Rating: 
Summary: Review of Sirius (I have not read Odd John)
Review: A story about a superintelligent talking dog? It sounds terrible, like something out of a twee Disney film, but in actual fact Stapledon manages to avoid anything like that, and has written an incredible, touching story. It reminds me of "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang", and doesn't avoid the dark side of Sirius' nature... there are a couple of particularly savage passages where Sirius kills a sadistic farmer, and also "murders" a horse just to indulge his canine instincts.Sirius ends up seeing the full range of human life, from bad to good, and more. He is also not a true dog, and finds himself not only alienated from human beings who cannot accept him fully (with a handful of exceptions), but other dogs who are like cretins to him especially his "lovers" (as the book puts it). Despite having difficulty speaking and writing (he devises ways to get around that), Sirius has an advantage over other dogs through his intelligence, and over humans in his hearing, sense of smell etc. What we get is not only a satire on English life during WWII, but an almost autistic view of the world, seeing everything but not able to integrate oneself into it. Of course some of the writing is dated, and Stapledon at times takes a very colonial view of the Welsh and their language (Sirius is originally brought up on a Welsh farm by English academics). Some of the style is very dry and typical of the period (for example when Sirius spots a holy roller farmboy pleasuring himself, Stapledon calls it "something unspeakable". Fortunately Victorian hangovers like these are not common).
Rating:
Summary: Review of Sirius (I have not read Odd John)
Review: A story about a superintelligent talking dog? It sounds terrible, like something out of a twee Disney film, but in actual fact Stapledon manages to avoid anything like that, and has written an incredible, touching story. It reminds me of "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang", and doesn't avoid the dark side of Sirius' nature... there are a couple of particularly savage passages where Sirius kills a sadistic farmer, and also "murders" a horse just to indulge his canine instincts. Sirius ends up seeing the full range of human life, from bad to good, and more. He is also not a true dog, and finds himself not only alienated from human beings who cannot accept him fully (with a handful of exceptions), but other dogs who are like cretins to him especially his "lovers" (as the book puts it). Despite having difficulty speaking and writing (he devises ways to get around that), Sirius has an advantage over other dogs through his intelligence, and over humans in his hearing, sense of smell etc. What we get is not only a satire on English life during WWII, but an almost autistic view of the world, seeing everything but not able to integrate oneself into it. Of course some of the writing is dated, and Stapledon at times takes a very colonial view of the Welsh and their language (Sirius is originally brought up on a Welsh farm by English academics). Some of the style is very dry and typical of the period (for example when Sirius spots a holy roller farmboy pleasuring himself, Stapledon calls it "something unspeakable". Fortunately Victorian hangovers like these are not common).
Rating:
Summary: Tales about a Superman and a Superdog
Review: A thousands thanks to Dover for keeping Olaf Stapledon's novels in print. _Odd John_ John is a terribly precocious and at first frighteningly amoral child born to only modestly intelligent parents. With time, he learns to master his superhuman intelligence and develop telepathic powers which allow him to find others of his kind. By the end of the book, he and his band of superhuman mutants are trying to create a new civilization on an isolated island. This is an early novel, and to some extent it shows. A lot of Stapledon's views of what a highly intelligent creature would be like and do with his time seem awfully cliched today; there are odd parallels with Stapledon's thinking and some current-day "New Age" thinking. But it may be that _Odd John_ created those cliches! Stapledon was an immensely influential writer in 1930s Britain. Wonderful Trivia: The copyright for Odd John is held by George Pal . . . the filmmaker who brought us the movie versions of "The Time Machine" and "War of the Worlds." Forrey Ackerman told me that Pal had hopes and plans to film _Odd John._ Oh, what might have been! _Sirius_, written during World War II and published in 1944, is a far more mature and insightful work. It is also a really _sad_ book . . . a genuine tragedy. As the title suggests, it's about a dog; a mastiff / alsatian / border collie mix with a brain enlarged by _in utero_ hormone treatments. Sirius is as smart as an above-average human, but with the senses and instincts of a dog. Sirius' life is not easy, despite having loving "step parents" and siblings. The novel follows his childhood and education in Wales, his experiences as an anonymous social observer in 1940s London, and his career as a sheep farmer. (What better job for a dog?) We also learn about his affair with his human step-sister, and his painful brooding about his place in the world and the meaning of his strange life. Contrast _Sirius_ with Kirsten Bakis's _Lives of the Monster Dogs_, which was slicker and brighter but is no where near as realistic, insightful or involving.
Rating: 
Summary: Simply Brilliant, well told, A plethura of immerive tension!
Review: I have read this book a total of 7 times in my lifetime. The first time being when i was only 12.. This book is not the avg 12 yr old story and I was 16 before I felt that I could even start to grasp when this story told. Even still as I read this book I am shocked and amazed at the intense yet so subtle manner of this book. Never have I enjoyed a book as much as this. You actually look at life differently after reading this book! If there was a 6 star rating I would give it 12.
Rating:
Summary: Little known classics
Review: Most people don't even know that Olaf Stapledon even existed as an author and those that do most often gravitate toward his more famous (and certainly more groundbreaking) novels Last and First Men and Starmaker (also available as a twofer job and well worth your time), but if they pass up these books they're definitely missing out. Far more accessible than either of his other books, mostly because if you're not ready for the almost textbook style of LAFM/SM it might just bore the heck out of you before you realize how awesome those books actually are. Here Stapledon gets to show off his narrative skills and he more than succeeds. The first story Odd John is about a bloke who basically is one of the Second Men, as advanced over the rest of mankind as we're advanced over dogs and cats. Stapledon has some fun with the idea, mostly with John's utter inability to figure us out (or he knows us too well and can't figure out our motivations), the only problem is that John himself is a bit of a hard character to like, he uses people mostly because he can and justifies every act he does no matter how bad it is based on the fact that he's far superior to us. Granted you still care about the big lug, but sometimes he's so snotty you just want to slap him. Still, Stapledon does a great job of taking some shots at humanity and pretty well rationalizing the thought processes of a guy who's just not like us. Thankfully Sirius has the compassion that Odd John lacks in parts. This one is even stranger, it's about a really smart dog who might as well be human. The fact that Stapledon manages to pull this one off without it seeming silly or far fetched is a testament to his writing genius, he makes Sirius, who could have just been a talking dog, into something three dimensional and worthy of your attention. I had thought Odd John was good but Sirius just blew me away with its emotion and depth. It's interesting to note that in Odd John, John thinks Communism isn't a bad idea (with a few modications) while Sirius hates it because he feels it crushes the spirit. Thought I'd point that out. Other side note, Stapledon writes the coolest narrators I've ever read, they come across as totally human and just regular guys who happened to be caught up in really strange events. Classics like this deserve to be remembered.
Rating:
Summary: Painfully moving...Wonderfully frightening.
Review: Never before have I read such a book that encompasses so much, in such a wonderful way. I've only read the second half of the volume, the strange, coldly scientific fairy tale of Sirius. After what I've read there, I'm not quite sure I'm ready to read Odd John. In due time I shall, but for now, I'll have to be contented with mulling over the life of Sirius, sitting, thinking, reflecting on its harsh mysticism.
Rating:
Summary: A book that is still way ahead of its time.
Review: Odd John is one of those books that you never forget. It is the odd biography of someone called John and his struggle to find himself. This struggle is made all the more difficult because John is not like the rest of us. Perhaps the best that can be said of him is that he is more human than the rest of us. His joys are brighter and his pain is deeper. This may be one of the first books that talk about what it means to be a "superman" and it is certainly the best. There are many hauntingly beautiful and a few terrible visions in this work that you will not forget, This book is a deep spring from which many subsequent works have sprung. It should be better known. If you enjoyed Childhood's End by Arthur C Clark or Stranager in A Strange Land by Robert Heinlien then find the source ... read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Simply Brilliant, well told, A plethura of immerive tension!
Review: Odd John usually gets all the attention, but Sirius is the more moving and beautiful of the two books. In some ways, it's also more daring. But I suppose it's unfair to compare, especially since both novels are well worth reading. I think that Sirius is one of the two best books ever written about a dog (the other being My Dog Tulip).
Rating:
Summary: Two Wonderful Novels
Review: Odd John usually gets all the attention, but Sirius is the more moving and beautiful of the two books. In some ways, it's also more daring. But I suppose it's unfair to compare, especially since both novels are well worth reading. I think that Sirius is one of the two best books ever written about a dog (the other being My Dog Tulip).
Rating:
Summary: Ahead of it's time
Review: Olaf Stapledon crafted a novel that was far ahead of it's time in both prose and ideas. When science fiction writers were still fumbling with aliens from mars, Stapledon was examining the nature of humans billions of years into the future. Odd John is one of the first appearances of the so called "second man", humans as we know them being "first men". John is the next evolutionary step and to him, we all seem like apes. Stapledon picked his hero (anti-hero?) perfectly and told it from just the right perspective. One of my favorite books ever
| 
