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.