"I grunted and with my mind I took all the eights and all the rhymes and everything they stood for, and made it all black. But it wouldn't stay black. I had to put something there, so I made a great big luminous figure eight and just let it hang there. But it turned on its side and inside the loops it began to shimmer. It was like one of those movie shots through binoculars. I was going to have to look through whether I liked it or not."
"More Than Human" is Theodore Sturgeon's most famous novel. It is also the expanded version of his novella, "Baby Is Three." It has won awards and is included in many "best of" lists.
It's a short book, and I don't want to ruin it for you by over-explaining the plot. It's set in the present day (or the 50s, anyway), and a group of young people develop telepathy, telekinesis, and other psychic powers. Instead of becoming instant celebrities, they suffer a marginal existence, fraught with peril.
And yes, this does sound a lot like the idea behind Marvel's X-men comics, though the characters in "More Than Human" aren't superheroes by any stretch of the imagination. The X-men usually direct their frustration outward, at a world that refuses to accept them, while the characters in "More Than Human" ponder deeper questions of evolution and identity.
I think it's a good book, though not as good as I had hoped it would be. Of the three sections that comprise this book, the second section, "Baby Is Three" is by far the strongest. Compared to this middle section, the first and third sections feel like they were written much later, in an attempt to make a short story longer. I also found the ending somewhat disappointing, since the main character wasn't sympathetic enough for his "revelation" to be that moving.
But maybe this book has just been on my "must read" list for too long. Perhaps I built it up too much in my mind. I did, after all, love "Venus Plus X," and since I read that book I've been looking for this one.
"More Than Human" was definitely groundbreaking for its time, and despite a few reservations I do recommend it.
"She closed her eyes, and quietly the answer came, full of pictures; the lute picked up and played; the instant familiarity with the most intricate machine; the stars seen otherwise, and yet again otherwise, and every seeing an honest beauty. A thousand discoveries, and manhood with a rush."
Although this collection was published long after the previously reviewed "A Way Home," the stories found in this volume were originally published at about the same time.
"The Hag Seleen" is a terrible story. Sturgeon wrote it with some guy I've never heard of. It's silly from start to finish.
"The Martian and the Moron" goes into far too much depth with regard to radio technology, and proceeds to the conclusion that less intelligent people are more apt to be conduits for extraterrestrial radio transmissions. I liked the dynamic between the father and son, but Sturgeon could have built up toward the ending a bit better.
"The Nail and the Oracle" is a very clever story, in which a technician working for the U.S. government attempts to work the bugs out of a supercomputer. Reminded me a lot of the Asimov story "Jokester," though it's not as good.
"Won't You Walk--" illustrates how a man gains self-confidence through the use of advanced technology. As with the "Unite and Conquer" story in the "A Way Home" collection, I could see the ending coming a mile away.
"Talent" reads a lot like an episode of The Twilight Zone, with a similar kind of twist at the end. It's a good story, and one of the best in this collection.
"One Foot and the Grave" is Sturgeon trying too hard to be H.P. Lovecraft, and failing miserably. One gets the feeling that he wrote this for a non-science fiction publication.
"The Touch of Your Hand" ends rather arbitrarily, but is by far the most memorable story here. A tribal society discovers its roots in a futuristic civilization. Reminded me of Robert E. Howard - in a good way.
"The Traveling Crag" details an agent's attempt to get a new story from a favored author. The ending is rather stupid, and one gets the feeling that Sturgeon having writer's block at the time he wrote it.
"And behind it - far, far behind it, his articulate mind said dazedly, Great day in the morning, he's right! What'll they make of me - a saint, or a blood-red Satan?"
"A Way Home" is a collection of Theodore Sturgeon's short stories. As with almost every short story collection, the stories found here range from bad, to good, to almost readable. But then again, any Sturgeon collection is bound to have at least one gem in it, and that gem makes the other stories worth reading.
In "Unite and Conquer" the author turns H.G. Wells on his head, and offers a tale of mankind banding together in the face of an extraterrestrial menace. I saw the ending coming from a mile away, but it's not a bad story.
In "Special Aptitude" we see how contact with an alien race is established through a shipboard misfit. I liked the turnabout at the end, the story is concisely written, and the characters are very engaging.
In "Mewhu's Jet" a family on vacation takes care of an alien stranded on Earth. This story tries very hard to be funny, but doesn't succeed.
In "Hurricane Trio" a married man lusts after another woman. This could have been a great story if it weren't for the extraneous science fiction elements. The ending also falls flat.
In "The Hurkle is a Happy Beast" an animal from another world stumbles onto Terran soil. It's another story that tries a bit too hard to be funny.
"Thunder and Roses" is a surprisingly good story, dealing with the survivors of a national catastrophe. It's well written, and the part where the protagonist meets his idol is heartbreaking.
"Bulkhead" details a psychological experiment, a space journey, or both. If you want to know which, you'll have to read the story! It's probably my favorite story here.
"Tiny and the Monster" is hands-down the most retarded story in this collection. Hard to tell if it was an attempt at humor, or just a short story gone wrong. A dog helps an E.T. return home. It's pretty bad.
"A Way Home" is about a boy running away. Not really a science fiction story, but it works well and I liked it.
