Customer Reviews

The Nail and the Oracle: Volume XI: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon (v. 11)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Theodore Sturgeon is the greatest writer of the "SF ghetto", and this collection gathers all his works, regardless of genre or even publication. I think there is 1 more volume to go. You should instantly put it on your Must Have list. Everyone who loves good literature should purchase the entire series -- I know I have, and I'm on limited income.

There are some great stories in here, but there are also, to be frank, some really pedestrian clunkers. This is the problem and glory with a "complete stories of": you get warts and all.

Four stars ain't peanuts and I would not want to be without this, or any volume of the Complete Sturgeon, but some of the earlier volumes would be my choice for a desert island.

This is the 11th volume of Ted Sturgeon's collected works and it contains, among other things, some of his lesser stories. The main entertainment here, at least at first, appears to be Harlan Ellison.

Yeah, that Harlan Ellison. Only now, apparently, Harlan is a Registered Trademark, because we get the little circled (r) every time his name is mentioned. Right. Well... yeah, he's Harlan Ellison and the introduction is worth the price of admission. It is, by turns, the "usual" Ellison bit of reportage, which is to say: by turns funny, poignant, informative, and provoking. He dishes from eight directions and it's good stuff.

However... Sturgeon gets the best of Ellison (a hard trick to turn when you're dead), or at least his editor does, with a single letter so totally hilarious that it, alone, is worth the price of the volume.

Oh, yes, there are also stories. And there are some quite fine ones in this volume. If you've been collecting these, you've no reason to stop before the XIth book. If this is your first foray, well, *do* stop and go back to volume I. This one will be here. It's not his best work nor his most indispensable work. But it's Sturgeon.

A good collection of stories highlighted by a slightly whiney Harlan Ellison introduction that ham handedly serves no introductory purpose except to introduce you to Harlan Ellison, the Harlan Ellison. Harlan Ellison includes a review he wrote of STURGEON IS ALIVE AND WELL, which reviews a handful of the stories in this volume and disses TO HERE AND THE EASEL.

Read the stories, ignore the introduction. Or read the introduction knowing that Harlan Ellison is in love with Harlan Ellison and sweats guilt for having known anyone who is not Harlan Ellison and is a better man than he.