To Marry Medusa / includes: Killdozer!

by Theodore Sturgeon

From the star, from the cosmos, it came ... the Medusa, the galactic man of war, the hive-minded creature that was a billion creatures. It dropped its wrinkled spore into one man on Earth, through him expecting to conquer mankind ... to absorb into itself the strangely separate and stubborn creatures that called themselves men ...

Plus one of Sturgeon's finest short novels: KILLDOZER!

Genres: Science Fiction

251 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 1987

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

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sturgeon was one of the top writers from sf's Golden Age, though his works haven't had the staying power of some of his contemporaries. To Marry Medusa (which has also been published with the unfortunate title The Cosmic Rape) is one of Sturgeon's rare novels; he was much more accomplished and well known as a writer of short fiction. It's an interesting early examination of the idea of collective consciousness, told as series of disparate scenes that eventually tie together. The other story in this volume, Killdozer! (and let's not forget the exclamation point, thank you very much), is a novella from Astounding SF from World War II; it was one of my first favorite stories. It concerns a group of men building an airstrip on an isolated Pacific Island when one of their bulldozers becomes possessed by an evil alien intelligence. (They made a television film of it years ago that I loved as a kid when it first aired.) I think the writing has held up well, and the story is still a thriller.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. It's certainly no The Dreaming Jewels (and perhaps I'd better reread that one, in case it's just the rosy memory of youth colouring it so highly).

Reminded me of the Netflix series Sense8 which I didn't keep up with after the first three episodes because it felt like very little was happening (which would be okay, if only the little that was happening was interesting, lively, witty, etc.) There are vignettes from all over the world, with no sense that they're particularly connected (and they're not: any random person from anyone in the world would feature as much to the store as whomever was actually chosen).

There's a bit of a twist ending, but it's a "Hm, okay," kind of a twist, not a "Wow, really!" kind of a twist.

Started Killdozer, but it just kind of lay there, so didn't complete it.

More exciting books are out there.

[L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better and more imaginative than stuff written fifty years later.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hive intelligence tries to take over humanity is the first part of this book. It was just ok and would have been better served in a short story. The second novella - Killdozer - is about a bulldozer that suddenly acquires intelligence and starts attacking people.