Writing both philosophical treatises and science fiction through the 1930s and 40s, Olaf Stapledon was enormously influential in both fields, and esteemed by figures from Arthur C. Clarke and Jorge Luis Borges to Bertrand Russell and Virginia Woolf.

One moment a man sits on a suburban hill, gazing curiously at the stars. The next, he is whirling through the firmament, joining other minds and witnessing other civilizations, and ultimately encountering the creator of universe, and of all the universes.

"Probably the most powerful work of imagination ever written."—Arthur C. Clarke