 Cover of first edition (hardcover) | |
| Author | Theodore Sturgeon |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Greenberg |
Publication date | 1950 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 217 |
| Followed by | More Than Human |
The Dreaming Jewels, also known as The Synthetic Man, is a science fiction novel by American writer Theodore Sturgeon. It was his first published novel.
8-year-old Horton "Horty" Bluett runs away from his abusive family, carrying only a smashed jack-in-the-box named Junky. Disguised as a girl, Horty takes refuge among the "strange people" in a traveling circus. The owner of the carnival, Pierre Monetre, is a disgraced doctor and scientist with a deep hatred of mankind. Having discovered intelligent nonhuman life in the form of crystal-like jewels, Monetre works to unlock the source of their great power and, ultimately, destroy mankind. Zena, a carnival performer, takes Horty under her wing. She knows that Horty is the key to executing Monetre's destructive plan, and the only one powerful enough to stop him.
Science fiction anthologist Groff Conklin characterized it as "a moving and brilliant piece of imaginative writing." [1] Science fiction editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas praised it as "a warm and beautifully human story . . . fresh, creative imaginative literature." [2] Science fiction writer P. Schuyler Miller found The Dreaming Jewels "compulsively fascinating . . . recommended as much for its people and the way it is written as for the ramifications of the plot." [3]
Science fiction author Damon Knight, however, faulted the novel as "curiously uneven." While he praised the novel's opening half -- "Sturgeon at his brilliant best: the warm insight, the compellingly real background, the exciting narrative"—he felt the work deteriorated sharply as it closed: "the characters become insipid and lifeless, the writing flat, and the action a humorless copy of Victorian melodrama." [4]
In 2001 The Dreaming Jewels was nominated for a Retro Hugo for best novella.
In 2010 fantasy writer Jo Walton described it as "a remarkably sophisticated novel for 1950" and wrote that "This book is so much more than the sum of its tropes that it's possible to read it and re-read it without realising that they are standard tropes." [5] Similarly, in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, author John Clute calls The Dreaming Jewels one of Sturgeon's "most famous" and "three best" novels (alongside More Than Human and The Cosmic Rape ), and describes it as "an enjoyable and sophisticated Young Adult tale." [6]
The novel first appeared in Fantastic Adventures in 1950 before a revision was printed in book form. [7] It has since had numerous reprints, notably a 1953 Italian translation and a 1957 Pyramid Books reprint under the title The Synthetic Man. [8] [9] [10]
Theodore Sturgeon was an American fiction author of primarily fantasy, science fiction, and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 short stories, 11 novels, and several scripts for Star Trek: The Original Series.
Science fiction comedy or comic science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that exploits the science fiction genre's conventions for comedic effect. Comic science fiction often mocks or satirizes standard science fiction conventions, concepts and tropes – such as alien invasion of Earth, interstellar travel, or futuristic technology. It can also satirize and criticize present-day society.
Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L. Gold, who rapidly made Galaxy the leading science fiction magazine of its time, focusing on stories about social issues rather than technology.
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"The Evening and the Morning and the Night" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Octavia Butler. It was first published in Omni in May 1987, and subsequently republished in The Year's Best Science Fiction ; in Best New SF 2; in Omni Visions One; in The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy By Women; in Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora; in Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century; in Crucified Dreams; in Butler's collection Bloodchild and Other Stories, and as a chapbook from Pulphouse Publishing.
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