Saturday 1 April 2006

#28. MORE THAN HUMAN By Theodore Sturgeon

Published : 1953
Pages : 233
Overall Mark : 7/10

All alone; an idiot boy, a runaway girl, a severely retarded baby, and twin girls with a vocabulary of two word between them. Yet once they are mysteriously drawn together this collection of misfits becomes something very, very different from the rest of humanity. This intensely written and moving novel is an extraordinary vision of humanity's next step.

THEODORE STURGEON (1918-1985)
One of science fiction's most respected writers, Sturgeon published a large number of short stories and several novels, and was a hugely influential figure to subsequent generations of SF writers. More Than Human, his most famous work, won the International Fantasy Awars when first published in 1953.

VERDICT
Taking the concept of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, this impressive novel can at times feel daunting, but never confusing, and most of the time it is simply a tale of people triumphing over the weaknesses that people have placed on them by combining their efforts (in this case as a gestalt entity) and proving themselves to be far more than anyone could have ever guessed.