Will I love More Than Human?

Theodore Sturgeon presents a compelling story in three parts about a group of what one might call mutants--four children and an infant with interpersonal or developmental problems but each possessing a gift. Leading the group is a simple-minded young man named Lone who compensates for his limited vocabulary through impressive telepathic abilities. Together, these misfits embody something beyond homo sapiens. They adopt the term homo gestalt as they use their abilities to advance their lot in life. Sturgeon does a masterful job of portraying the relationship between the five main characters as well as their interactions with normal humans.

I have the 1971 paperback printing of More Than Human, with the Robert Pepper cover art. The book has a special significance for me; although unrelated in plot, it has similarities to my book: it is science fiction, has an unusual structure, a complex timeline, deals with psychology, and features investigation and discovery. The fact that it was written in 1953, before the Internet, Earth satellites, personal computers, and cell phones, facilitates the reader’s attention to the rather complex story. Seven individuals, Lone, Janie, twins Bonnie and Beanie, Baby, Gerry, and Hip, are exemplars of inequality, with peculiar capabilities… show more.

The third and last of my adolescent favorites, this Hugo, Nebula, and International Fantasy Award winner gave me a core component not only of my own book but, in a way, of my life—a pod or team or unit of uniquely talented individuals who, when united, become, yes, the whole which is far more than the sum of the parts, in a way, a symbiotic entity of its own that becomes a single, super-power juggernaut of beings trying to discover who and what they are and just what earth-changing things they are meant to bring about. Beautifully written, compelling, and… show more.

Theodore Sturgeon was one of the best science fiction writers of all time. When I began writing, I told myself I would consider myself a success if I could produce even one story as good as any of his. More than Human is quite possibly his best work. It's a story of the next stage in human evolution, the creation of a gestalt being whose sum is greater than its individual parts. And unlike most stories about advanced beings, these don't come to a bad end, nor do they take over the world. Sturgeon loved his characters and treated them… show more.