2011 Reading #60: The Perfect Host: Volume V: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon
Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
51. What I Didn't See and Other Stories by Karen Joy Fowler.
52. Thunder and Roses: Volume IV: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon.
53. Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler.
54. Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison.
55. Angela Davis: An Autobiography.
56. Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin.
57. Shadow Man by Melissa Scott.
58. The Dead Girls by Jorge Ibargüengoitia.
59. Couch by Benjamin Parzybok.
60. The Perfect Host: Volume V: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. This volume covers late 1947 through 1949. One of the things that I love about Sturgeon is his openings, like this one, to "One Foot and the Grave": "I was out in Fulgey Wood trying to find out what had happened to my foot, and I all but walked on her. Claire, I mean. Not Luana. You wouldn't catch Luana rolled up in a nylon sleeping bag, a moonbeam bright on her face." Actually, his beginnings remind me of the way a lot of "Farscape" episodes just hurl you into the middle of a story with no explanation and then trust that you will catch up. One of the things I like less about Sturgeon is that he is sometimes excessively clever; sometimes his stories become about themselves and the idiosyncratic worlds or ideas that they are built on rather than about anything that I actually care about. "What Dead Men Tell" is a good example of this. There are some great stories here, though; the title story is creepy, with a meaty metafictional element, and "Die, Maestro, Die!" and "The Dark Goddess" are excellent non-SF tales.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
51. What I Didn't See and Other Stories by Karen Joy Fowler.
52. Thunder and Roses: Volume IV: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon.
53. Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler.
54. Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison.
55. Angela Davis: An Autobiography.
56. Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin.
57. Shadow Man by Melissa Scott.
58. The Dead Girls by Jorge Ibargüengoitia.
59. Couch by Benjamin Parzybok.
60. The Perfect Host: Volume V: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. This volume covers late 1947 through 1949. One of the things that I love about Sturgeon is his openings, like this one, to "One Foot and the Grave": "I was out in Fulgey Wood trying to find out what had happened to my foot, and I all but walked on her. Claire, I mean. Not Luana. You wouldn't catch Luana rolled up in a nylon sleeping bag, a moonbeam bright on her face." Actually, his beginnings remind me of the way a lot of "Farscape" episodes just hurl you into the middle of a story with no explanation and then trust that you will catch up. One of the things I like less about Sturgeon is that he is sometimes excessively clever; sometimes his stories become about themselves and the idiosyncratic worlds or ideas that they are built on rather than about anything that I actually care about. "What Dead Men Tell" is a good example of this. There are some great stories here, though; the title story is creepy, with a meaty metafictional element, and "Die, Maestro, Die!" and "The Dark Goddess" are excellent non-SF tales.