Starshine

Theodore Sturgeon

Starshine is a collection of short stories by one of the earlier science fiction masters. It always amazes me where the human imagination can go. Sturgeon's was all over the place and thoroughly enjoyable. (Star Trek fans, here's a bit of trivia. Sturgeon wrote the original episode "Amok Time" and invented pon farr for the Vulcans...)

"Derm Fool" the first short story in the book, immediately makes the reader chuckle. The narrator is trying to clean up his apartment before a lady comes to visit. "Crawling under my bed, I found my slippers. My feet were still in them." Excuse me? As he continues to clean he finds his hand attached to a drawer handle, spare fingers rolling around, and his face is due to come off any time - he hopes it is before she shows up. The story has some fun twists by the end.

In "The Haunt" the narrator is trying to get this stand offish woman to marry him. Nothing scares her. So to catch her undivided attention, he takes her to a haunted house. That is not normal dating technique, but he and his friend had rigged the house before hand. He hopes all the equipment is working properly...

The old woman in "How to Kill Aunty" thinks she's clever. She doesn't realize until too late her nephew's ultimate revenge. The Martians in "Artnan Process" are extremely agile. When they get drunk, they lose they agileness and speed but get smarter. They have to trade off either physical abilities or enhanced mental abilities.

There are people who will find the stories offensive - it was published back in the mid 1960's. Homosexuality was hidden and ridiculed. At least one story uses that as a main theme. Otherwise these stories stand up well to the test of time. They are good and fun examples of Sturgeon's work and creativity.

Humanoids by Jack Williamson