Review

The book “More Than Human” by Theodore Sturgeon does one of the things I like the most when reading classic science fiction - To provide a novel idea and build something out of that idea, which at the time it was written appears to be pretty much unprecedented. The book was written in 1953 and deals with the potential evolution of the modern man and how it might come about. It deals with three parts, the actual evolution, the self in this evolution and then the greater ramifications of the evolution.

While the ideas in the book are, given the time, novel. It also feels as though the full potential of the book is not reached, as the main idea of the book is not fully explored. I would’ve liked to spend more time with the main characters or else a greater focus given to the idea of the full ramifications of the evolutions that occur on society as a whole.

As one is reading this book it almost feels as if it is providing the underpinnings for the majority of comic books to be invented later. Without this book I highly doubt that comic books (and especially the universes they portray) would’ve been the same today. In some way it feels as though X-men and Marvel in general are standing on the shoulders of giants and one of these giants is Theodore Sturgeon and his book “More Than Human”.

In this day and age I should also lend a comment to certain wordings being used, which have fortunately since been removed from the majority of people’s vocabularies. The language might offend, but it should be remembered that the book was written at a different time and fortunately I’d like to think that humanity has since become slightly more civilised (Which happens one small step at the time.).

Score: 7/10

After some consideration I have decided on a score of 7/10, which is mostly due to the novelty of the core idea of the book. For it to have been a higher score, it should’ve explored the ideas presented more completely. A score of 6 or lower was out of the question, since the novelty and thus importance of the book is not to be overlooked. It is by all means an interesting read, where it is not predictable to where the author intends to lead us, which is one of the strengths of the book.

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