First Published: 1953

Rating: Great

Theodore Sturgeon’s More Than Human left me feeling a little confused. On one hand, it was difficult to put the book down—but after I managed to stop reading, I had trouble getting started again. Overall, I thought it was a great novel; there were just a lot of lulls mixed in with all the wonderful scenes.

[An aside: Each of More Than Human’s three parts (The Fabulous Idiot, Baby is Three, and Morality) was originally a novella before the trio was fixed up into the novel as we know it now. The stories are interconnected, depicting three different stages of one greater story. Unfortunately, many reviewers still treat them as three separate stories and give plot summaries for each, and in doing so reveal major plot points to potential readers (for instance, me). I won’t do that here, but be wary if you read others reviews—many of them, even those at major review sites, spoil the story with no warning.]

The middle part of the story, Baby is Three, is my least favorite part—it’s told in first person from the perspective of Gerry, a character that we’re briefly introduced to earlier in the novel. Gerry isn’t a very likeable character, and that coupled with the stylistic change brought down the story for me. And my favorite character, Hip, doesn’t join the action until the last stages of the book. Also, Sturgeon kind of abandoned all pretense of subtlety toward the end, and I ended up rushing through the last score or so of pages because it was getting a little heavy-handed.

Okay, now that the negatives are out of the way: More Than Human is a beautiful story about human nature, and Sturgeon’s writing is more than equal to the task of telling it. There are some passages of the novel that will always stay in the back of my mind because they’re so lyrical—the kind of passages that almost make you cry because they’re so beautiful in and of themselves. It’s the gorgeous writing and the loftiness of Sturgeon’s ideas that really make the book.

It’s really a pity that those ideas get so weighty towards the end, but that’s not enough to stop me from recommending the book. It’s a great novel from the golden age of science fiction, from one of the masters of the genre, and it’s definitely worth the read. I’m looking forward to reading Sturgeon’s lesser-known Godbody soon.

 [Buy More Than Human at Amazon.com]