More Than Human

More Than Human is made up of three distinct sections. The middle, Baby Makes Three, was serialized in the pulps, and expanded into novel form by adding on material at the beginning and the end. Much like The Demolished Man (which was published the same year) this deals with a form of psionics and the ethics of elevated humanity. 

For the life of me I can not understand how this was republished in the SF Masterworks line. Maybe this soft, psychology focused SF was really groundbreaking in 1952. Maybe this was written with a better hand than most of the stories in the pulps at the time. Trouble is that doesn't mean it holds up seventy years later. 

I found myself rather tepid on the whole thing, even during the more propellant and lucid moments of the plot. This degenerated towards the final third of the novel, whose tedious and expositional dialogue had me begging for sweet release. I really really didn't get this one at all. A bade sign for Sturgeons to come.