Editing Star Maker (section)

==Plot==
A human narrator from England is [[Out-of-body experience|transported out of his body]] via unexplained means. He realises he is able to explore space and other planets. After exploring in some detail a civilisation on another planet [[Milky Way Galaxy|in our galaxy]], at a level of development similar to our own that existed millions of years ago, thousands of light years from Earth (the "Other Earth"), his mind merges with that of one of its inhabitants. As they travel together, they are joined by still more minds or group-minds. This snowballing process is parallelled by the expansion of the book's scale, describing more and more planets in less and less detail.

The disembodied travellers encounter many ideas that are interesting from both science-fictional and philosophical points of view. These include many imaginative descriptions of species, civilisations and methods of warfare, descriptions of the [[multiverse]], and the idea that the stars and pre-galactic [[nebula]]e are intelligent beings, operating on vast time scales. A key idea is the formation of collective minds from many [[telepathy|telepathically]]-linked individuals, on the level of planets, galaxies, and eventually the [[cosmos]] itself.

A symbiotic species, each individual composed of two species, both non-humanoid, is discussed in detail. Normally detached from the galaxy's turmoil, they intervene in a [[deus ex machina]] to end the threat of a civilisation dedicated to forcing its mentality onto one stellar civilisation after another.

The [[Climax (narrative)|climax]] of the book is the "supreme moment of the cosmos", when the cosmic mind (which includes the narrator) attains momentary contact with the titular "Star Maker". The Star Maker is the creator of the universe, but stands in the same relation to it as an artist to his work, and calmly assesses its quality without any feeling for the suffering of its inhabitants. This element makes the novel one of Stapledon's efforts to write "an essay in [[Mythology|myth]] making".

After meeting the Star Maker, the traveller is given a "fantastic myth or dream" in which he observes the Star Maker at work. He discovers that his own cosmos is [[Multiverse|only one of a vast number]], and by no means the most significant. He sees the Star Maker's early work, and he learns that the Star Maker was surprised and intensely interested when some of his early "toy" universes (for example, a universe composed entirely of music with no spatial dimensions) displayed "modes of behaviour that were not in accord with the canon which he had ordained for them". He sees the Star Maker experimenting with more elaborate universes, which include the traveller's own universe; a triune universe which closely resembles "Christian orthodoxy" (the three universes respectively being [[hell]], [[heaven]], and reality with presence of a [[Redeemer (Christianity)|saviour]]); and a branching universe similar to that of the [[many-worlds interpretation]] of quantum mechanics. The Star Maker goes on to create "mature" universes of extraordinary complexity, culminating in an "ultimate cosmos", through which the Star Maker fulfills his own eternal destiny as "the ground and crown of all things". Finally, the traveller returns to Earth at the place and time he left, to resume his life there.