To Marry Medusa by Theodore Sturgeon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow, this was fascinating. I've read some really fascinating Sturgeon before but this one is nearly as good as my favorite, More Than Human.

There's a ton of great and flawed characters and they were interesting enough to carry us to the freaking huge conclusion. We follow a real villain around for most of early part of the novel, one very reminiscent of The Stars My Destination, where a deplorable man carries the seed of some truly awesome changes.

More than that, however, is the inescapable mind-blowing change of becoming a Medusa, a single head where every hair is each of us. A single mind. Every one of us knows what everyone else on the planet has learned. A total and ultimate godhood that is, nevertheless, just us.

Sturgeon has always been one of the most fearless writers I've ever had the pleasure of reading. When he sets his teeth into an idea, he goes all out and blows our minds. It's one thing to say he does something like this, but it's another entirely to see the buildup leading to a nearly instantaneous conversion. Or the reason for the conversion. Or the battle with another hive mind.

I was like... damn! This was a very short novel, too, and he NAILED IT.

This is a spicy classic. It may never be everyone's cup of tea, but I think I can rank it up there with Bester. :)

View all my reviews