Selected Stories

by Theodore Sturgeon

Thirteen ingenious stories—at once breathtaking, wondrous, horrifying, and achingly human—from one of science fiction and fantasy’s most influential writers

One of science fiction’s most beloved trailblazers, Theodore Sturgeon wrote novels and short fiction that inspired and amazed readers and critics alike.

In Selected Stories, thirteen of Sturgeon’s very best tales have been gathered into one Here are stories of love and darkness, transcendence and obsession, alien contact and human interaction. In the devastating wake of a nuclear holocaust, an actress performs her swan song before a small audience of survivors. A machine is possessed and intent upon destruction. Humankind’s place in the vast cosmos is explored, as is the strange humanity of evil. In the author’s acclaimed story “The Man Who Lost the Sea,” a life is reconstructed in bizarre shattered fragments. And in “Slow Sculpture,” Sturgeon’s award-winning classic, a breast cancer patient surrenders to a healer’s most unorthodox methods. Lyrical, often witty, frequently provocative, and always surprising, Selected Stories covers a wide range of human and inhuman emotion and experience, deftly traversing the borders between science fiction, dark fantasy, and horror.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Theodore Sturgeon including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the University of Kansas’s Kenneth Spencer Research Library and the author’s estate, among other sources.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Science Fiction Fantasy, Horror, Speculative Fiction

450 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 17, 2000

About the author

Theodore Sturgeon (1918–1985) is considered one of the godfathers of contemporary science fiction and dark fantasy. The author of numerous acclaimed short stories and novels, among them the classics More Than Human, Venus Plus X, and To Marry Medusa, Sturgeon also wrote for television and holds among his credits two episodes of the original 1960s Star Trek series, for which he created the Vulcan mating ritual and the expression "Live long and prosper." He is also credited as the inspiration for Kurt Vonnegut's recurring fictional character Kilgore Trout.

Sturgeon is the recipient of the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the International Fantasy Award. In 2000, he was posthumously honored with a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement.

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of short stories from SF and Fantasy Hall of Famer Theordore Sturgeon, all dealing with the human side of SF, and in fact some just great works of speculative fiction with no discernible SF elements. Of the following that I've read, The Man Who Lost the Sea was the clear standout.

The Man Who Lost the Sea 5/5 - Beautifully told SF tale. Hard to say anything without revealing too much. A must read!

Slow Sculpture 4/5 - Bizzare, introspective tale, drawing parallels between the give and take required to develop bonsai and that required to shape human relationships and humanity itself.

Thunder and Roses 3/5 - Post apocalyptic tale of a man clinging to sanity on the edge of the abyss.

Bianca's Hands 3/5 - Bizzare-o, "Twilight Zone" ish creepy tale of a man whole becomes enamored by a deformed girl's hands.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Final analysis = 2.75 stars, with a quarter of a star bonus just for being a canonical science fiction author.

More than halfway through and now i'm probably going to have to rate this collection at least 3 stars.

"Thunder and Roses" -- ** Post-apocalyptic story about ... love? An ambitious thesis in some ways, but i just don't buy it and the characters bothered me as thin caricatures. I won't bore you by repeating that same sentence for all the other stories i've read thus far.

"Mr. Costello, Hero" -- * Blech. No pay-off, though one is attempted.

"Bianca's Hands" -- **** Pay-off is thought-provoking as is the premise and the character development.

"The Man Who Lost the Sea" -- ***** This is what all of Sturgeon's stories are trying to be. The narrative style is perfect for the tale and contributes to the pay-off. I first read this story while on an airplane. (I don't recommend it in that situation.) Read this story!

"Slow Sculpture" -- ** Neat sci-fi idea but the psy-fi again feels laughable.

"Killdozer!" -- *** Fun romp. The title is spectacular. An exclamation point? Seriously? It's warranted in some ways, and i suspect Sturgeon's being a little tongue-in-cheeky.

"It"-- ** I kinda like the idea of the It; kinda wish he'd tried to narrate from It's point of view for the whole tale because the people...my god, the people! But what's with the ending?!

"A Way of Thinking" -- *** I liked the characters this time, mostly. I like the arc of the story. I like the tension between narrator and reader, especially because he's also a character in the story and his character is a writer of supernatural tales. Not thrilled with the pay-off, but it's a long way from sucking.

"The Sex Opposite" -- **** I was tempted to read this first having just finished reading Ursula LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness and inferring from the story title that it, too, might be about gender/sexuality/love. I'm glad i didn't, but not because this was a lame attempt at the concept. Aside from the perhaps overwrought language to make the titular character's essence believable, this one worked on all levels for me. Very pleased although i think i ought to go back and re-read "A Way of Thinking" and this one to be sure that their endings aren't contradictory.

Now to the very long "The [Widget], the [Wadget] and Boff," which already seems to be among the better tales only 15 pages in. I'll give this one *** for being a little more psychologically subtle and thorough than the other tales, though "subtle" is probably too strong an assessment. How about "less blunt"?

"The Skills of Xanadu" ** -- wtf, Sturgeon? This one made no sense to me. Maybe this guy's just a master of creating Alienness to my way of thinking about people/humans. I've said many times in my reviews of science fiction that my favorite thing about it is its ability to explore what it means to be human. Is Sturgeon doing it by creating that which is totally NON-human? I don't know, but i just don't respond well to most of his stories, it seems.

"Bright Segment" ** -- I like the main character and the way the story begins in total murkiness only to clarify slowly, but once again the resolution is tepid and irksome and the underlying psychology and motivation are hyper-simplistic.

"The Golden Helix" ** -- Finishing the book on this note was quite a downer. I think he was going for a soaring dramatic denouement but it didn't feel like one to me.

[Res]

Oh, no. Oh, I wish I hadn't read this. I finished "Mister Costello, Hero," the one story I loved -- the one that was the reason I bought the book -- and then I paged back to the beginning and started reading "Bianca's Hands," and now I feel like I'm covered with the sticky ick of multiple unexamined bigotries.

[Marc Goldstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

8 “Killdozer”
A long – 70 pages – story about a bulldozer possessed by a demonic force. Really a horror story, rather than SF. Very entertaining, though. A bustling page turner that I never felt bogged down. Not deep or meaningful, but thoroughly enjoyable.

8 “The Man Who Lost the Sea”
A man riffs on childhood memories and near-death experiences. It becomes clear that he has crash landed on mars and is dying. Not much plot, but a poignant, beautifully realized vignette.

9 “Slow Sculpture”
Woman with breast cancer meets a man who says he can fix it. He turns out to be a scientific genius, but he lives as a recluse because his inventions have been bought out from under him and suppressed by giant corporations who fear losing their monopolies. The man contemplates his bonsai tree. How it’s own life force requires his sculpting to take the form of negotiation, give and take. The woman plays this role as well; her love may revive the scientist’s spirit. She suggests that people are the same as the bonsai; changing humanity requires negotiation, it too is a slow sculpture.

7 “Thunder and Roses ”
We have been nuked. The radiation in the atmosphere is so intense that everyone in our hemisphere will eventually die. A pair of soldiers find a missile launch bunker. A song-stress performs for the troops on television. At the end of her song she implores the soldiers not to retaliate. If we launch any more missiles, all life on earth will be destroyed. The narrator runs into the singer after the show. They talk, he falls for her, then she dies in his arms. Heart-broken he returns to his barracks. His buddy has decided to return to the bunker and launch the missiles. The narrator kills his buddy, then waits for the inevitable.

8 “Bianca’s Hands”
Bizarre horror fable about a man who falls in love not with drooling, catatonic, rotten-toothed Bianca, but with her beautiful hands. The man forcefully lobbies Bianca’s mother for permission to marry her. On their wedding night, they share the bed for the first time. Bianca’s hands wrap about his throat and strangle him, a fate he accept with rapture. In the morning he is dead and the mother is arrested for murdering him.

8 “It”
Fungoid monster emerges from the loam of a New England forest. Curious about the nature of life, it begins a dispassionate killing spree. A hunter’s dog is killed. The hunter goes to find his dog’s killer and is likewise murdered. The hunter’s brother, a local farmer, has a young daughter who runs off into the woods. The farmer chases after her. She runs into the creature, but manages to escape across a stream. The creature falls into the stream. The flowing water dissolves the monster. It curiously observes as its body is washed away. Damon Knight uses this story as an example of successfully bringing a monster on stage to interact with the human characters in a story, as opposed to Lovecraft who allowed only static glimpses of his demons.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are science fiction writers and then there is Theodore Sturgeon. He is, clearly, in a class by himself!

Don't think you know anything by Sturgeon? How about the two best Star Trek (original series) episodes? Yes, he wrote those as well as working with the cast to develop the Vulcan greeting, hand sign, sex life, and more. This is all good stuff but his short stories are even better!

So, what sets Selected Stories apart from other anthologies? While Sturgeon had many great ideas about science and the future, many way ahead of his time, his primary focus is on his characters. Not only about who they are and what makes them tick but how they would be impacted, both positively and negatively, by future scientific discoveries, modern technology, even aliens.

And who are his characters? They run the gamut: a young boy with "imaginary" playmates, heavy equipment operators, a scientist working in obscurity, the local school librarian, the last person with the launch codes after WWIII, a tabloid writer, a lost astronaut, and many more. Some stories border on horror, some seem more standard fiction than science fiction, some take place in the present and some in the future, but all are about the people and human nature.

I think you will love learning about humanity through Sturgeon's eyes. I certainly did!

[Sergio · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the early years of the Science Fiction Golden Age, Theodore Sturgeon was doing something unique and unheard of in the mainstream of the genre. Forgoing the focus on hard scifi of his contemporaries, Sturgeon was in some ways looking ahead to the the more expansive and literarily rich work of the 60s and the Science Fiction New Wave of the 70s. In this sense, he had more in common with Ellison, Le Guin, Butler, Dick, and Lem than he did with such contemporaries as Asimov and Heinlein (certainly fine authors themselves).

This collections provides a good overview of Sturgeon's talent, his style, and his diverse literary interests. It also occasionally shines a light on his weaknesses. Sturgeon emphasized the psychological and sociological elements over futurism or technology. Despite that, these stories generally tend to be optimistic. He also had no allegiance to genre and frequently made forays into horror and weird fiction.

There's also a wide spectrum of quality in these stories ranging from the sublime horror gem "Bianca's Hands" to the overlong and frankly tedious "Killdozer!". Much of the reader's appreciation will depend on personal interest. Regardless, every story adds something to our understanding of Sturgeon's artistry.

[Michael Hurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a lot of Vonnegut in my teens but somehow missed his friend Theodore Sturgeon, whose name turns out to have been the inspiration for Kilgore Trout. Sturgeon was also commissioned by radio personality Jean Shepherd to write a version of I, Libertine – a previously non-existent book by the non-existent author “Frederick R. Ewing” that Shepherd urged his late-night listeners to ask for at their local bookstore. (The bookstore owners put in requests to their distributors, and the non-existent book made it onto the New York Times Best Seller List.)

So with that I really had to give him a shot and this recently published collection of stories seemed as good a place as any to start. I was a little hesitant, considering the author’s social circle, about wading into dark misanthropy at this point in my life. (To be fair to Vonnegut, I was a dark and misanthropic teenager and probably should give him another whirl.) What really distinguishes these stories is the loving care that Sturgeon uses to create and treat his characters. None of his characters are heroes or villains. All are trying to make their way through life with their gifts and all-to-real flaws; Sturgeon steers clear from comic absurdity.

The following notes may contain some minor spoilers that I have mostly tried to avoid – with the idea of just getting enough to jog my future memories of these wonderful stories.

Thunder and Roses: After a nuclear strike against the United States soldiers stationed on a remote base deal with its having been un-retaliated. Pete Mawser, affected by the televised pacifist plea of a popular singer, who makes an appearance at the base, wrestles with the ethics of what to do about a remote launch facility that he discovered hidden on the base.

The Golden Helix: Planetary colonists awaken from hibernation to find they were diverted to a planet far more distant than their destination. They arrived at a place where higher forms of life visibly devolve over several generations – ultimately to sprores (still containing all genetic information) that the overlords of this world then distribute to distant planets.

Bianca’s Hands: Ran, who works as a sweeper in a shop, becomes obsessed with the hands, that seem to have an intelligent life of their own, of a severely developmentally disabled girl, Bianca, who lives with her mother. Ran obtains the mother’s consent to marry Bianca and move in.

The Skills of Xanadu: Bril, of Kit Carson, second planet of the Summer System, arrives on Xanadu with the intention of scouting the place out for future conquest. Bril comes from a highly populated, highly structured, world. He is taken aback by the lack of concern for privacy that the sparsely populated people of Xanadu live with. More slowly than the reader Bril comes to realize that everyone on Xanadu is telepathically connected.

Killdozer!: This is one of Sturgeon’s best-known short stories that was actually turned into a screenplay for a movie version. A past race created machines, that led to a confrontation between the two, that destroyed life on Earth – along with all but one of the machines, a small orbiter. The last machine returned from its orbit and sealed itself in a sarcophagus on a Pacific Island. Life returned, and ultimately humans developed (some early ones having actually built a temple around the object.) A construction crew with heavy grading equipment arrives to grade out an airstrip in advance of the pavers. These characters make the story. When the sarcophagus is breached the occupant “takes possession” of a bulldozer that turns murderous.

Bright Segment: This is a bizarre, creepy, story of a slow oaf whose self-image was formed of a lifetime of being told that he has no purpose. One raining night he finds a girl outside of his house who is dying from stab wounds resulting from an apparent assault. He makes it his life’s work to fix her and take care of her. He is not the psychotic villain of Annie in Stephen King’s Misery but the effect is similar.

The Sex Opposite: A violent murder the park brings in Muhlenberg, a consulting pathologist – appeared to be almost Siamese twins that the perpetrator forcibly separated. Budgie, a newspaper reporter, is adept at using her considerable feminine charms to get the story, but Muhlenberg is on to her. The cadavers are destroyed in a suspicious fire. Subsequently that evening a “parthenogenetic female” separately seduces Muhlenberg and Budgie and arranges a meeting (for all three of them it turns out) the next day at a seedy bar where Budgie and Muhlenberg learn about these creatures – and themselves.

The [Widget], the [Wadget] and Boff: Transitory residents of a rooming house receive life guidance from a couple of aliens, masquerading as the elderly couple who own the house, who are in fact investigating humans for the presence of “Super-Refex ‘Synapse Beta sub-Sixteen.’”

It: A mud-encrusted zombie-like creature eviscerates a dog owned by the brother of a farmer who lives with the farmer and the farmer’s wife and young daughter. The creature, whose origin is revealed by an investigator passing through, goes on to terrorize the daughter.

A Way of Thinking: This is a voodoo doll story made in full by the fullness of the characters.

The Man Who Lost the Sea: This story is build around the dying thoughts of an astronaut after crashing into Mars.

Slow Sculpture: A self-taught renaissance man, “an engineer twice over, mechanical and electrical [with] a law degree,” offers an unconventional and untested cure for a young woman’s breast cancer. He is naturally curious when it comes to exploring the ways of the physical world, but he is clueless when it comes to the workings of the heart – particularly his own, and he ends up learning far more from his patient.

[Bryce Summers · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10 - -

A bit of a mixed bag. Sturgeon’s attempt at sincerity often feels overblown and trite. But then there were stories that I thought were near mini-masterpieces and would easily read them again.

Clear favorites:
•Thunder and Roses
•Mr. Costello, Hero
•The Skills of Xanadu
•Slow Sculpture

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story I liked best was "The Sex Opposite." It's where I learned the meaning of the word sygizy.

[Eric Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

One challenge with reading seminal works is that one can’t help but compare them with the more developed organism(s) that followed. That’s my challenge here: when compared to many works of the same Golden Age of Sci-Fi (of which at least 90% is crap, as Sturgeon’s Law suggests), this is a gem. But I’ve read and loved many later works by authors that were inspired by Sturgeon and his successors to make even better works that probe the human consciousness in the face of impossible or improbable situations. All told, I’m glad I had the opportunity to read this, and even more glad that he wrote it when he did.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sturgeon provides too much description and not enough story. I think he over-describes subjects that he knows well just for his own satisfaction. But those descriptions often don't help the story and usually just bog the reader down in worthless details. I really got tired of it. There are some great ideas and terrific story lines in the collection, but the gems are few.

[Tim Jarrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went looking for a different set of Sturgeon stories and found this one, and rediscovered how much I love his perverse inventiveness and his wild humanity.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This single-handedly made me no longer hate short story compilations. These are some wildly creative stories. Some of them drag a little and some are too long and some have kind of sad endings. But this is a guy who thought differently and had a lot to say. There are some really interesting ideas in these stories. They're capably told, and even the long ones have good plots and good characters.

I will say I disagreed with pretty much every reviewer on Goodreads in regards to the quality of each story. Brief thoughts with no specific spoilers:

Thunder & Roses:***Uneven story about a post-apocalyptic world and having to cut through propaganda to figure out what's really going on.

The Golden Helix: *** Very long story with some interesting ideas - it's about some astronauts who wind up far off course on a strange planet where biology doesn't seem to work the way it did on Earth.

Mr. Costello, Hero: ** The weakest story, though it does have a relevant point about voluntary brainwashing and being influenced by politicians who seek to actively set you against their opponents.

Bianca's Hands:**Super odd little story about a guy who falls in love with a handicapped girl whose entire personality is in her unaffected hands.

The Skills of Xanadu:*****Absolute banger of a story about a highly advanced race of people and the dumb guy who thinks he's found a way to outsmart them.

Killerdozer!:***Fun story about a killer bulldozer that pre-dated Christine by several decades.

Bright Segment: ***Darker story about a large, slow guy who saves the life of a girl who was attacked in the streets, and how they learn to communicate. Bummer of an ending.

The Sex Opposite:***Interesting, if slightly confusing, romantic murder mystery, with aliens.

The Widget, the Wadget, and Boff:*****This takes a while to get going and the writing is odd but I loved the full plot once we got to the end. A really interesting take on unlocking our full potential for critical thinking.

It::****A compelling monster story told in large parts through the monster's perspective. Fun twist ending, too.

A Way of Thinking:****Another interesting story about different ways of thinking and how that can solve problems in unexpected ways.

The Man Who Lost the Sea:**2nd weakest story - I have no idea what the point of this was.

Slow Sculpture:*****Ending on a really high note - an excellent short story about a different way of approaching science/innovation.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sturgeon was famous for his maxim “Ask the next question”. In one of these stories he has a character say it explicitly, although it is also reframed as “Ask the right question”.

These stories are brilliantly creative, meant to make you think about the concepts and consequences, and are fun to read. They hold up surprisingly well for being mostly 50-70 years old, more so than most science fiction of its day. Other than some of the period dialogue which reads either as a little stilted (for the highbrow characters), or too much old slang (for the lowbrow characters), they could have been written yesterday for the concepts and perceptions they have.

Consider this excerpt:

“...what can you do in a world where people would rather kill each other in a desert even when they're shown it can turn green and bloom, where they'll fall all over themselves to pour billions into developing a new oil strike when it's been proved over and over again that the fossil fuels will kill us all?” – 'Slow Sculpture', published 1970.

Some of the stories are classic 'technical problem-solving' stories, such as “Killdozer”, where a construction crew on a small island have to figure out how to stop a sentient, murderous bulldozer. Most of the stories, such as “The Man Who Lost the Sea”, are examinations of the human psyche under stress.

In one of his stories a husband and wife (who are more than they seem) simply continue to ask questions of their friends in order for the friends to examine their own feelings and beliefs. This might be considered the Socratic method, and it's one that Sturgeon uses effectively. That husband and wife repeatedly point out that these are questions the individuals could have asked themselves.

That's Sturgeon talking to the reader: What challenging question have you not looked at lately? And then after that...ask the next question.

[Dekaydreader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection goes two ways: quite interesting and thought-provoking tales mixed with, for me, just plain weird and sometimes nearly incomprehensible work. I've held Sturgeon in my mind for decades after reading More Than Human---and I've re-read it a few times since my teens. I never realized that he had written a trove of short stories, but I am a tiny bit let down by this collection compared to the story he's most well known for. At least I don't have to worry about hurting the feelings of a live author...

[Trevor Price · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really really wanted to enjoy these more than I did. I regard Sturgeon's legacy highly. These stories are inventive, gorgeous, ambitious... Alas, they demanded far more intellect/concentration/willpower to consume than I was usually able to summon.

I came away discouraged. I have a couple more Sturgeon books on my list, but I'm afraid I'm much less enthusiastic about making time for them now.

[Matthew Fazio · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good collection of his short stories from "The Golden Age of Science Fiction."

I had absolutely no idea that Sturgeon wrote KILLDOZER, a 1970's made-for-TV cult film that scared me as a kid. (The story was originally written in 1944.)

But don't let that turn you off-- I feel his writing style is a mix of Ernest Hemingway, Harlan Ellison, and Roger Zelazny.

A very enjoyable read.

[George McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sturgeon likes to mess around with ideas of humanity, empathy, identity, otherness, and in this collection of stories, he doesn't disappoint.

He also seems really interested in exploring love, relationships, and what about being human drives those processes. The two best stories in here addressed that theme. The Sex Opposite was really good, and Slow Sculpture was just flat out brilliant. Worth reading the whole book just to get to that one.

[Shanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly okay stories, lots of dark and dreary.

1. “Thunder and Roses” 1947 ***
2. “The Golden Helix” 1979 **
3. “Mr. Costello, Hero” 1953 ***
4. “Bianca’s Hands” 1947 ***
5. “The Skills of Xanadu” 1956 ****
6. “Killdozer!” 1944 ***
7. “Bright Segment” 1954 ***
8. “The Sex Opposite” 1952 **
9. “The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff” 1955 ****
10. “It” 1940 **
11. “A Way of Thinking” 1953 **
12. “The Man Who Lost the Sea” 1959 ****
13. “Slow Sculpture” 1970 ***

[solitaryfossil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of 13 Sturgeon stories, written from roughly 1940 to 1980, but I didn’t find them to feel dated at all. These are character driven stories, relying more on character interaction than story line, and the variety of settings kept me interested. Some really thoughtful pieces here. My 3 favorites were:

The Man Who Lost the Sea
The Golden Helix
Slow Sculpture

Nice collection.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that this is the best single-volume Theodore Sturgeon collection. I don't think all these stories are marvelous; I have never much liked the highly-praised "The Golden Helix," and I no longer love "Thunder and Roses," "The Skills of Xanadu," or "The Sex Opposite," all stories that I used to like a lot and that are generally well-regarded.

But, oh, the other stories! "Mr. Costello, Hero" was Sturgeon's response to the scurrilous Senator Joseph McCarthy. People like Walt Kelly, the cartoonist who drew Pogo, and Theodore Sturgeon stepped up to try to slay the dragon at a time when the dragon seemed invincible.

Sturgeon didn't write many horror stories but some of the ones he did write were memorable, among them "The Professor's Teddy Bear," "Cellmate," and "It." "It" is about a being that grows in the woods and turns into a powerful monster. That monster was the progenitor of a number of others, especially the comic book characters "The Heap" and "Swamp Thing."

There are other horror stories in this collection as well. "Killdozer!" is a kind of horror story mixed with an adventure story. During World War II, an American construction crew is working on an otherwise uninhabited island. They release a malevolent consciousness that takes over a bulldozer and tries to kill them all.

"Bianca's Hands" is an odd story, creepy rather than scary. Bianca is a shambling imbecile but her hands seem to have a life of their own. A man falls in love with her hands and marries Bianca so he can be with those hands.

There is also a strong horror element in "A Way of Thinking." The narrator runs into an old friend, whose brother is dying horribly for reasons physicians can not understand. The friend has an unusual, cock-eyed way of looking at things. They begin to suspect that the brother is being tortured by someone using a voodoo doll. Something noteworthy about this story is that the original magazine version has a different ending with almost the opposite meaning. The narrator doesn't say, "Stay away from me" and therefore doesn't condemn his friend's actions.

For the excellent non-genre story "Bright Segment," I'm going to quote from another review of mine:

"Bright Segment" is, Sturgeon is quoted as saying, "surely one of the most powerful stories I have ever written." I am in total agreement. In "Bright Segment," a fifty-three year old man who "has never held a girl" finds an unconscious young woman who has been brutally beaten and stabbed. The man is extremely inarticulate. He brings the woman to his home and takes care of her. A large part of the story is an extremely detailed description of the medical care he gives her. For the first time in his life, he feels needed.

"Slow Sculpture" won a Nebula and a Hugo Award. A young woman, drifting around to avoid taking any action about a lump in her breast, comes across a scientist who has a cancer cure. The scientist explains why he has not made the cure public.

The longest story in the book is "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff." This is set mostly in a boarding house with a varied group of tenants: "a young, widowed night-club hostess and her three-year-old son; a very good vocational guidance expert; a young law clerk; the librarian from the high school; and a stage-struck maiden from a very small small town." The owners of the boarding house are Sam and Bitty Bittleman, who share a peculiar habit; they ask questions - but never give answers. And there are aliens involved.

The remaining story is the superb "The Man Who Lost the Sea." Once again I will quote from an earlier review of mine:

I love this story. I am going to cheat and steal my review from the foreward to Slow Sculpture - Volume XII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. This was written by another excellent author, Connie Willis, about "The Man Who Lost the Sea":

...Circling, veering off at the last minute, takiíng off on talkative tangents, circling back, are the only way we can get to the secrets inside the story - and inside us. Ths only way we can bear to face what frightens us, to look at the terrible truth.

And Sturgeon's merciless. He's not going to spare us anything. He's going to make us look at the things we want to avert our gaze from. And he's not even going to let us hang on to those things that gave us cause for hope along the way - that resourceful problem-solving kid, the trail of Friday-like footprints heading off along the beach, the comforting murmur of the sea in our ears. It's a brilliant, brutal, beautifully written story, at the same time heartbreaking and soaringly triumphant. The best thing he ever wrote.

I said before that nobody who hasn't read "The Man Who Lost the Sea" can really understand science fiction. I stand by that, but at the same time the story's not like any other science fiction story. It's unique.

Theodore Sturgeon wrote many other fine stories as well. Some of my favorites are
"The Other Celia," "And Now the News...," "The Clinic," "The Other Man," "The Comedian's Children," "Tandy's Story," and "When You Care, When You Love." These are among Sturgeon's stories very much worth seeking out. But the stories here in Selected Stories do represent much of Sturgeon's best work.

[J.C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. The science fiction stories in this collection were very heavy on the science. For me, that usually makes for tough reading. At some points I was lost in the details. In the end the humanity of the the stories won me over (almost) every time. There are some very interesting themes and ideas collected here.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterwork of short fiction

Short fiction is always difficult due to the amount of things that need happen. Senses of time and space, as well as context of conflict and character motivations, need to be established economically. This collection shows why Theodore Sturgeon is a master of science fiction and storytelling.

[Tim Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timeless classics that are nevertheless showing their age. “The Man Who Lost the Sea” is as powerful and moving as ever, but I was struck how many of Sturgeon’s other stories remain fixed in a setting of mid-century Americana, a world that itself becomes stranger and more alien with each passing year.

[Margaret Bechtol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

As with many short story collections, some are quite good and a couple I just slogged through. Also some of the stories seem to be written by different people. Overall I enjoyed the book but I think the reputation doesn’t always live up to the work.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

None of these felt particularly amazing. I like his voice, but not the underlying current of misogyny and cynicism. My favorite from the collection was "The Man Who Lost the Sea." It felt fresh even this many decades later.

[David Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Living characters

These stories are haunting and the characters are deep, thoughtful and seem to be more real than most of my acquaintances. His writing is literature and thought proving.

I have a new favorite author.

[James S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like his horror work, but this is almost all science fiction. The stories are all limited by the intrinsic adolescence of that genre. In addition to that, most of these stories are somewhat early (late 40s, early 50s) and are marred by too much description and not enough dialogue.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the best collections I've read in a long time! Perhaps I was a bit skewed because I had just finished a really horrible collection but I don't think so. I can't remember if I have read him before but I loved every story and many really got me thinking.
Most of the stories are from the 50s and 60s and the writing makes it obvious at times. The technology is quite dated but the writing and plots are solid so it's not a big deal in terms of enjoying the story.
It seems to be part of a massive collection of his writings as there are other collections in the same style. Highly recommended for readers who like classic or thought-provoking sci-fi.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

classic Si Fi with great human touch. Savored these stories slowly