Not by The Human League

I’ve read the second novel in the Library of America American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s collection, namely, More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon.

My first and last thought about this book was ‘Wow’, in appreciation of the writing and the intensity of the story.  I can’t think of anything to compare this to.  The concept of More Than Human is amazing.  The book is not perfect, there were a few things about the structure and plot I didn’t like, but it does what it does very well.  Around any of its shortcomings the novel wraps a strong and intriguing story.

Don’t expect rocket ships and aliens, this is not nuts and bolts science fiction.  More Than Human is sociology, psychology and biology, exploring the potential of humans as individuals and as a society.  It looks at what makes someone human and what it is that you do if you are human.  

In the ordinary 1953 world of this story there are humans with extraordinary abilities.  Yet for all their powers they are subject to all of the problems of growing up in human society, with the added challenge of being absolute outsiders.  You could easily see this as a metaphor for the average person, or even society, developing and finding their way in the world.  It’s about making those first halting steps, stumbling, growing, being an adolescent pain and being surprised every step of the way – especially when you think you’ve reached the end and know it all.

Are we our parts, their sum or more than that?  Should we be solitary individuals, interacting with society only when we need something, or is it important to be a part of something larger, or some interesting variation in between?  How should you use extraordinary powers and how do you know, and then do, what is right?  It’s complicated.

The book isn’t really as boring and ordinary as I just made it sound.  Sturgeon has built a unique story that I found compelling, if enervating.  I needed a rest after this one and I fell back on a comfort reread of Dorothy L. Sayers to recover – Unnatural Death if you’re curious.

Some people seem to think that the book is racist.  Some of the characters are, but while it may not do it the way everyone would like it to, the book itself is against racism.

I won’t put any spoilers in here, but I will say that for me, it isn’t the central gestalt human of the story that the title refers to; it is all of us together that are more than human.

Selling Venus by the pound

No plot spoilers.  I tend to review on readability, plot, character and the quality of the writing – which is distinguished from readability in that the former refers to how easy or fun a book is to read and the latter concerns the structure of the words.

So, I just read The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth and here’s my immediate review without taking time for much cogitation.

This is in some ways a disturbingly prescient story.  As SF does, especially SF of this time, the story tried to describe a possible future extrapolated from what the authors saw as the significant – or what would become significant – social trends of the time.  Nothing has happened quite the way the book predicts, but some of it has come close.  Of course using hindsight I could be very critical, but that wouldn’t be fair, and these things could happen yet.

Also like much SF of the 50s this is a short novel, but the authors got a lot into those pages.  Some of the plot points are sudden pivots, but, well, events are compressed a bit.  The concepts keep coming and the ideas and attitudes that the authors want to explore permeate the story.  There isn’t much character development, come to think of it, there isn’t any character development, but this story is not about the characters.  It’s about the ideas and attitudes.  Things are painted in very broad and very bold strokes and some may find it heavy handed.  There are more subtle satires, but this is not out of step with the times or the genre.

The Space Merchants is an enjoyable read.  It is intelligently written and well paced and fairly well thought out.  There are a few conceits that I thought were out of place, used just to emphasize the futuristic nature of the setting.  You get the idea that this is the future very concisely in the first few pages, which I like and which I think is enough.  The rest is just superfluous and, I think, not as well reasoned.  But that was only a small part of it and probably easily ignored by everyone else.

The gender roles are only superficially advanced from standard 1950s fiction.  Job titles without active roles by the female characters may get people thinking but they don’t adequately counter the problem.  I wouldn’t normally focus on this in a book from 1952, but since there is a hint that there might be stronger action from the female characters I was disappointed when it didn’t pan out.  It could have been done easily and in line with the other social commentary in the story.

Be aware of what you’re getting into with a 1950s SF novel, but don’t avoid it because of that.  That’s a reason to read it.  The book is now as much a look at the past as it was an attempt to give a view of a possible future.  This is well written, clever and entertaining.  Things happen fast and you’re pretty much hit over the head with the class dichotomy, but that’s often how things were done back then.  This is a good look at some of the best of early SF and a landmark novel.

Filling in the gaps

I used to read a lot.  I read all the time.  I read everything I could get ahold of.  I still read as much as possible these days.  Yet with all that reading over the years there are a lot of things I haven’t read.

Oh, I’ve read some of the classics:  Dune, Stranger in a Strange Land, the Foundation trilogy, Tom Swift and His Outpost in Space.  Still, there are many that I never got around to reading.  Well, for Christmas I received the new Library of America 2 volume boxed set American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s and I am making my way through it.  Most of them are new to me and what I have read I want to re-read.

I’ll try to post about these as I read them or as soon after as possible.  Then, once I finish these two volumes, there are still a dozen or so Tom Swift, Jr. books left to read.

That was a dumb idea

I just finished a book that was a complete waste of time and energy, and I don’t have a lot of either. Then why did I read it, you ask? I wanted to finish a book - not a good reason, but one reason. Also, I was intrigued by the premise that seemed to disappear in the first chapter or so but I wanted to see if it was played out later in the book. It wasn't.

I don't think I've ever read a collaboration between an old, established author and a new writer before. I’m not sure I will again. If the author whose work this is derivative of had any involvement beyond his name on the cover I would be surprised. This was fan-fiction that was well written at the sentence level but otherwise it was total crap.

If it were not familiar characters in a familiar setting no one would want to read it. The concept is not developed, the plot is not developed, the characters are not who or what they are claimed to be. Take out the names remembered from stories read forty years ago and there is nothing left of interest.

I finished it because I wanted to see how it played out. It sucked.

The plot is inconsistent and haphazard. Characters are thrown in just to attract the reader’s attention. The whole thing is like a sitcom best-of episode composed of flashbacks to previous episodes.

There are sections that are nothing more than a nearly word for word rehashing of stories from the 1970s and they do nothing to move the narrative – they are page filler.

I think I also kept hoping that it would get better – I got strung along just as I was supposed to. Nostalgia can be a powerful motivation, but I should have known better. When you go back and fill in the back story of course you make up some history that was not in the previous stories. This book changes the previous stories. Characters do not act like who they are, and the changes are massive enough to make them completely different characters. Let’s say it’s like taking Scarlett O’Hara and making her Florence Nightingale – or maybe turning Dorothy Gale into, oh, I don’t know, Ghengis Khan. Really, the reworking of the characters is absurd. Nothing in the older stories works if this is the back story. None of it is even possible.

If I weren’t so intent on reading something this month (2/11) I never would have finished this book. It really sucked.

I won’t say who it was by, just that it was science fiction. I suppose it could be seen as a lesson in how not to construct a novel.

I need to stop ranting and go read something good now.

The cover was lousy, and you could judge by it

I read a book the other day. Yay me. Well, I finished reading a book the other day. Anyway, after I finished it I had to think about it a bit. I didn’t really enjoy the book. These days I just stop reading books I am not enjoying, and I would have, but it wasn’t very long and I kept hoping it would get better. I knew the author and enjoyed her other books in this milieu and I was trying to recapture some of the reading pleasure I had with her other books. I kept hoping that this book would get better and then transport me to that enjoyment I had experienced many years ago. I should say that this is not a new book, just one that I had not read before. Alas, this book never got there.

So, why did I have to think about it? I had to decide if it was me or not. Was I missing something? Was I not getting everything that was in the book because of my current reading abilities or lack thereof? Or was the book really not that good? I’m sorry to say, and also relieved to say, that I decided that the book really wasn’t that good. It was like a throwaway; maybe something that she had to fill in between books in a related series. It was just an idea and some characters that were lying around when her publisher wanted a book. I was disappointed. It’s nice when you can find something new – at least to you – from a favorite author. That’s what I was hoping for.

So it wasn’t me. It just wasn’t a great book.

Wouldn’t it be nice to find something new by Sayers or Hammett or whoever you love to read?

It occurs to me, finally, that maybe this just means that I should write what I want to read. Someone has to write the books that aren’t there right now.