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More Than Human | 
 enlarge | Author: Theodore Sturgeon
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $3.60
You Save: $9.35 (72%)
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Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 46573
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Vintage Books Ed
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 0375703713
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780375703713
ASIN: 0375703713
Publication Date: December 29, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Clean text. Ship within 24 hours. Quality packaging & email notification.
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Product Description
First published in 1953, this most celebrated of Sturgeon's works won the International Fantasy Award, as has been touted as "a masterpiece of provocative storytelling" (The Herald Tribune). A group of remarkable social outcasts band together for survival and discover their combined powers renders them superhuman.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 37 more reviews...
 More allegory than science fiction July 23, 2008
David F. Nolan (Tucson, AZ United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"More Than Human" is a strange book indeed, filled with evocative prose and provocative ideas. It is a stretch to call this book science fiction, but that's where it's usually classified because it deals with "supernatural" phenomena and contains technology-based plot developments. But it's really a book about the human condition, especially at the edges of humanity. There's no other work quite like it; imagine a bizarre version of Catcher In The Rye with an idiot-savant Norman Bates as the central character, and you'll have a vague idea... but even that's not really close. I'd give this 4.5 stars if that were possible on Amazon.
 Wow! This is what really good books are like November 21, 2007
RPK (USA)
This book is mind blowing. I really have never read anything like it which is a very good honor for a science fiction book. Oh I am sure there are plenty of hack novels with characters that have superpowers out there. However, this book is written magnificently. THAT IS THE KEY. Great prose + great ideas + great plot = great book.
Warning for potential readers:
This is book with substance. Like a fine wine, it will be enjoyed more thoroughly by more sophisticated readers. Just an FYI, as some people prefer more simple story structures.
Super Reader August 31, 2007
Blue Tyson
I was pretty amazed the first time I came across this book. It is structured in 3 parts - novellas/novelettes, or what have you.
The basic premise is that Homo Gestalt is coming. Children that develop and relate to people differently than Homo Sapiens. The characters here included a telepath, a telekinetic, a couple of teleporters, and an infant genius.
Broadly speaking, the first part, as you would expect, is about their coming to be, the second, exploring what they are going to do, and the third, more about their influence on society.
It is rather more hopeful than the feared and hunted X-Men type milieu.
 More than dated... January 25, 2007
Samuel C. Rifkin (Santa Barbara, CA United States)
5 out of 14 found this review helpful
More Than Human is one of those books that has garnered high praise from the science fiction community because of its strong prose and original ideas.
The writing is often compared to that of Faulkner but I wouldn't make that connection having read a few of Faulkner's works. Sturgeon uses many of Faulkner's narrative trademarks (i.e. streaming conscious, first person perspective of low IQ individuals, disorienting changes in first person narrative) but I didn't feel the net effect really compared to say something like As I Lay Dying.
I love science fiction books and the readers in general love the genre which is why they want it to be taken seriously. This results in undue adulation and comparisons to mainstream books. More Than Human is slow, dated and not what I would describe as genre transcending nor would I recommend it to others. So the idea might of been original in the 50's but topics like telekenesis, ESP, computer-brain babies, and self produced morality and ethos have all been tackled more successfully in other science fiction classics before (Asimov) and since. This book rarely set off that wow! button in my head or kept me turning pages. This book simply did not have enough meat in it to make it anything more than mediocre at best.
In 1953 there were 5 Hugo Award nominees for best science fiction book (Determined in a retro hugo award ballot in 2004) The Retro Hugo awards are fascinating because the voting (in this example) takes place 50 years later so the impact of the book on society can't really be ignored. Besides More Than Human, the far superior The Caves Of Steel, Childhood's End, and Farenheit 451 were among the other entries in a banner year for classic sci-fi. Needless to say, More Than Human did not win (Farenheit 451 did and rightfully so)
Bottom Line: I wanted to like this book and it doesn't surprise me that others give it such high praise. These are probably people that don't read other genres enjoy congratulatory wankfests!
Very Good - Great, maybe. September 24, 2006
CV Rick (Minneapolis, MN, USA)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
The next step in human evolution will be small groups of people with complementary talents in ESP ranges. A truly visionary book written fifty years ago. It was a good read, but slow in parts.
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