Customer Reviews

Selected Stories

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I've never enjoyed Sturgeon's novels, but his short stories are another matter. It's about time that his best were collected again, this time around by Vintage Press, and they do a great job. Actually, it's a shame that this is a more expensive trade format, but this is happening more and more with the truly meaningful sci-fi, while the latest waves of absolute crap clutter the mass-market shelves. Anyway, every story in this collection evokes a "whoa!" upon completion, and it's definitely a good investment for someone who enjoys more meat in their reading.

This book includes Thunder & Roses; The Golden Helix; Mr. Costello, Hero; Bianca's Hands; The Skills of Xanadu; Killdozer!; Bright Segment; The Sex Opposite; The Widget, The Wadget, & Boff; It; A Way of Thinking; The Man Who Lost The Sea; and Slow Sculpture. If you want to read some truly remarkable stories, make this your next purchase.

This is yet another re-release of some of Sturgeon's classic science fiction. If you're already a fan, this volume contains several favorites. If you aren't familiar with the Master's work, this is probably as good a place as any to start.

"Thunder and Roses" takes place after a devastating nuclear first strike, and features a beautiful entertainer's plea to prevent a terrible retaliation. The survivors' despair is movingly portrayed, but doesn't get in the way of the story's main point: can mutual destruction be justified in the context of basic human values? "The Golden Helix" shows a space expedition marooned on an unknown planet learning that despite their trials, life manages to go on. In "Mr. Costello, Hero" a smooth talking blackmailer sells his snake oil to a burgeoning society, while in "The Skills of Xanadu" an arrogant scout who dreams of conquest is baffled by the simple folk of edenic Xanadu.

Some of the longer tales are less to this reviewer's liking: "Killdozer!" features lots of action and focuses on the technical aspects of heavy machinery at the expense of clever plotting and ideas, while "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff" loses its momentum by following the various residents of the boardinghouse and their subplots instead of advancing the (rather weak) main story. Still, neither piece is completely without entertainment value.

Women are often in danger in Sturgeon's stories, but at least they aren't ignored altogether as is too often the case with classic sci-fi. And there are several stories, including "The Sex of Opposite" and "Slow Sculpture", where a woman shares the lead with a man. Best of all, "Bright Segment", which shows a lonely man trying to care for a wounded stranger, and the monologue of "The Man Who Lost the Sea" feature not only completely unexpected endings (reminiscent of O. Henry), but also a searing emotional intensity that almost seems to transcend the genre. It's on the basis of stories like these that some claim that great science fiction can be great literature.

Half of the stories happen to exist beyond ordinary sci-fi. It makes them the fairytales your children will read. Sturgeon has the music. Others may play virtuously on their instruments. He simply brings us to hear the beautiful tunes. Those which let us vibrate from inside and leave true memories.

"The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff" indeed appears in a slightly modified writing technique. Surgeon deploys enough "Synapse Beta sub Sixteen" to manage a double-threaded 'theater play' style beside his well-known plain though catching teller stream. It's spiked with subtle humor, and it's not without drama. All people experience a sound upgrade through the Bittelmans weaving tight bonds between them and making them somehow aware.

"The Skills of Xanadu" alone is worth an investment. The Xanadonian body covers, the belts, interconnect and amplify mind and "aura" between individuals. They thus develop mental networking, planet-wide coordinated acting and something like "the-presence-of-all-in-the-presence-of-one". This incidentally connects "The Skills" with "The Touch of Your Hand" as well as "More Than Human".

However it's not far from reality. Some of us seem to possess those skills. At first sight one could be reminded of the noosphere thinking of Teilhard de Chardin, the brain-computer-interface (BCI) already available off-the-shelf for your portables which will be linked by miles-reaching WirelessHUMAN transmitters, the nanochips such as "Soul Catcher" in the pipe, or the real time office software/hardware solutions. But there's more. Those who ever perceived something similar to "there's something we've found" will know. And everybody else will if she or he opens eye and, last not least, ear. Their first step could be buying Sturgeon's "Selected Stories".

Perhaps the above is an over statment, but as far as I'm concerned this book should have #1 sales rank. You will not be dissatisfied with this book. If you are skeptical simply read through the first story "Thunder and Roses," it explores an old theme, nuclear war, but the way that Sturgeon presents it is simply unforgetable. If for nothing else, this book should be purchased for the story, "The man who lost the sea." As far as I'm concerned it is the crowning achievement of Western Civilization, once again, an over statment, but it is the most thought provoking, interesting, and wonderful story that has ever been published. Don't be discouraged from reading his stories because he is science fiction. He transcends the boundaries from sci-fi, to drama, to suspense, to humor. He is an incredible writer who just happened to be writing about technology.