Slow Sculpture: Volume XII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon [Hardcover]

Theodore Sturgeon (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon | Publication Date: October 20, 2009

Theodore Sturgeon was a model for his friend Kurt Vonnegut’s legendary character Kilgore Trout, and his work was an acknowledged influence on important younger writers from Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg to Stephen King and Octavia Butler. His work has long been deeply appreciated for its sardonic sensibility, dazzling wordplay, conceptual brilliance, memorable characters, and unsparing treatment of social issues such as sex, war, and marginalized members of society. Sturgeon also authored several episodes of the original Star Trek TV series and originated the Vulcan phrase “Live long and prosper.”

This twelfth volume of North Atlantic’s ambitious series reprinting his complete short stories includes classic works such as the award-winning title story, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1971, as well as “Case and the Dreamer,” a well-crafted tale of an encounter with a trans-spatial being that is also a meditation on love, and “The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff,” a creative exploration of the human ability to achieve self-realization in response to crisis. The book includes a new Foreword, an illuminating section of Story Notes, and a comprehensive index for the entire series.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A consummate storyteller and someone whose stories had not only heart, but brains and depth.”
—Connie Willis, from the foreword

“One of the all-time masters of the sci-fi short story. This multivolume project to bring many of his classic tales back into print is long overdue.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Sturgeon’s often tender explorations of alien minds were as carefully worked out as Faulkner’s exploration of the mind of the idiot in The Sound and the Fury. His emphasis on psychology instead of blasters prepared the way for most modern masters of the science fiction genre.”
—Stephen King

“Sturgeon was, in several senses, the conscience of modern science fiction.”
—The New York Times

“Sturgeon’s stories have an emotional impact unmatched by almost any other writer.”
—Arthur C. Clarke

“One of the best writers in America … Sturgeon is a master storyteller certain to fascinate all sorts of readers, not only science fiction fans.”
—Kurt Vonnegut

“Intelligent, humane, tantalizing stories, every one of which evokes the sense of wonder. Sturgeon’s stories are treasures from Elfland.”
—Carl Sagan

“A terrific writer; I enjoyed every word he published.”
—Robert Heinlein

“Sturgeon wrote miraculous short stories.… He found his urgency directed in becoming the John Dos Passos, the William Faulkner, the Ring Lardner, the James Thurber, the Virginia Woolf of science fiction.”
—Jonathan Lethem

“The most literate and lyrical writer science fiction ever had.”
—Spider Robinson, from the afterword

About the Author

Theodore Sturgeon (1918—1985) is considered one of the greatest masters of the science fiction story and is ranked with classic contemporaries such as Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clarke. He received the International Fantasy Award for his 1953 novel More Than Human, as well as Hugo and Nebula awards for his story “Slow Sculpture.”

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books (October 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556438346
• ISBN-13: 978-1556438349
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #770,808 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sturgeon's late career resurgence, October 25, 2009

By 

J Reston - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Slow Sculpture: Volume XII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon (Hardcover)

SLOW SCULPTURE is VOL XII of Theodore Sturgeon's complete short fiction and is a marked improvement over the previous volume. The collection starts out with "The Widget, the Wadget, and Boff", one of his greatest novellas. Written in the mid-1950s, this long and excellent story focuses on the inhabitants of a boarding house who are being studied and manipulated by aliens in an experiment to test the limits of human consciousness. The rest of the stories represent Sturgeon's last concentrated burst of creativity which occurred during 1970-1971, following a period of several years of relative inactivity due to writer's block. The title story "Slow Sculpture" may well be Sturgeon's last true masterpiece, an exquisite story about the meeting of a solitary disillusioned genius and a woman with a deadly illness. Sturgeon's use of the art of bonsai as a central metaphor for human relationships is ingenious and affecting. Other standouts include "The Girl Who Knew What They Meant", a story where a girl's unusual intuition turns out not to be such a great gift, and "Uncle Fremmis", a somewhat whimsical tale about a man with an unusual knack for fixing broken-down machines (and humans) by giving them a hard knock in the right place. Particularly interesting from today's standpoint is "The Verity Files", told as a series of interoffice memos wherein a pharmaceutical company attempts to suppress a cure for cancer mainly because it causes euphoria as a side effect and could be easily duplicated by competitors. This story is just as relevant today as it was nearly 40 years ago, given the ongoing debate about medical marijuana usage and the use of addictive painkillers. Other interesting stories include "Occam's Scalpel", wherein Sturgeon tackles environmental issues and warns about global warming decades before it became a catch phrase, and "Dazed", wherein he poses (and answers) the question of whether a certain amount of chaos is necessary to allow change in the world.

What is most striking about these stories is the depth of emotion that burns through many of them, which contrasts markedly with the dispassionate irony and/or understatement which characterizes most recent fiction. Very few authors write in this manner today, which is unfortunate. When Sturgeon had something to say, he always said it with passion and conviction. He had a deep and abiding anger (although tempered with compassion) toward human behavior or societal values that he considered illogical, and he makes some very persuasive points in his stories. Although some of the stories may verge on preachiness, his sheer writing talent always keeps them entertaining, and his characters are superbly developed. At his best, Theodore Sturgeon was one of America's best short story writers, and anyone who appreciates great short fiction should be reading his work.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not the final volume, October 22, 2009

By 

Richard J. Arndt (Elko, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Slow Sculpture: Volume XII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon (Hardcover)

Readers should know that, unlike what it says in the promo blurb, this is not the final volume--there will be at least one more, entitled Case And The Dreamer, intended for publication next year. That said, this is a great selection of stories that you can look forward to reading, or re-reading, with enormous pleasure.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Capper for my collection, November 19, 2009

By 

Sylvia Wulf (Catskills, NY United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Slow Sculpture: Volume XII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon (Hardcover)

As a lifelong Sturgeon fan, I have been snapping up the compilation book by book. It is fitting, somehow, that the finale carries as the title story one of my all time favorites. Bravo to the work that went into this compendium of the works of a great, but often overlooked author!