Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon

The "Last and First Men" was published in 1930 (I only found out about that after reading it.) In some ways, you can call this book foundational/seminal in science fiction.

I did not know what the book was about before I picked it up; it surprised me how ambitious the scope was -- imagining how human civilisations evolved across billions of years, their challenges and their ultimate fates (again, it was published in 1930!)

Some of these ideas were ahead of their time and have become common themes in modern science fiction: the meaning of existence, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence and interstellar travel/colonisation.

The book is written as a historical chronicle which makes it hard to read (or I should say, it's not my cup of tea.) Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Details

• Amazon
• Publisher: Indo-European Publishing
• Published: June 2, 2014
• ISBN-10: 160444357X
• ISBN-13: 978-1604443578