Number 48 - Caviar - Sturgeon

 

I can't believe how long I've owned this book, and kept it in a position or relative prominence because of that rather glorious cover, and never realised what was going on with the title...

This is a collection of 8 of his short stories. covering over 10 years of his career. 

It opens with Bright Segment, which, if I'm reading the copyright page correctly, is original to this collection and therefore the most recent, meaning it was published in 1955. This is a spectacularly gruesome and sadistic piece of work. When the narrator finds a woman who's been viciously attacked and thrown out of a moving car, he takes her home to look after her because he's scared the authorities would blame him if he called them. I'm pretty certain the home made surgical techniques he uses to fix her up (that are described in precise detail for several pages) would have killed her faster than the existing injuries but that's another matter. The story turns psychologically cruel in the latter half, once she's recovered from the injuries. Once we learn the meaning of the title, the horror becomes absolute.  A great opener, not for the squeamish.

Next up is Microcosmic God (I'm pretty certain this is the title story in another collection of his), the oldest story in the book. A brilliant scientist manages to create life, and a race of creatures more brilliant than he could ever hope to be. He sets himself up as their God and tasks them into solving impossible scientific challenges.  The evil banker who makes his fortunes on the back of the inventions is stereotypically evil and wants power to go with the money. The situation escalates. The ending is a bit anti-climactic.  GRRM used a lot of the ideas in this in his story Sandkings (and more efficiently). 

Ghost of a Chance comes next.  A woman finds she must refuse the advances of any man who comes near her because a jealous ghost is following her and torturing any man she shows friendship with all sorts of amusing punishments. This is not a story that would be published today, not just because of the slightly dated narrative style that typifies the collection, but because of the inherent sexism of the narrator and the whole denouement. This is very much a product of  its time.  It's amusing enough but a guilty pleasure.

Prodigy is set in a distant future where children are tested for normalcy and euthanised before they're 5 years old if they deviate too far. Andi is not a normal child, but his death has been delayed to see if he could be of benefit to society due to his extraordinary abilities. Another quite nasty little tale.

Medusa is a pure science fiction fantasy about a quest to kill a madness inducing planet. The crew of the spaceship have all been driven preemptively mad with directly oppositional psychoses by the mission leaders. chaos inevitably ensues.  Another product of its time although I suspect that even at the time, the psychological aspects of the story would have made anyone with an ounce of knowledge say "huh". The idea of how the spaceships travel is the best part of this story, which is unfortunate.

Blabbermouth - a man's new girlfriend has a psychic power to discern any guilty secret in the vicinity.  However, she also has the uncontrollable urge to tell the nearest and dearest whatever the deep dark bad thing might be. Again this story feels very dated indeed.  

Shadow, Shadow on the Wall - a boy, locked in his room by his wicked stepmother, plays shadow games with his lamp and befriends the creatures he sees there. Revenge on his stepmother is sweet. the ending of this story is brilliant.  The last line is perfection itself.  It's right up there with the last line of Bradbury's October Game.

Twink - Despite this being one of the first ever nominations for the Hugo Award for best short story of the Year, I wasn't a big fan. Twink is the narrator's daughter and is undergoing a procedure for which the narrator is needed.  There's a weird twist and I'm not sure I really got the ending.  It may be because it was the early hours and I was tired. It's not a title I can safely google to try to understand it fully.  The word has a new meaning these days.

All in all this was a good collection with some real stand out stories. Some have to be seen as products of the age, but I have no issue with that. The writing is dated in places and the attitudes most certainly are. It more than lives up to that glorious cover.