Last and First Men, abridged edition

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!

Olaf Stapledon was a philosopher and science fiction writer. He published over twenty books throughout his career and is regarded as one of the most influential science fiction writers of the early twentieth century.

Matthew De Abaitua is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Essex. His sf novel The Red Men was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. His sf novels IF THEN and The Destructives complete the loose trilogy. His book Self & I: A Memoir of Literary Ambition was shortlisted for the New Angle Prize for Literature.