Must listen

What a fantastic book. Amazingly thought provoking, well read, and written by a writer with a real gift for language.

I am a big fan of Mr. Rudnicki, and although Mr. Ellison is a radical change after listening to Mr. Rudnicki I quickly came to love his narration as well.

If there is any drawback to this book it is that it starts a bit slowly and you find yourself asking where in the world is this thing going? However, it is absolutely worth waiting for.

I highly recommend this book, a fantastic story, an awesome concept, and a very satisfying ending. Enjoy!

10 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Beautiful words, wonderfully spoken

This book was a wonderfully read by Stefan Rudnicki and the fantastic storyline and beautiful ending was a truly pleasure to listen to, This book was written in the 1950s but stands tall today as a great novel. This coming from someone who isnt a Science Fiction fan. - a wonderful book.

6 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

A Haunting Classic

Sturgeon's classic science fiction novel (really, a series of interwoven stories) is a lyrical, poignant look at "Homo Gestalt," the gifted "freaks" who together form a new organism, the next stage in human evolution. It's a fascinating and often genuinely wrenching thought experiment about prejudice, cruelty, love, empowerment, identity, and belonging. It would've been ideal if the entire work had been read by the same narrator, but I didn't find the shift to be too distracting. Sturgeon's work is deeply disturbing, with brutal and beautiful purpose, and it's very much worth listening to today.

5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

More Than Human

Considered by many to be the best of Sturgeon's opus. Decades ago, when I first read this I imagined the voice of Harlan Ellison reading the second part "Baby is Three". And Stefan Rudnicki is outstanding as well. Thanks audible. Can you get Godbody by Theodore Sturgeon?

7 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Bleshing with Superhuman Homo Gestalt

Theodore Sturgeon's More than Human is comprised of three parts, the first of which (my favorite) concerns several misfit outcast kids with powers of teleportation, telekinesis, and the like, and a "fabulous idiot." This part is lyrical, strange, humorous, and moving. And Stefan Rudnicki reads it perfectly, with his deep voice and thoughtful inflections. The second part, read with passion and panache by Harlan Ellison, depicts the first person narration of one of the outcast kids who is visiting a psychiatrist to find out who and what he is and why he has done what he has done. Ellison uses a squeaky boy's voice for Gerry, a calm adult voice for Dr. Stern, and appropriate voices for the other people who speak in this part. His reading of the last line, "What the hell is morality, anyway?" is terrifying. In the mostly fascinating third and last part, again read by Rudnicki, Hip Barrows attempts with great difficulty to remember his past far back enough to get over an imposed mental block.

It is interesting to compare Theodore Sturgeon's novel with Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End: Both were published during the Cold War in 1953 and feature the "next" stage of human evolution, but both depict very different ideas about that evolution and hence very different ideas about the nature of humanity and transcendence. More than Human is better written, more moving, more optimistic (almost too much so), and more human, but less sublime than Childhood's End.

Anyway, More than Human is a thought-provoking science fiction classic, well-read by Rudnicki and Ellison.

5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Just a classic

I read it 40 years ago and it's still brilliant. Hopefully I'll read it again in another 40 years.

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

better in audio

I read this book over 30 years ago and really could not understand it. Listening to it on audible really help me to understand the book. Unfortunately I still did not like it. It started out fairly interesting, seem like it was going to be a fairy tale. Then it got really deep and really all about talking. TS took so long to draw out his ideas that I was screaming at the radio. You pretty much know where he is going, but it takes him so long to say it. Matter of fact the character would just barely touch the idea and then take three steps back and you had to wait for him to build up to it again and he would skim and step back again. The first third gets four stars the middle and ending get two stars.

12 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

A really fascinating book

I loved the way this book was written and the narration (by both readers) was excellent. Very thought provoking and well-paced, though I am guessing that some will find the pacing too slow and the book too long for the story it is telling. But the plot is only a very small part of what makes this book good - the writing style and character development, and the gradual way that facts are revealed to the reader, all added to my enjoyment. I'm back on Audible right now looking for my next Sturgeon book.

4 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Powerful stuff

This is one of the grand old pieces from a certain high art period of the genre. Not to say the new stuff isn't fantastic in its way, but the language here is so simple and exquisite. The rough and rowdy kids remind of R.A. Lafferty's brats. The writing is akin to Harlan Ellison who wonderfully reads along with the barotone Stefan Rudnicki. The whole thing is a knockout.

more than human

Ellison did a wonderful job and narration of this classic science fiction book. there are deep characteristics of the human Spirit expressed in this book.