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b00knrd's review
2.0
I’m not really sure what I just finished. Was not into this book at all. I felt t was all over the place. I had a difficult time understanding what in the world was happening.
kitsuneheart's review against another edition
2.0
Definitely a book that couldn't get published, nowadays. It's just ableism, run rampant.
Sturgeon's story posits "Homo Gestalt." A single organism spread across multiple bodies. But in order for such an organism to exist, each portion must have severe limitations and disabilities. And the end result is a notion that these portions, these people, are less than whole. It's supposed to be seen as a "next stage in evolution," but it's just a big step back in morality.
The narrator did fine. But the text itself...ugh. I listened to this because it's in one of my classic sci-fi anthologies, "Science Fiction Argosy," but now regret that. This isn't just skippable, it's ADVISABLE to skip.
Sturgeon's story posits "Homo Gestalt." A single organism spread across multiple bodies. But in order for such an organism to exist, each portion must have severe limitations and disabilities. And the end result is a notion that these portions, these people, are less than whole. It's supposed to be seen as a "next stage in evolution," but it's just a big step back in morality.
The narrator did fine. But the text itself...ugh. I listened to this because it's in one of my classic sci-fi anthologies, "Science Fiction Argosy," but now regret that. This isn't just skippable, it's ADVISABLE to skip.
joshtenet's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
drtone's review against another edition
4.0
Hard to put this one into words. To say I was confused through the entire first half would be an understatement, but that echoes the story completely. None of the characters really know what is happening either. Once I finished the book though, the experience was quite powerful. Very fever dream-esque for me. Great book but not for everyone maybe.
kevin_shepherd's review
5.0
Classic Sci-Fi from one of the Godfathers of the genre. Sturgeon’s tale of an assemblage of misfits, each with a special skill, coming together to perform as a single organism [“Homo gestalt”] is both dark and strangely uplifting. I’m not really a connoisseur of fiction but occasionally, from time to time, I stumble upon a hidden gem or an underrated opus. This might be one of those times.
cosmicrusalka's review
1.0
I quit reading it pretty shortly into it. It's just to dated for me and everything feels very scattered. I normally like collections of short stories, but this one just didn't capture me.
andrejt's review
3.0
A darker, deeper, more grandiose predecessor of Sense8. Composed of several interconnected episodes that range in quality: I almost put the book down as a disappointment after the first 30 pages or so, started to enjoy it much more somewhere in the middle, and loved the end.
kit_kate's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
deegee24's review
4.0
Imagine if the X-Men were created 10 years earlier by an author who wrote like a modernist and had more than a superficial understanding of how psychoanalysis is actually practiced. Very few science fiction stories even bother with character development and personal relationships, but they are at the Sturgeon's first novel. Yet there's still plenty of science and sci-fi elements here--the narrative centers around a gestalt being of six persons, a further evolution of homo sapiens. Each person has a superpower such as telekinesis or telepathy, and each is bound to one another like the head and limbs of a single body. Sturgeon shifts points of view and witholds important plot points until the end, so you must read attentively. But those who do so will be richly rewarded. I think the third part of the book is not quite as successfully executed as the first two, but the book still came to a satisfying conclusion.