notion of its meaning. Oh, Star Maker, even if you destroy me, I must praise you. Even if you torture my dearest. Even if you torment and waste all your lovely worlds, the little figments of your imagination, yet I must praise you. For if you do so, it must be right. In me it would be wrong, but in you it must be right.

Star Maker is not an easy read, and 'entertaining' is not a word that springs to mind when describing it; but for someone with a philosophical bent, it is food for the mind.