A Son of the Rock

Corgi, 1971, 160p.

Sturgeon is famous for his Law which originally was a riposte to the complaint that “90% of SF is crud” which he reformulated to “90% of anything is crud.” Which is to say it is unfair to criticise SF by its worst examples while praising other areas of endeavour for their best.

I remember Sturgeon’s story Microcosmic God with affection so when I saw this volume in a second hand bookshop (yes, they still exist) on the other side of town I bought it. Starshine contains six stories published, I assume, in the early 1960s. (The copyright date is 1966.)

From a 2010 perspective this is not vintage stuff. Things have moved on since these stories were written. They come from an era when the idea was all in SF and show no indication that the New Wave would ever happen (despite Wikipedia citing Sturgeon as a precursor.) I doubt they’d be published today. The stories are for the large part told, not revealed, and there are prodigious info dumps or lumps of exposition. The characterisation is crude, too.

Only the last in the collection, How To Kill Aunty, survives this treatment. That story is not SF but rather a mainstream tale of repression and revenge.

Starshine is a historical curiosity only, not one to be recommended as an introduction; either to the SF field or to Sturgeon’s work overall.