- Paperback
- Publisher: Baen Books; Reprint edition (Dec 1987)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0671653709
- ISBN-13: 978-0671653705
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 9.7 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,449,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Sturgeon's prose is pecise and illuminating, as it must be when the concepts he is describing are so BIG (a human hive mind acting together as one multi-celled organism). Any shortfall in the clarity of his language would have made the excercise impossible for the reader to feel and understand. Thankfully Sturgeon's control of his characters and his plot is peerless. He refuses to descend into purple prose and yet his characters, introduced one after another, come to life and immediately gain our empathy. This is not only true of the individuals, but also of the two mass intelligencies; the Medusa with the one fundamental flaw in it's insectile make-up, and the exhillerating experiment in total human co-operation. Even the denouement is so skillfully and clearly portrayed that you wish you were a part of it. This is a masterful novel that will take you out of yourself and show you something spectacular.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Worthy of shameless homage
19 Jan 2002
Format:Paperback
This book is amazing, comparable to great science fiction works like the Hyperion and Dune series, and yet it captures their scope and literary beauty in a fraction of the pages. In only a few hundred pages an epic tale of conquest, brief (oh so brief) insurrection, and triumph unfolds. Sturgeon is one of those precious few science fiction writers that elevates the genre above the social stigma hoisted upon it, and he does it with style. This work is not just good science fiction, its great fiction period. His writing style is fluent and dignified. To Marry Medusa is science fiction condensed into its purest, most moving form, and trust me, I know my science fiction. Please, please pick up this book and give it a chance. If you like LeGuin, Blish, Bester or any of the founders of science fiction, you will love this book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
An odd, elegiac Alien Invasion story
24 July 2002
Format:Paperback
I read this book under its sensational alternate title, "The Cosmic Rape."
"Medusa," a galaxy-spanning hive mind, seeks to extend its realm by seeding space with spores in the hopes that some will land on inhabited worlds. Containing a bit of "connected" living tissue, consumption of a spore by a local life form would intantly convert the planet's population to Medusa's way of thinking.
When a spore falling to Earth is consumed by a alienated, raging derelict, he alone is converted. The book follows his/its efforts to find out why humanity is resistant to Medusa's sway.
Meanwhile, we peek into the lives of others, leading typical human (and therefore, for many, unhappy) lives, who will soon play a part in a remarkable drama.
_To Marry Medusa_ is a sort of defiant, humanist reply to Arthur C. Clarke's _Childhood's End_. A sad and wonderful story.
A beautiful but frightening speculation
30 Mar 2012
Format:MP3 CD
Dan Gurlick is a pathetic human being, which is undoubtedly why nobody likes him. He has no identifiable positive personality traits, his motivations and desires are base, and he lacks the skills and knowledge to appropriately acquire the things he wants. Life suddenly changes for Gurlick when he accidentally ingests the spore of an alien hivemind named Medusa. Medusa has been all over the universe enfolding the collective minds of the species it finds. When Medusa becomes conscious on Earth, in Gurlick's mind, it's surprised to find that human brains are not connected. Perhaps humans have sensed Medusa's plan and have protected themselves by disorganizing. The hivemind plans to use Gurlick's limited brain to figure out how to put human minds back together so it can engulf them. To get Gurlick's cooperation, Medusa promises to give him whatever his nasty heart desires.
Theodore Sturgeon's To Marry Medusa, originally published as the longer novel The Cosmic Rape in 1958, is a not just an exciting hivemind science fiction story, it's also a beautiful but frightening speculation about what life would be like if humans shared a collective consciousness. At first the idea is naturally horrifying, but Sturgeon makes us reconsider by interspersing humanity's response to Medusa with vignettes of several characters experiencing loneliness, loss, lust, jealousy, fear, or budding faith. A group mind could be a powerful thing, but if we all share the same mind, what is the value of one of us?
I listened to Blackstone Audio's version of To Marry Medusa, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki who is the reason I chose to read this book in audio format. As always, he does a great job except that I think he said the word "unties" when he meant "unites" at one point, though perhaps it was a typo in the book. I wouldn't usually pick on something so seemingly trivial, but those two words have opposite meanings and, in this context, it confused me for a moment.
For such an old SF hivemind story, To Marry Medusa is surprisingly fresh and deeply thought-provoking. I'm putting the rest of Theodore Sturgeon's work on my TBR list.
Theodore Sturgeon's To Marry Medusa, originally published as the longer novel The Cosmic Rape in 1958, is a not just an exciting hivemind science fiction story, it's also a beautiful but frightening speculation about what life would be like if humans shared a collective consciousness. At first the idea is naturally horrifying, but Sturgeon makes us reconsider by interspersing humanity's response to Medusa with vignettes of several characters experiencing loneliness, loss, lust, jealousy, fear, or budding faith. A group mind could be a powerful thing, but if we all share the same mind, what is the value of one of us?
I listened to Blackstone Audio's version of To Marry Medusa, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki who is the reason I chose to read this book in audio format. As always, he does a great job except that I think he said the word "unties" when he meant "unites" at one point, though perhaps it was a typo in the book. I wouldn't usually pick on something so seemingly trivial, but those two words have opposite meanings and, in this context, it confused me for a moment.
For such an old SF hivemind story, To Marry Medusa is surprisingly fresh and deeply thought-provoking. I'm putting the rest of Theodore Sturgeon's work on my TBR list.
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