Horty, the midgets of the carnival, and the Snidely Whiplash-esque Maneater (née Monetre) all seem fully-realized, which is kind of remarkable of a feat in a story as short as this. Just because it’s sparse doesn’t mean it isn’t memorable. You get the feeling that Sturgeon has sat on this one for quite a while, and thought about this from every angle. This sounds negative, but it isn’t! I think this may be due to Sturgeon’s sparse, efficient style and not at all the author trying to skim over something he hasn’t fully thought out. When another character says “wait that doesn’t make any sense”, the first says “of course it doesn’t!” and the narrative powers on. For some reason I can’t explain, Sturgeon’s world works incredibly effectively even when logical leaps are made that I just can’t make. The introduction of carnies will tend to do that. Theodore Sturgeon builds a word that has one foot in the mundane and one in the unusual. Just aliens that aren’t intednding to impact humanity at all. There’s no robots, no space travel (except implied), no aliens trying to take over (intentionally). The way this book unfolds is so subtly scifi and I love it.
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