Number 10 The Dreaming Jewels _ Theodore Sturgeon

Many many years ago I read some Theodore Sturgeon short stories in assorted anthologies and loved them.  i can still quote the opening lines of his story "It" nearly 3 decades after reading it. This writer was a master of short fiction.

Somehow i never got round to reading any of his longer work.  So when I found this in the back of my car, with no memory of where I found it - most likely the Tesco charity book section but I really have no idea- I thought it was about time.

This is still short compared to most of what I've read this year, at a mere 178 pages. But in those 178 pages he manages to spin one of the most weird and wonderful stories I've read for a long while with some fabulous ideas.

I was about to say that the ideas in this book could be likened to Bodysnatchers by Jack Finney - but then I checked and this predated Jack Finney's work by a good five years. So this story is almost entirely original to my knowledge.

It is Sturgeon's debut novel but doesn't read like a first novel often does.  This was a writer confident enough to withold information fom the reader for several chapters before even a partial reveal of what was happening. (I was quite proud when I worked out the relevance of a weird throw away line in the first chapter five chapters before it was explained.)

His style was more than strong enough to waylay the feelings of What the Hell and keep me reading to uncover the secrets. It reminded me of SP Somtow's style of writing science fiction, going all out there ans assuming the reader has the intelligence to keep up and figure some things out for themselves.

Some of the characters are arguably underdeveloped, or possibly underused. I can't quite work out if wanting more about a character because you like them is a good or a bad thing for the writer to acheive.  We know enough about each character for the story to work.  Any more may well have just been padding.

The story is difficult to summarise, an 8 year old boy, after being caught eating ants at school, is beaten and his hand mutilated by his stepfather.  He runs away and joins a travelling carnival.  After that, things get strange.  There are mad scientists, perverted judges, carnival freaks, and above all, strange living crystals which have strange influence on the life forms around them.

And that glorious cover is a definite plus for the book.  They don't make them like that any more.

A quick easy read with some surprisingly deep meditations on the nature of life itself.  Highly recommended.
8/10