Case and the Dreamer

The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon #13

by Theodore Sturgeon, Noel Sturgeon (Editor), Peter S. Beagle (Foreword)

James Blish called him the “finest conscious artist science fiction ever produced.” Kurt Vonnegut based the famous character Kilgore Trout on him. And such luminaries as Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, and Octavia Butler have hailed him as a mentor. Theodore Sturgeon was both a popular favorite and a writer’s writer, carving out a singular place in the literary landscape based on his masterful wordplay, conceptual daring, and narrative drive. Sturgeon’s sardonic sensibility and his skill at interweaving important social issues such as sex—including gay themes—and war into his stories are evident in all of his work, regardless of genre.

Case and the Dreamer displays Sturgeon’s gifts at their peak. The book brings together his last stories, written between 1972 and 1983. They include “The Country of Afterward,” a sexually explicit story Sturgeon had been unable to write earlier in his career, and the title story, about an encounter with a transpatial being that is also a meditation on love. Several previously unpublished stories are included, as well as his final one, “Grizzly,” a poignant take on the lung disease that killed him two years later. Noted critic and anthologist Paul Williams contextualizes Sturgeon as both man and artist in an illuminating afterword, and the book includes an index to the stories in all thirteen volumes.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Speculative Fiction, Collections

401 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2010

About the author

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 mating ritual and the expression "Live long and prosper." He is also credited as the inspiration for Kurt Vonnegut's recurring fictional character Kilgore Trout.

Sturgeon is the recipient of the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the International Fantasy Award. In 2000, he was posthumously honored with a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement.

Reviews

[Kalin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful, diverse collection which squashed my fears that Sturgeon's juices might have run dry toward the end of his literary path.

Now, where can this metaphor have come from ....

Find out here ;):

https://choveshkata.net/forum/viewtop...

[Michael Battaglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

And so we come to the end. Thirteen volumes in about sixteen years containing every single known short story Theodore Sturgeon ever published. For people who were following this series from the beginning and reading each volume each year as it came out it must have felt like growing up again with Sturgeon's writing, from his first embryonic efforts to the hit after brilliant hit he could churn out seemingly effortlessly until he finally started to write like a mere mortal and gave us stories that weren't masterpieces but still had elements of the old sparks. But throughout all that, he never turned out an outright dud and never gave us anything less than sincerity. He meant every word he wrote and every character, whether hero or villain, alien or human came from a place that could be understood, with their own hopes and fears, their loneliness and joy. Very few of his stories ever seemed labored even though he spent quite a bit thinking about them before finally writing them and with the pace of these volumes you feel like he could have gone forever. Only reading the publication dates do you realize just how difficult it was for him at times. This volume covers about twenty stories in ten years, not a great turnout for someone attempting to make a living off it but for Sturgeon probably a feverish pace at this point in his life.

Sadly, the project's completion probably went unnoticed by its founding father, Paul Williams, who by the end was suffering from Alzheimer's induced by an accident and unable to continue with the last couple volumes. Sturgeon's daughter Noel takes over the notations and organization, but intelligently allows Williams to have the last word via an essay written years ago about a man the editor loved as both author and friend. Its highly personal, detailing both Williams' relationship with Sturgeon's writing and depicting Sturgeon's struggles throughout his career with both sympathy and humor while still being honest enough to point out the places where the author didn't help his own cause. The fact that the project exists at all is probably due to Williams and while it's a tragedy that he wasn't able to see it through the conclusion he perhaps was able to take some comfort in being able to fulfill one of Sturgeon's wishes to see all his work over the years collected in one place.

So where did his writing efforts take him toward the end of his life. Not strictly toward SF as he seemed to become more interested in detailing situations between people, turning situations around and around to see what he could come up with. This doesn't always yield super-memorable results (I find "Tuesdays Are Worse" to be almost leaning toward the trite end of things, while stuff like "Seasoning" and "Black Moccasins" don't overstay their welcome but don't really linger in the mind either) even when he tries to spice it with some light SF or fantasy elements ("The Singsong of Cecily Snow", "Agnes, Accent and Access", the latter at least giving us an interesting futuristic invention with a resolution that's vaguely "oh, ha-ha") it isn't enough to take a decent idea and send it into the stratosphere. Sometimes in stuff like "Blue Butter" his concern for the direction the world is heading environmentally almost overwhelms the story although the premise of "Not an Affair" does liven things up slightly even as it risks an "awww" ending (although the rant about side effects seems to ignore basic pharmacology but I only picked up on that because of my profession).

For those who like things a bit more salacious, we have a couple examples of Sturgeon's more . . . explicit writing ("The Country of Afterward", which stretches belief even before the free love starts, and "The Trick") that pretty much prove that he was better off sticking with SF since his sexy writing (surprisingly, for some guy who apparently walked around in the nude an awful lot at home) leave a lot to be desired. Its one of the few times his gift for words and description nearly fails him.

But for most people they'll be searching for the SF tidbits, curious to see what he could pull out at the end of his life. And he does manage some nice ones. "Case and the Dreamer" titles the collection and is quite fine, using its future setting to explore the nature of love in a way that brings back in some small way that nagging ache Sturgeon could once do so well. Meanwhile, "Why Dolphins Don't Bite" (almost the collection title, or at least announced as such in the last volume) is one of his better efforts with aliens, a romp featuring humans trying to understand aliens who might understand people a little too well, offering up a scope and vision that's rare in these last efforts, giving us a bout of his playful seriousness one last time.

As for the rest, its a mixed bag. Another Western, some very short stories that didn't leave much of an impression on me, a couple SF tales or tales with vague SF elements and a twist at the end (I do like the way he tells "Vengeance Is", however) and then finally, somewhat chillingly, "Grizzly". As a final statement, it isn't really one, mostly two people sitting around and chatting but its descriptions of someone suffering from deterioration of the lungs becomes even more tragic when you realize that Sturgeon was describing what his own life had become and even if he didn't fully believe he was doomed yet, he had to know how the end would come when the time came. It's not as visceral an experience as "The Man Who Lost the Sea" (which at that point wasn't written from life, at least not that aspect of it) but coming in last it can't help but give the reader who understands the context some pause, at least for the moment.

It's the last, of course, and maybe not the grand finale anyone might have been expecting to a long career, but after all these great stories, who says he ever owes us one? Given his lifelong struggle with writer's block, its possible he was convinced that every story he wrote would be his last one because who knew when inspiration would strike again. Indeed, the saddest thing I find regarding "Grizzly" is the publication date of 1983, a full two years before he died. We like to imagine all our writing heroes dying with pen still clutched in hand or slumped over a typewriter, still channeling that inspiration even to the final minutes. But sometimes that isn't the case and maybe we can't ever know if he ever reached a point where he put the pen down and said, "That's it, I'm done, no more" (if his daughter was privy to that moment, she doesn't say) and simply decided to enjoy what remained of his life without having to worry about the nagging voices in his head begging to be written down. Maybe he died thinking of all the tales left to write. Maybe he was relieved that he didn't have to deal blank sheets of paper anymore. We can't ever truly know. All we can know is this, from the late thirties to the eighties one man gave us an entire bookshelf worth of stories that demanded we think, that made us ache and cry and feel no matter where it was set, no matter who the characters were. Sturgeon was good enough to be a lot of things in his life (and was) and the fact that he chose to be a writer, to devote all those hours of sweat and struggle even when it was easier to do probably almost anything else that resulted in giving us these stories to enjoy is enough reason to wish he was still here today, still writing or not, so we could thank him personally. Its quite possible he's the finest short story writer American SF has ever and will ever produce and this series makes the case that he was perhaps one of the top American short story writers ever. If anyone deserved thirteen volumes commanding a large chunk of real estate on their bookshelf, its him and if there's any justice in the world (or literature) his name will still be remembered and more importantly, his stories will still be read long after the rest of us are gone.

[Williwaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent a bundle collecting first editions of this 13-volume set of Sturgeon's short stories. I have not been reading them systematically from start to finish. Instead, I'm somewhat randomly poking through the set. Perhaps some day, I'll try to read every story.

So far, I'm amazed at Sturgeon's story-telling talent. Among his best known and most admired stories are: "The Man Who Lost the Sea," "And Now for the News," "Microcosmic God," "Killdozer," and "The Graveyard Reader."

Sturgeon is widely acknowledged as one of the best science fiction/fantasy writers of all time. This series will, I hope, give him a larger audience.

Inexpensive paperback editions of these books are available on Amazon, ABE, Alibris, etc. Other short story collections are readily available as well, even though they are all out of print.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

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What can I say ?
It's Sturgeon ( or Trout, for those in the know )

If you've never read Sturgeon (and you must) this is as good a place to start as any. If you have and you've always hungered for more (like me) it's a joy to find some unread stuff