A Touch of Strange

by E. Waldo

'Winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards, Theodore Sturgeon has established his reputation as one of the most original and provocative of SF writers.Here are nine masterpieces of imagination from the period of his finest creativity. Included are "The Pod in the Barrier", "The Other Celia", Affair with a Green Monkey", "The Touch of Your Hand", and more.The name of Theodore Sturgeon is a magic word in the field of science fiction and fantasy - and A TOUCH OF STRANGE is one of his most unforgettable collections.' [From back cover.]

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Collections

262 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of two novellas, three novelettes, and four short stories from genre digests Galaxy, Venture, and F & SF, as well as one that first appeared in Mike Shayne's Mystery Magazine. There are two from 1953, one from '58, and the rest all were published in 1957. Sturgeon was famous for creating compassionate characters, and while none of these stories are what I'd call his very best, they're full of engaging and emotional situations. My favorites are Affair with a Green Monkey, The Girl Had Guts (which has been suggested as an inspiration for the Alien franchise), and Mr. Costello, Hero.

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently I was lucky enough to find a handful of vintage Theodore Sturgeon collections at a used bookstore near my house. It's taken me some years and wisdom to appreciate Sturgeon's craft at creating a story, but I've finally come around. This collection contains seven stories, all from the 1950's. Standouts, for me, are "Mr. Costellor, Hero" about the politics of fear let loose, "Affair with a Green Monkey" sexual labels and an extra-terrestrial who needs to be shown how to behave like a man, "A Touch of Strange" lonely people find love among profane sirens and "The Other Celia" about a voyeur and his object of curiosity.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average rating: ~3-stars

Decent, enjoyable nine stories. Mostly 3-stars to all, except the last one that I found was the most interesting to me: "The Girl had Guts". 4.25 stars to that one.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this Sturgeon collection very much, cover to cover (more or less). Of the seven short stories contained within, I like six of them VERY much. I was especially wowed by "Mr. Costello, Hero," "The Touch of Your Hand," and "The Other Celia" -- but even the less than superb (in my estimation) stories in this book are full of charm and insight.

While none of the stories in "A Touch of Strange" are as humorous as "Derm Fool" or as full of pathos as "Die, Maestro, Die" (from two other collections), the author's trademark humor (irony, esp.) is often at work, and the plight of various characters is genuinely moving... even surprisingly so.

Only "It Opens the Sky" failed to keep me riveted... and I'm not sure why (one description in the story, concerning the properties of a dangerous drug, actually seemed a bit amateurish or silly, to me -- a very rare experience in reading this author). And still, there was much in the story that I found at least interesting.

Overall, though, I really admire the originality of Sturgeon's stories, his values (freedom, compassion, love), his prose, descriptions, and metaphors, and, generally, the masterful way his character-rich tales unfold, like watching a photograph slowly develop in its chemical bath (yes, I'm that old). At first, you're not even sure of the "picture's" proper orientation, but you're spellbound as the details, shapes, and colors sharpen until they are fully realized... and the final image is almost always extraordinarily rewarding... especially if you allow yourself some time to reflect on the mysteries and subtleties of these tales... or, in some cases, wait long enough for the joke/zinger to sink in.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was once told that one of the secrets to good writing is for a writer to give you all the details you need to know to understand why characters take the actions they do. Theodore Sturgeon is very meticulous in this way and I enjoyed most of these stories. In the case of the lone exception, the story was well written, but featured one of those protagonists you don't enjoy spending time with. I was pleased to read this sampling of stories by one of science fiction's great writers.

[Carol Tensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading A Touch of Strange, I can see why Bradbury and Vonnegut looked up to Sturgeon. His stories are wonderfully original. The characters in "A Touch of Strange" have contact with mythological beings, then the story takes a turn back to the ordinary, and knocks our socks off. Sturgeon was fascinated with morality and amorality; he uses Angel/Policemen to deal with this theme in "It Opens Up the Sky". "Affair With a Green Monkey" would have been a shining addition to The Fiend, Playboy's Magazine's Sci-fi collection. "The Other Celia", with its voyeuristic meddler, reminds me of "The Man Upstairs" from Bradbury's October Country. I particularly liked "A Crime for Llewellyn", an ironic tale about a man who wants to go astray but can't seem to make it happen for himself. All in all, a very satisfying collection.

(My 1958 edition was missing "A Pod in the Barrier ", "The Girl Had Guts", and pieces of its cover, which kept flaking off in my purse.)

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Touch of Strange is a collection of 9 short stories by Theodore Sturgeon. This is my first attempt at reading Sturgeon's unique brand of science fiction. It did take me a bit to get used to his writing style, but as I read through the stories, I enjoyed them more and more. Some had nice positive endings, some somewhat confusing endings and The Girl Had Guts was quite scary, reminding me a bit of Aliens. The title story, A Touch of Strange was just as the title states, strange. This book was originally published in 1958 and it's worth trying out if you are interested in Science Fiction. I will check out more of his work.

[Rod · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say? I'm a sucker for Sturgeon. Some of his stories can seem (and are) a bit corny at first and from this vantage point, and yet there is "a touch of strange" that lingers with the reader long after the details are forgotten; an opening to the mystery that undergirds human relationships and life in general. This collection has the story ("The Girl Had Guts") that purportedly supplied some of the inspiration for the movie, "Alien".

[Benjamin Hahs · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF - Maybe I'm just stupid but The Touch of Your Hand was so incomprehensible that I had to put the book down.

[CraftyCat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m beginning to really like Theodore Sturgeon. I enjoyed More Than Human a while back and it had a number of themes in it that were rather progressive, and what I’ve read of his just seems to be very sensitive in general. This collection of short science fiction stories was much more uplifting than I thought it would be. So much of the sci-fi I read on a regular basis is very cynical in nature, and although these stories had some cynicism in them at times, that was not the overall theme of the work. Many of these will stick with me for a while, I think. In fact one of the pieces towards the end, “The Pod in the Barrier,” actually brought me to tears, which isn’t something that happens at all, really. Sturgeon seemed to have this talent for showing a very kind eye towards people while describing their plight through the eyes of someone who is incapable of understanding what they’re going through. You can sit there and hate the narrator for being an absolute idiot, and see what’s really going on in spite of the way they filter it through his or her lens.

The first piece in this book straight up surprised me--it’s a classic tale of corruption and subtle economic takeover, told by a complete idiot who has no idea of what’s going on. I expected a terrible ending, as that seems to be the norm for these types of stories, so I was shocked when it ended with the antagonist being thrown (kindly, mind you) into an asylum. It ends with a poignant scene of him talking to insects, completely unaware of how crazy he is. It's an image I still think back to from time to time.

In many of the stories the final reveal is a little unfair--Sturgeon hides information from us in order to keep us on the hook. I usually find this annoying and cheap, but these stories are so good that I didn’t mind at all. One of the stories that is really guilty of this concerns a man who lives among telepaths and has had his telepathic abilities taken from him, unbeknownst to us until the end, and grows into someone quite hateful. It almost seems cruel the way he ends up, but the overall message of the story is that cruelty is not normal, and this is so refreshing to find in any genre. Many of the underlying messages here are similar--abuse is not normal, cruelty is an aberration--and these are not utopian societies by any means. Too many authors seem to think that the only way to depict an end to this wrongness is to make everyone perfect, but that is not realistic.

I’m glad I read this one. I will need to seek out more by this author in the future, but I will have a lot to think about in the meantime.

[Chris Aldridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains the Mindwebs audiobook 40 story “Affair with a Green Monkey”. Weird tale of a well meaning redneck and his wife. After he rescues a stranger from a mob, he finds his infallible intuition about human nature was misplaced. His supreme confidence in his own abilities (like a certain orange skinned self proclaimed genius I could do without) leads him to reveal the horror of his true nature and his wife’s epiphany sends him scuttling away from self awareness to lick his wounds. Excellent allegory - all about bigots.

(For the conspiracy theorists....was the Green Monkey a coincidental reference to the now discredited theories that AIDS was either transferred from African Green monkeys (as opposed to chimps) to humans ...or created by the CIA/FBI in Washington to reduce the incidence of gays and junkies ? As this was written in 1978 and AIDS appeared in New York in 1981 it’s unlikely. )

[Earl Truss · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have you ever had the experience while reading something that it appears to be written in English (if that's your native language but you don't understand what it means? I got that feeling while reading The Touch of Your Hand in this book. I just did not understand what was happening. Some of the other stories were just weird but I enjoyed them, especially A Crime for Llewwellyn.

[Gary Daly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads Review, ‘A Touch of Strange’ by Theodore Sturgeon.

Fantastic collection of science fiction short stories from the Hugo and Nebuka Award Winner, Theodore Sturgeon. Breezy and fun read. Loved the old school raw language expression. Reading in the original published style is for me one of my joys. To read stories without a thought for ‘offence’. I find d it a breath of fresh air to read science fiction that does not rely on a ‘climate crisis’ or a ‘diversity of characters’ (which does not mean the stories are homogeneous, they aren’t) in order to tell a story. I read this great collection for pure entertainment and I was not disappointed. Read through in one sitting (with breaks) overnight. Page turning science fiction fun. Loved it. Found free at Midway Garden Library, Denistone East. Will return to the suburban book mix! Enjoy.

[EmBe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was ich zu "Tausend Schiffe am Himmel" geschrieben habe, gilt auch für die Kurzgeschichten in diesem Band. Hinzu kommt Unerwartetes, Fantasy. In einer Story kommt es zu einer Begegnung mit dem Meervolk, mit einer erotischen Komponente. Eine weitere Story ist mir noch in Erinnerung: Ein Außerirdischer gelangt auf die Erde, und wird von einem Mann vor Halbstarken gerettet, die ihn wegen seiner nicht ganz menschlichen Gestalt attackieren.
Und nicht zu vergessen, dieses TB hat ein Cover von Jürgen F. Rogner. Dessen Stil gefällt mir heute immer noch.

[Emmalyn Renato · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another from my physical TBR pile. A collection of short stories that were first published in the 1950's. Again, a bit of a mixed bag; some good and some just okay. The one that stuck with me though was 'The Other Celia' and apparently I'd read it somewhere before, as I instantly remembered it when the MC lifted the box of paper out of the suitcase under the bed.

[Mayte Razo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read quite a handful of Sturgeon's work and I must say, his writing still continues to surprise me. Although, these stories aren't as nearly wonderful as the previous ones I've read, they're still incredibly interesting. These are the type of stories in which you would simply stare into a blank wall.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded to 4. Yeah, there are some strange stories in here all right. It was mostly pretty enjoyable, although "The Other Celia" and "The Girl's Got Guts" are on the gross end.

I borrowed this from the Internet Archive, because the 48 libraries in our system didn't have it and a used copy seems to start around $26. Read for the Among Others bibliography.

[Rita Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of nine stories contains some of the most original SciFi writing I've ever encountered. My two favorites were "The Girl Had Guts" and "The Other Celia." Definitely need to read more Theodore Sturgeon.

[Gary Meades · Rating 3 out of 5]

A difficult one to review as I really liked some of the stories in the collection (The Girl Had Guts and The Pod in the Barrier were standouts for me) and I found some of the others less engaging. As always with Sturgeon though, full of interesting ideas and well worth a look.

[D A Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Mr. Costello, Hero" -- incredible

[Augusto Delgado · Rating 4 out of 5]

This edition, apparently a cheap popular one, has two stories fewer than the normal one.
Anyway, the remaining tales have a wide range, following the incomparable mind of the author, from fantasy, absurdness, space opera and weird, really weird plot twists.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's a photo of Theodore Sturgeon (and friend), one of the Grand Masters of Sci Fi (according to my mind, anyway.)



His imagination was prodigious, but he did center his stories around people instead of "special effects" like alien worlds or space travel. He has dozens (is seems) of anthologies out just devoted to his short stories. A Touch of Strange is not one of his best, but still good enough for someone wanting to read sci fi or just creepy stories in general.

This collection is bookended by the best stories, including "The Girl Had Guts" which is not what it sounds like and IS what it sounds like all at once. Although I am in no way as good a writer as Sturgeon, this was the story of his that I most wished I had written.



The stories in the middle are a bizarre lot. One is a long pot-boiler of an alien society so strange that I just couldn't figure out why everyone was so upset. Another is a weird (and unfortunately, predictable) look at mer-people messing up the lives of human beings. One story, "The Pod in the Barrier" can be found in other Theodore Sturgeon anthologies.

The story that I can't get out of my head is "A Crime for Llewellyn" which is about an autistic or retarded man who cannot for the life of him (and others around him) commit a crime. This was one of the scariest stories I ever read because I think we can all identify with Llewellyn at some level, whether we want to or not.



I recommend reading this a little at a time. Too much Sturgeon at once can be overwhelming. I stuck mine in my purse to read during long lines or sitting in waiting rooms.

[Zantaeus Glom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first exposure to the wonderful phantasmagoria of Theodore Sturgeon and it most certainly won't be my last. In fact, as son as I finished reading it I ordered a copy of 'E Pluribus Unicorn'. I don't think it's an exaggeration to state that Mr. Sturgeon is one of the finest practitioners of fantastic fiction; he has the ability to captivate you immediately by dint of his agile, beautiful prose, and then take you on a truly magical etheric-exodus to worlds of meta-mystic strangeness.

The man's voice is utterly unique in fantasy fiction. A passionate, philosophic scrivener whose demonstrative wit, patent humanity adds considerable warm, not to mention pathos, to these extraordinary, idiosyncratic tales of distant, galactic climes and bizarre anthropoids with entirely singular sleeping rites! Heady, psychedelic, pan-cosmic yarns replete with wild, brain-freezing concepts that are unearthly, and, yet, paradoxically; it all seem to be entirely feasible; this, due in no small part to the author's vast, incendiary imagination and total mastery of the form.

'A Touch of Strange' is a glorious achievement, and I certainly look forward to re-reading many of these magnificent tales over the pending years; and I am genuinely thrilled by the prospect of unearthing everything Theodore Sturgeon has written. No matter what type of literature you might prefer, Theodore Sturgeon is a must-read; even if you abhor the giddy realms of sci-fi, fantasy, macabre fiction, 'A touch of Strange' is worth your time. (And I can imagine many, like me, will become wholly beguiled by it all!)

Many of these stories are genuine classics, but the bravura 'oddness' of 'The Other Celia' and 'She had guts' will remain with me for all time. To be fair, five stars is a paltry figure for such an effervescing canopy of celestial prose.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

VOTO COMPLESSIVO:3,8

Interessante raccolta di racconti dalla penna di Theodore Sturgeon.
È la prima volta che mi capita di leggere qualcosa di quest'autore, e l'impressione suscitatami dai suoi racconti è stata più che positiva.
Si mette subito in evidenza l'abilità dell'autore nel trattare temi complessi e spinosi come la diversità, intesa in tutte le accezioni possibili, l'irrazionalità di alcune azioni e il cammino di espiazione che si intraprende nella speranza di rimediare ad esse, nonché l'introspezione e la vocazione che caratterizza ciascun essere umano, nel bene e nel male.

Tutti i racconti affrontano, nelle diverse chiavi di lettura che offrono la fantascienza classica e il racconto fantastico (se si esclude Un Peccato per Llewellyn, che, pur indagando un lato paradossale della psiche umana, non possiamo non classificare come puro divertissement dall'ambientazione ordinaria), uno o più dei precedenti temi citati, con uno stile di scrittura semplice, asciutto ma, allo stesso tempo, coinvolgente e pieno di contenuto.

I racconti che più mi hanno convinto sono:

La Chiave Del Cielo

Amore Con Una Scimmia Verde (che al giorno d'oggi farebbe impallidire la comunità gay ma, contestualizzandolo nell'anno di pubblicazione, ovvero il 1957, lo si può considerare purtroppo come "figlio dei suoi tempi".Beninteso, l'autore non esplicita né tantomeno lascia intendere qualsiasi presa di posizione omofobica, semplicemente nel racconto viene considerato normale "l'occupazione" di uno dei protagonisti, che tra l'altro nella vicenda narrata assume anche il ruolo dell'idiota della situazione!)

Il Signor Costello, Eroe ( quello che ho senza dubbio preferito)

Un Peccato per Llewellyn

Il Tocco Della Tua Mano ( davvero interessante e magistrale nello svolgimento).

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories written between 1953 and 1958, mostly science fiction, with a bit of fantasy, and one straight-up crime story. A lot of these stories buck the great man/great technology narratives popular at the time, which is interesting, and they seem to be groping for a modern progressive view on a lot of issues that they can’t seem to reach from the perspective of the era they were written in.

[Devowasright · Rating 4 out of 5]

reminds me much of the alfred hitchock presents magazines i read as a wee lad. some twilight zone-ish careful-what-you-wish-for type stories, but the last few were works of incredible imagination. loved it.


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[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

First work of Sturgeon’s that disappointed me. It’s rare to find a collection of short stories without one compelling entry, especially from such a world class author, but here it is, a blah collection of blah stories by Sturgeon.

[colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

read 05.20.84

[Brett]

Science Fiction

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Touch of Strange
Sturgeon, Theodore
3
a 1970ist science fiction story talking about recent theology in travel and time and relatively