Customer Reviews

The Perfect Host

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3 star:		(1)
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Most of the reviews that appear for this book are of a paperback anthology of Theodore Sturgeon stories. The Kindle book is not that anthology, it is just the single story (albeit of novella length) called "The Perfect Host." That's the bad news; the good news is that is an __excellent__ story. It is more horror (or "dark fantasy," if you prefer) than science fiction, but, unlike most dark fantasy, it does not deal in familiar themes such as vampires or werewolves. In fact, I was more than three-quarters of the way through the novella before I had any idea of where it was going. The story is told in a series of chapters, each narrated by a different character. The narrators do not contradict each other (this is no "Rashomon"), but each of them tells their part of the story so strangely that you start to wonder which of them is crazy, or if they all are. At one point, author Theodore Sturgeon himself appears as one of the narrators, and even he can't figure out what is going on. The ending wraps everything up, in a surprising and chilling way.

I now have all 7 volumes - all 7 available currently. But I only got volume 5 about a month ago, much later than 6 and 7. And the biggest problem I am facing now - how am I going to make it last till they print the 8th?! I read one story per week - though I die to gulp them down and make a feast of reading this book. Each precious tender love story - only one a week. Once in a week I sit down and switch the world off and read about love - because that is what Sturgeon have been writing about all his life. He takes you by hand and shows you that somebody's Eden is always somebody's else Hell; and makes you walk beside a quiet girl - quietly.. Or sit and listen to a slow dialogue of two cowboys near the fire - and at the last words to burst out laughing only to smile sadly and tenderly a minute later... Theodore Sturgeon makes you love life - and that is the best compliment I could pay any writer.

For some reason, the other reviews for this novella seem to be for other books. Like nearly all Theodore Sturgeon material, this one (The Perfect Host) is thought provoking with a bit of a twist. The lack of other Sturgeon books for the Kindle is one of my biggest disappointments in the Kindle library. This one gives you the flavor of his writing. You'll want more.

As a writer, Sturgeon provokes one of two reactions in me: either to just give up since I know I'll never be able to equal that much quality for as long as I live, or to sit back down and write even more in an redoubled effort to equal that quality. I tend to like the second myself and I think Ted would agree, reading one of his stories you get a sense of wonder and enchantment, much as he probably felt writing it and to me it's like a gaunlet being thrown down saying, "This is the best I can do, I know you can do just as good. Prove it." Ah but the quality here is not to be believed. Even if you discount the "undiscovered" story "Quietly" which is apparently a precursor somehow to More Than Human (it's a tenuous link, even the series editor admits it) there's stuff like the title story, one of the groundbreaking stories not only for science fiction telling but the short story genre in general, there's also a neat creepy jazz story and a Western story and so much that when you finish you sit back and think about all the good stuff you just read . . . and then realize that the five volumes that are to come are supposed to represent his very best work. Argh, Ted, you don't make the challenge easy but I think it's one I accept. You want no less. Read them all already, what are you waiting for?

The publication of the collected short works of Theodore Sturgeon is cause for rejoicing. Sturgeon is the Beethoven of Science Fiction, and this fact has not yet been recognized. The thing that makes Beethoven tower over all other classical composers is his compelling ability to communicate powerful emotion. His greatest works are more than technical masterpieces; they make the listener glad to be human. They uplift, magnificantly.

This is also exactly true of Theododre Sturgeon. Sturgeon's greatest works speak directly to the heart, as do the works of Beethoven. And they do so as powerfully, since they almost always speak of love. Human love, not any pale imitation.

For several decades, most people new to Sturgeon had to approach him through his novels, since publishers did not like to print short story collections. This is a shame, since approaching Sturgeon through his novels is very much like approaching Beethoven through his string quartets. Masterpieces they may be, but they're not terribly approachable. If you want to appreciate Beethoven, start with his symphonies. If you want to appreciate Sturgeon, start with his short stories.

And just as Beethoven's best work was done later in his life, so also were Sturgeon's best stories. In the time frame that "The Perfect Host" covers, Sturgeon was just beginning to hit his stride. His greatest work will show up in the volumes to come.

Thank you, Paul Williams, more than I can say, for bringing this collection into print.

Ted Sturgeon was one of the all-time great science fiction writers, and I was extremely pleased when the anthologies of his stories were reprinted. But the Kindle version of this book is gravely flawed. Why oh why would you publish ANY anthology and fail to include a table of contents? This makes the book entirely useless for browsing. I now face the unpleasant task of manually paging through the book and creating bookmarks for every story. Frankly, I'd like my money back, please.

UPDATE: It turns out that the Kindle version contains ONLY the story "The Perfect Host" (hence, no table of contents.) So if you want JUST that story, you're good to go (but at a fairly steep price for a single story.) Amazon mistakenly lists this title as an alternate format to the short story collection of the same name. The good news: I DID get my money back.

Classic Sturgeon. A multi-perspective horror mystery about possession that kicks into meta territory towards the end. This one will keep you up all night. Fun, powerful writing, plenty of twists, and an unforgettable finale. This version with some typos, hopefully to be corrected?

Reading this book is like walking in circle around an undefined center. Each chapter is like a sudden pull toward this center looking through the eyes of each character telling the story in first person. In a chapter named after him, the author himself pops in to explain how he ended up writing this book. Finally, the 'creature' at the center of the 'circle' tells you how the overall story of looking for a perfect host makes sense (obviously, in its dedicated chapter). The genesis of the story is certainly original, however the supposed existence of such a creature is not as much.