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More Than Human

4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 · rating details · 5,584 ratings · 205 reviews

There's Lone, the simpleton who can hear other people's thoughts and make a man blow his brains out just by looking at him. There's Janie, who moves things without touching them, and there are the teleporting twins, who can travel ten feet or ten miles. There's Baby, who invented an antigravity engine while still in the cradle, and Gerry, who has everything it takes to run...more

Paperback, 192 pages

Published December 29th 1998 by Vintage (first published 1953)

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May 07, 2012 Whitaker rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-scifi, 2012-read

I think the only meaningful ratings on GR are *, **, and *****. Those are pretty clear: “I disliked it”, “it was okay”, and “it was amazing”. *** and **** exist in that intermediate stage between “meh” (**) and “wow” (*****). “I liked it” and “I really liked it”. WTF? How exactly do I differentiate between “liking” something and “really liking” it?

A lot of how we respond to stories is so personal to what we enjoy and what we’ve read before. One thing that I usually like in books is when it thro...more I think the only meaningful ratings on GR are *, **, and *****. Those are pretty clear: “I disliked it”, “it was okay”, and “it was amazing”. *** and **** exist in that intermediate stage between “meh” (**) and “wow” (*****). “I liked it” and “I really liked it”. WTF? How exactly do I differentiate between “liking” something and “really liking” it?

A lot of how we respond to stories is so personal to what we enjoy and what we’ve read before. One thing that I usually like in books is when it throws up an idea that I’ve not come across before. That’s my little spark that can turn a “like” to a “really like”. It can be a really small thing that makes that difference and is so intimately intertwined with my personal reading history that it’s essentially meaningless for anyone else. Whatever it is, however, this book had that little difference for me.

To talk about it would require me to talk about the ending, so before I get to that, a little bit about how I responded to the rest of the book. This is how it starts:

The idiot lived in a black and gray world, punctuated by the white lightning of hunger and the flickering of fear. His clothes were old and many-windowed. Here peeped a shin-bone, sharp as a cold chisel, and there in the torn coat were ribs like the fingers of fist. He was tall and flat. His eyes were calm and his face was dead.

That first paragraph drew me in. The images (lightning, chisel, fist) were strong and compelling. We feel the harshness and violence of his world before we are even told about it. The long, flowing, imagistic sentences at the beginning end in the flat and mimetic “His eyes were calm and his face was dead.” That’s good stuff.

We’re pretty much in 2001 / Many-Coloured Land territory: the so-called next stage of human evolution. This invariably seems to involve some step up to a more powerful being, and that’s actually pretty iffy science since evolution isn’t directed and no one can tell what’s better or worse. The next step up for some reason always involves psychic powers: less body, more mind. Sturgeon’s spin on this (and not the nifty idea that I liked) is the notion of homo gestalt. It sort of makes sense: cells came together to form more complex organisms, so why not those complex organisms themselves coming together in a similar fashion:

He says he is a figure-outer brain and I am a body and the twins are arms and legs and you are the head. He says the ‘I’ is all of us.

Or explained in another way:

I’m the central ganglion of a complex organism which is composed of Baby, a computer; Bonnie and Beanie, teleports; Janie, telekineticist; and myself, telepath and central control.

The novel itself is made up of three parts. Parts two and three essentially involve a recounting of past events: the conflict is supplied by a character struggling to understand himself through an uncovering and recounting of the past. It’s a relatively brisk and efficient technique that allows a great deal of exposition to be covered in a short amount of space, while still keeping a certain amount of forward dramatic tension going. I’m not sure the story could have withstood a more detailed labouring over the details of the formation of the gestalt, so that was good too.

All of this was enough for it to get the “I liked it” tag, but Sturgeon does bring one additional idea to the table that lifted it for me above “liked it”. (view spoiler)(less)

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Oct 02, 2008 Terence rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-fantasy

More Than Human is not an easy read. Theodore Sturgeon was never shy about pushing boundaries and trying to shake up a reader's comfortable little world.

The theme of the novel is certainly fascinating -- the emergence of a new human species - homo gestalt (though the ending and hints earlier in the book suggest we've always been it). But Sturgeon left me wanting more - it ended too soon and too patly.

I enjoyed it well enough and am interested in reading more of his work but I don't think I can r...more

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Aug 04, 2007 Kyle rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone

This book by far is one of my favorites. I read the middle chapter in a literature class and admired it. Once i found it was part of a whole book I picked it up and just fed right in on it. It has such a character of words and descriptors. And all along you get to read into the idea of being human, what our humanity means, and what people mean to each other. This book discusses the next step in human evolution. It takes these few characters each with their own minds, abilities, and curses and bi...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Palmyrah rated it 2 of 5 stars

One I missed back in the early Eighties when I was going through the classics of science fiction like a hot knife through butter. Maybe I'd have liked it better if I'd read it back then. Probably not.

It's an act of charity to call this SF at all. It's supposed to be about the emergence of a new species, but from an evolutionary point of view the emergence described could not possibly take place – the whole concept is ridiculously unscientific. The story does contain one authentic science-fiction...more One I missed back in the early Eighties when I was going through the classics of science fiction like a hot knife through butter. Maybe I'd have liked it better if I'd read it back then. Probably not.

It's an act of charity to call this SF at all. It's supposed to be about the emergence of a new species, but from an evolutionary point of view the emergence described could not possibly take place – the whole concept is ridiculously unscientific. The story does contain one authentic science-fictional device – an antigravity generator – but this has only peripheral relevance and the author doesn't even bother to make it credible. In fact, his account of how the thing is made and used positively insults the reader's intelligence.

The real story here is about a group of subnormal or disturbed young people with parapsychological powers. That's right, telepathy, telekinesis and so forth. Such mumbo-jumbo, good reader, makes up the 'scientific' content of this 'science fiction classic' – justified by one lame paragraph in which the author asserts that credible evidence for such things exists. It does? Show me.

Oh, all right then, never mind. Let's shove the 'science fiction' definition, then, and ask how this works as fantasy. I think the answer is: it probably works all right if you're a lonely, disturbed teenager who wants to believe your social ineptitude is a sign that you're different and special. Readers over the mental age of sixteen, however, are likely to find it all a bit infantile and pathetic.

The writing has moments of genuine quality, but Sturgeon tries too hard and is much too fond of the egregiously quirky metaphor or syntactical conceit to be able to write good prose consistently. The general structure of the novel is messy and contains several confusing chronological shifts, which seem to exist only because the author couldn't find a better way of telling the story. The consistent tone of juvenile anxiety is exhausting and, if you're a grown-up, tedious to a degree. As for the ending, it is irritatingly moralistic and even the genuine surprise at the end is spoiled by too much preaching.

So why was this ever a classic? I suspect the answer lies with those lonely, disturbed teenagers mentioned above. It spoke to them. It told them they were special – that maybe, just maybe, they were... more than human.

But they weren't special, and neither is this book.(less)

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Oct 02, 2012 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

MORE THAN HUMAN. (1953). Theodore Sturgeon. ****.
This early novel of science fiction was included in the Library of America’s recent publication of “American Science Fiction 1953-1956.” It contained no rocket ships or interplanetary travel, but focused on the future of mankind as it might be influenced by a strange combination of a unique set of forces represented by a collection of what we might call damaged individuals. The main characters in this tale include “a girl, two tongue-tied Negroes...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading "More than Human" felt like reading the Fountainhead in some ways. more on that when I post about that one. For now, though, we have Sturgeon and his text, which comes across as nothing so much as a resounding rejection of Rand.

The similarities begin, of course, with Lone. He, like Roark, puts people ill at ease. His chosen name sets him up as a Roark figure, alone against the world. His "idiocy" makes him unable to compromise, much as Roark chooses the same. He is an individual in the m...more Reading "More than Human" felt like reading the Fountainhead in some ways. more on that when I post about that one. For now, though, we have Sturgeon and his text, which comes across as nothing so much as a resounding rejection of Rand.

The similarities begin, of course, with Lone. He, like Roark, puts people ill at ease. His chosen name sets him up as a Roark figure, alone against the world. His "idiocy" makes him unable to compromise, much as Roark chooses the same. He is an individual in the most complete sense. His encounters with Miss Kew echo Roark's with Dominique. Sturgeon even has the same word-fixations: his "gestalt" is Rand's "bromide" and "altruism". While Sturgeon has some tricky passages of inner monologue, his language is mostly one of economy, much as Rand's evokes.

The difference, of course, is content. Nevermind that one is sci-fi and the other supposedly realist. The topic matter being so at odds is what really hammered home the possibility that the one could be response to the other. Sturgeon posits that some people have powers beyond normal (hence the title). With these powers combined (and thankfully decades before Captain Planet), they could be unstoppable. Much as Roark was unstoppable purely because he'd never have given up. Where Sturgeon digresses, though, is that in the end, he postulates that a moral and ethical code are the building blocks of humanity. Even an all powerful entity, ostensibly more than human, is less than human without a sense of right and wrong, and truly powerful only when they know how to justly wield the power. This isn't really a spoiler as such, despite ending the text, but it is an integral theory. We should work internally in groups that make us better than we would be alone, but without extrapolating that work to interact with and even, when possible, better humanity, we are nothing.

In our current culture here in America, this is nice to see affirmed.

Past this, Sturgeon paints an unsettling picture well. There's always a tension, a warped underbelly to the scenes, the way camera angles or lens filters can make a film shot look a bit eerier without being obvious. There is the sort of excitement we get from all "superhero" concepts, but also incredible pain expressed... these are sad histories that intersect. In that way it's exultant, hearing how the stories resolve into the bigger story of the book. The numerous narratives started a bit overwhelming, where there were too many threads without resolution, too many snippets of exposition that didn't seem related. As things linked, though, everything became clearer. the three different narrative styles for each "chapter" also added to the mystery. All in all a total worthwhile read.(less)

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Aug 01, 2011 Apatt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, sf-top-20

I love good short novels, more than good long ones (nobody likes bad novels at any length). The way I see it the reader gets so much more from each percentage of the book. For the amount of time put into reading the book it just seems more profitable to me. YMMV of course, long books have their own advantages.

I first read "More Than Human" decades ago, I clearly remember liking it very much. However, thanks to my sieve-like memory I have forgotten practically all the details about the book. I va...more

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Aug 01, 2010 Shirari Industries rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi

"More Than Human" is well-intentioned, but out-dated. Sturgeon fancies that the next step in human evolution will be multi-culti, but unfortunately he also envisions it as hierarchical, run by smart white men. The only two people of color are a set of identical twin African American girls who can only speak one or two words and who are always (for sci fi reasons of course) naked. When the white guy finishes using their (admittedly awesome) skills he says "beat it." I'm sure that at the time, thi...more

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Jun 20, 2010 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Tom, Jeff, Camille.

Recommended to Jeff by: James Gunn's Summer 2010 CSSF Intensive

Shelves: science-fiction

I'd heard that Sturgeon was a man of words, and a self-educated man, at that. More Than Human is the first book I've ever read by him. At first it was surprising and startling and odd, but his style and pace are easy enough to learn and then it became a book that couldn't be put down.

Sturgeon writes like a poet, thinks like a psychiatrist, and understands like a philosopher. "His clothes were many-windowed" (p.1). "he lived inside somewhere, apart, and the little link between word and significan...more

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Feb 08, 2009 Charlie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is, without a doubt one of my top ten all time favourite books. I'm not certain what all the other 9 are (though one is Bellweater and The Anubis Gates certainly figure), but this is certainly one of the ten. The story is complex and beautifully woven.

It is about a new form of human life, Homo gestalt, being born and coming to know itself. Homo gestalt is a being made up of several pieces. Each piece is a human with something missing and something extra. For example, the twins are the...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Ankush rated it 5 of 5 stars

"So it was that Lone came to know himself; and like the handful of people who have done so before him he found, at this pinnacle, the rugged foot of a mountain."

The main "plot" is about humanity, and what makes us human (or in this case, more than human - see what I did there, that's the title of the book.) The author's ideas about this topic are described in the context of a fairly complex plot, weaving in characters and events to create what eventually becomes a fairly impressive tapestry. But...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Ана Хелс rated it 5 of 5 stars

Повече от човешки е романът за следващата стъпка в еволюцията без видими физиологични, но с повече от видни емоционално-интелектуални изменения, подчинена на светата цел по създаването на същество от много форми, уж равнопоставени, но заменими пипалца на гигантско мекотело с мега терабайти мозък. И все пак в него няма нищо твърде извънземно техническо или нравоучително сухарско. Имаме шепа деца, препораснали без време, блъскани от живота и ограниченията на телата си, и все пак минали на следващи...more Повече от човешки е романът за следващата стъпка в еволюцията без видими физиологични, но с повече от видни емоционално-интелектуални изменения, подчинена на светата цел по създаването на същество от много форми, уж равнопоставени, но заменими пипалца на гигантско мекотело с мега терабайти мозък. И все пак в него няма нищо твърде извънземно техническо или нравоучително сухарско. Имаме шепа деца, препораснали без време, блъскани от живота и ограниченията на телата си, и все пак минали на следващия пласт от тортата на развитието на собствения си биологичен вид, далеч от фигурките на върха, но все пак не толкова близо до гравитацията на плужеците там долу. Наградата за допълнителното вдишване развитие са подаръчета от типа на телекинеза, телепатия, свръхлогика и божествено отегчение, разпределени неравноделно между участниците в хомо гещалт бъдещето на симбиотичната група, където самотата е споделено, а не индивидуално усещане. Но само моралът и етичният код на срама могат да обвържат в окови разпалващия се божествен гняв на детето с лупа пред големия мравуняк в ярък слънчев ден. Хуманизмът се разпростира до такива граници на понятието, че губи връзката на нашата логика и нещата стават толкова надчовешки, че почти божествени и неприемливи за научения на лесносмилаема храна съвременен мозък. Мащабността на текста е сравнима само с най-жестокото вселенско наказание на стопаджията, а именно да откриеш колко незначителен си на фона на целия живот. А от подобно осъзнаване милиони мозъчни клетчици ще умрат в писъци на очарование от собствената си анихилация.(less)

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Apr 06, 2012 Kian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf-masterworks

Wow, that was hard work - but worth every word. More Than Human explores a number of themes, but the primary thread running through the book is one of evolution and discovery. Split in to three chapters, each chapter covers a period of the story of a group of people coming together and discovering themselves, their abilities and the thing which encompasses them all, the Gestalt.

Steurgeon does not waste words, it is a truly amazing talent. This book does not make for easy reading - the language i...more

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Apr 08, 2011 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ok, I just finished More than Human by Sturgeon and I don't even know where to begin to describe this wonderful and challenging novel. Certainly not an easy read and I have yet to fully grasp all of its subtle complexities but this one of those literary works that demands to be read multiple times since Sturgeon layers a plethora of ideas and subtext that can be easily overlooked. Contradictorily, the novel is often full of sadness, despair, loneliness and is at times very twisted but somehow St...more Ok, I just finished More than Human by Sturgeon and I don't even know where to begin to describe this wonderful and challenging novel. Certainly not an easy read and I have yet to fully grasp all of its subtle complexities but this one of those literary works that demands to be read multiple times since Sturgeon layers a plethora of ideas and subtext that can be easily overlooked. Contradictorily, the novel is often full of sadness, despair, loneliness and is at times very twisted but somehow Sturgeon is able to convey such passion and beauty with his writing. I'll admit that the first part was a little dense and jarring. Then again, this cognitive estrangement is necessary for the overall arc of the story and upon further reflection, it makes more sense as the narrative progresses. However, I do think Sturgeon portrays the mental deficiencies and struggles that Lone encounters at the beginning of the novel in a deeply moving and effective way where it is difficult not to feel empathy for him. I found the second part with Gerry to be the most intriguing since this is where the novel kicks into high gear and we figure out just what the hell is going on. The formation of the human gestalt is a fascinating concept that Sturgeon explores in such a creative way during this section as the group begins to come together and realize their potential. I also really enjoyed the tender relationship between Janie and Barrows in the third part.

Although many sci-fi novels deal with the question of 'What does it mean to be Human?", Sturgeon approaches this concept in a very intriguing way. He seems to suggest that human beings are an evolutionary dead end even though consciousness sets us apart from other species. The human gestalt as the next step in human evolution carries both dystopian and utopian possibilities depending on one's perspective. I'm still trying to wrack my brain over this novel but suffice it to say, it was certainly unlike anything I have ever read before and I look forward to reading it again.(less)

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Apr 20, 2013 blake rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi-fantasy-horror

This is a book that takes place mostly inside the head of one of the various characters, between which it switches back and forth so many times that there isn't really a "protagonist" per se. It's also a book in which all of the little action takes place in extended flashbacks, and the rest of the goings-on are related in dialogue. In other words, it's almost completely "tell" and not "show," by far the most of any novel I've ever read. . . which is to say that all in all it was pretty slow. . ....more

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Feb 03, 2013 James rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Eight. eight, plate, state, hate. I ate from the plate of the state and I hate. I didn't like any of that and I snapped my eyes open. The ceiling was still gray. It was all right. Stern was somewhere behind me with his pipe, and he was all right. I took two deep breaths, three, and then let my eyes close. Eight. Eight years old. Eight, hate. Years, fears. Old, cold. Damn it! I twisted and twitched on the couch, trying to find a way to keep the cold out. I ate from the plate of the -
I grunted an...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Lesley rated it 3 of 5 stars

A few pages into this book, I wasn't sure if I was going to finish it. The descriptions of events were so abstract that I felt I had a poor grasp of the story and its characters. But I stuck with it, and the book really came into its own in the second act.

In particular, the entire section where one of the characters approaches a psychiatrist because he has killed someone is very compelling. We don't know who he has killed or why, and we have just enough familiarity with the characters to care t...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Derek Leedy added it

How have i missed this gem for so long? it isn't in the science fiction oeuvre proper... more of a metaphysical contemplation or extension of Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury... yes the writing and structure is very similar. I can say that some of the writing isn't as artful, but coming back to the story, it's amazing that it was written in 1952. It contains psychological terminology that is dated but not to the point of mumbo jumbo - which most psychological texts by nature become as they age....more

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Nov 22, 2012 Jose Vera rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

En este libro, Theodore Sturgeon nos plantea el nacimiento de una nueva especie, de ser humano, el Homo gestaltiensis. Un ser que es mucho más que la suma de sus partes; donde cada una de ellas es independiente pero disfuncional, hasta que estan todas juntas, "coengranadas".

A lo largo de tres historias Sturgeon nos muestra la génesis, desarrollo e inicio de la madurez de esta nueva especie que convive con seres humanos comunes y corrientes.

En la primera historia, "El idiota fabuloso" vemos el na...more En este libro, Theodore Sturgeon nos plantea el nacimiento de una nueva especie, de ser humano, el Homo gestaltiensis. Un ser que es mucho más que la suma de sus partes; donde cada una de ellas es independiente pero disfuncional, hasta que estan todas juntas, "coengranadas".

A lo largo de tres historias Sturgeon nos muestra la génesis, desarrollo e inicio de la madurez de esta nueva especie que convive con seres humanos comunes y corrientes.

En la primera historia, "El idiota fabuloso" vemos el nacimiento de esta nueva especie. Pero lo vemos de una manera fraccionada. Dentro de esta historia se desarrollan hasta cuatro historias paralelas, la de Lone, hombre mongoloide que llega a "despertar" y cobrar consciencia de quien es; la de Janie una precoz y telequinética niña; la de Bonnie y Beanie, dos niñas negras que se teletransportan y finalmente la del bebe, un ser que lo sabe todo, o eso parece ser. Es cuando estos personajes se unen en donde nace este hombre gestalt, este humano-más-que-humano. Pero aún es un bebé y se tiene que desarrollar.

En la segunda historia "El bebé tiene tres años" esta nueva entidad pasa de ser un bebe a convertirse en un adolescente resentido violento y egoísta; como cualquier adolescente normal; pero sin moral, sin rumbo; único en su especie y poderoso como él sólo.

La última parte se titula "Moral" y es, desde mi punto de vista, la mejor de las tres historias. Es aqui donde esta entidad sale de su juventud, de su adolescencia y llega a la madurez, adquiriendo un conocimiento que antes no tenía y que era imposible obtenerlo por el mismo, un código de ética particular. Tratada como una historia que se va develando poco a poco; estamos ante la prescencia de un individuo, Hip Barrows, se convierte en el foco principal de atención de esta entidad; en un primer lugar quiere destruirlo, luego se enfrenta a él pero es Barrows quien le puede dar lo único que ellos no pueden tener; moral,consciencia, capacidad de arrepentimiento y vergüenza.

El libro es interesante, escrito en 1953 está plagado de prejuicios típicos de la época. La idea es buena, el desarrollo adecuado; pero la manera en que esta escrito (o la traducción, no lo sé) han podido ser mucho mejores. (less)

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Mar 15, 2010 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Really feels quite like the standard 1950s standard sci-fi flavor. 'Leave it to Beaver' meets rocket ships (or in this case, antigravity generators). Even though this book had an interesting central theme of the emergence of Homo gestalt, this still felt like a pulp sci-fi book. Each section ends rather too neatly (just in time for Beaver to come in for supper!).

Another aspect which belies its age is the prevalence of parapsychology (I'm not even going to touch the technological aspects, which a...more

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Apr 04, 2009 Thermalsatsuma rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-a-week-2009

Lone is a fabulous idiot - a simple homeless man who realises that he has strange, telepathic powers. He draws to himself a collection of other individuals with similar abilities including Bonnie and Beanie, mute twins who can teleport, Janie - a telekinetic and finally Baby, the strangest of them all. Together they learn to "Blesh", to blend and mesh their abilities, to become a gestalt entity, something new, something more than human.

This is a superb book, probably one of the best science fict...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Allan Dyen-shapiro rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was recommended to me as one of the few SF novels worth reading from the 1950s. Boy, do I agree! Surprisingly modern. The concepts are Jungian--humanity evolves to a metaorganism--many humans functioning as one superman. Today, you'd call this novel paranormal--telekinesis, transportation through space, mind reading, etc.

The first chapter is especially beautiful prose--rich, gripping imagery and a trance-like state in describing "the Idiot"--a halfwit who is the first partner in this e...more

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Jun 11, 2013 Jacob rated it 4 of 5 stars

This has some really good ideas about how humans might evolve and what a large evolutionary step might be that would mean something very different for humans. It's more "literature" than lots of science fiction, which as far as I can tell means that parts are boring and hard to tell what is going on. In this case, it's because the writer is drawing out the big idea (a couple of times), which obviously could be done better since I noticed and got impatient. It's better done than Brandon Sanderson ...more

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Apr 10, 2011 Erik rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy-of-science-fiction

Science fiction classic novel about a super being coming together from several talented mutants. The book consists of three separate episodes Fabulous Idiot, Baby is Three, and Morality which describe the growth of the being from the separate individuals that make it up. What makes this novel a standout is certainly the idea but especially the quality of the writing. This is Sturgeon at his best, coming at the story from different angles in each episode and with a variety of voices to assemble a...more

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Jan 17, 2010 Addie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: wishlist

Not an easy read for me. Extremely well-written with incredibly brilliant concepts, but difficult to wrap my brain around completely. There were many passages that I had to reread three or four times. A fair bit of the narrative seemed to go over my head, and I have to admit that there were a few times that I thought maybe I was not smart enough to fully appreciate this book. But then, inevitably, everything would come to light and I came out of my confusion right alongside the characters.

Origin...more

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May 07, 2013 Linda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, audio

The book starts with Lone, the idiot, who is able, through his eyes, to get people to feed him. After a type of merging with a young girl, he gains some insight. His meeting with the young girl, however, ends badly. The young girl is dead, Lone is ripped to shreads by the father's whip, the father shoots himself, and the older daughter - Miss Q - is left alive but mentally damaged.

Lone, throught the efforts of a farmer and his wife, survives and begins to know himself. He encounters Janie and t...more The book starts with Lone, the idiot, who is able, through his eyes, to get people to feed him. After a type of merging with a young girl, he gains some insight. His meeting with the young girl, however, ends badly. The young girl is dead, Lone is ripped to shreads by the father's whip, the father shoots himself, and the older daughter - Miss Q - is left alive but mentally damaged.

Lone, throught the efforts of a farmer and his wife, survives and begins to know himself. He encounters Janie and the twins, who are telepathic and have other skills. When they beg for food, he first denies it, but then he remembers the farmer and his wife and they join him. Lone goes to help his farmer friend, only to find that disaster has struck. He ends up with the farmer's apparently mongoloid baby. Lone takes the baby home. It turns out that the baby is a brain with an answer for any question, but there is a communication problem. Only the twins can understand baby, until they teach Janie how to read his movements, which is good because, as they grow, the lose the ability to understand him. Lone struggles to figure out what they are. After enlisting the older sister to do research for him, he understands they are a human gestalt.

They have a need, however, for a better brain than his and one is located -- Gerald, a runaway from an orphanage. Things are pretty good for them until they lose a part. Those left find shelter and comfort and all is well for a few years, but then the comfort threatens the gestalt and steps are taken to remove the threat. Things settle down and life moves forward another few years until another threat arises. The threat is addressed but it disrupts the gestalt. Janie becomes the catalyst for effectuating a repair. She rescues Hip and eventually he fixes the disruption and becomes part of the gestalt.

The gestalt is the next step in human evolution. At first it seems the parts are merely castoffs from society, but the castoffs have skills that the members of society cannot see or fathom. And collectively, the gestalt is more powerful than society. The book, as well as being a good story, is thought provoking. It reminded me of some of Octavia Butler's books.

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Oct 30, 2012 Brian Berrett rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a story of a "new" species of humans. It is a story about growing and self discovery for this "new" human. It believes itself better than other humans and it also believes itself alone in the world. As such, it must learn to navigate itself through our world.

The concept is one I've not encountered before. This made the book refreshingly new. The book can be a bit confusing because Sturgeon uncovers it slowly, layer by layer. Have patients as you read it, the questions you have as you wo...more

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Jun 04, 2010 Sean Byrne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-masterworks, science-fiction

More Than Human is, as James Blish put it, "One of the very few authentic masterpieces science fiction can boast." It's well written and takes the reader on a marvellous journey of discovery.

As he predicts the next step of human evolution Theodore Sturgeon weaves a wonderful story of a collection of misfits (an idiot boy, a runaway, a severely retarded baby and twin girls with a very limited vocabulary) and how the sum of their parts overcomes the restrictions of their imperfections.

A remarkable...more

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Sep 29, 2012 Jessica Strider rated it 3 of 5 stars

Pros: parts 2 & 3 are brilliantly written with an interesting message, very diverse cast of characters

Cons: part 1 has several purposely obscure but important pieces of information, 1950s racial situations/terminology

Normally I write my own synopsis for books I review, but this book's quite complex so I've decided to grab one from the Indigo website instead:

From one of the greatest practitioners of science fiction comes a genre-bending novel that is as affectingly humane as it is speculativ...more Pros: parts 2 & 3 are brilliantly written with an interesting message, very diverse cast of characters

Cons: part 1 has several purposely obscure but important pieces of information, 1950s racial situations/terminology

Normally I write my own synopsis for books I review, but this book's quite complex so I've decided to grab one from the Indigo website instead:

From one of the greatest practitioners of science fiction comes a genre-bending novel that is as affectingly humane as it is speculatively daring.
There's Lone, who can make a man blow his own brains out just by looking at him. There's Janie, who moves things without touching them, and the unique power of the teleporting twins. There's Baby, who invented an antigravity engine while still in the cradle, and Gerry, who has everything it takes to run the world -- except for a conscience. Separately, they are talented freaks. Together they compose a single organism that may represent the next step in evolution. As the protagonist of More Than Human struggle to find out whether they are meant to help humanity or destroy it, Theodore Sturgeon explores the questions of power and morality, individuality and belonging, with sophistication and lyricism rarely seen in science fiction.

This is the kind of book that makes me question my 'if I'm not enjoying it, stop reading it' policy. The book is split into 3 parts, and I actively disliked part 1 while finding parts 2 and 3 brilliant. Had this not been a review book, I would have stopped reading in part 1, which would have been a shame. Part 1 introduces the decently large cast of very diverse characters including a mentally handicapped man, a baby that won't grow, two black girls, etc. It does this by jumping from person to person, often giving descriptions via characters who see the world... differently. Lone, for example, is mentally challenged and only towards the end of the section does he develop speech and anything close to a 'normal' understanding of events. But his scenes are still written in an understandable way.

The author, however, purposefully obscured certain events in this part of the book making the reader guess what's going on. By the time you understand the situation, you have to go back and reevaluate what's happened. For example, there's a father who has secluded himself and his two daughters on a piece of land. It's easy to assume from things in the text that he's sexually abusing his oldest daughter. Or maybe he's just beating her to drive out her sexual awakening. Or maybe nothing abusive is happening at all besides the girls being locked up. Even after finishing the book I'm not sure which it was, though later events make me assume it's the second scenario.

The first section is set-up for the rest of the book, and the characters the author spends so much time introducing aren't as active in the other two parts (they're mentioned and shown in flashbacks in part 2 and only one of them shows up for any length of time in part 3, with the others having bit parts).

Modern readers will find a few scenes uncomfortable as 1950s racial prejudice is portrayed, including period terminology.

Parts 2 and 3 have a lot more suspense and drive behind them. While I felt like putting part 1 down and not picking it back up, parts 2 and 3 had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. The writing was clear, linear and the author tantilized you with bits of the answer at a time.

The ending was great and worth pushing through the first section to get to. (less)

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Mar 20, 2010 Spencer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Incredible book in a number of ways.

From the first paragraph you will notice that the language sets this apart from most writing in the genre.

In addition, the premise and development of the story are so imaginative--this book is often categorized as science fiction, but that label is both too limiting and not quite on the mark. If it is science fiction, it is much more Ray Bradbury than Isaac Asimov--the imaginative explorations are all on the human side of the equation, rather than the techno...more

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About Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon (1918–1985) is considered one of the godfathers of contemporary science fiction and dark fantasy. The author of numerous acclaimed short stories and novels, among them the classics More Than Human, Venus Plus X, and To Marry Medusa, Sturgeon also wrote for television and holds among his credits two episodes of the original 1960s Star Trek series, for which he created the Vulcan m...more

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Quotes from More Than Human

“Just think about it," he said softly. "You can do practically anything. You can have practically everything. And none of it will keep you from being alone."
"Shut up shut up...Everybody's alone."
He nodded. "But some people learn how to live with it.” — 6 people liked it

“Ask Baby can you be truly part of someone you love."
"He says only if you love yourself.” — 4 people liked it

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