Customer Reviews (13)

Godbody
I remembered this book from my much younger days and thought I'd read it again now. It was a lot more impressive in my 30s than now in my 60s. Sturgeon can write, no doubt about it. But the Christ figure embodied in the hero, Godbody, is a lot more believable to the young than to the more mature reader. The message of eros instead of agape loses its charm to the elderly reader.

All the stars in the Milky Way wouldn't be enough to rate this book.
I discovered Theodore Sturgeon more than fifty years ago, when I was a lonely, bookish little kid.His stories were sometimes all the hope I had.He understood the meaning of lonely as no one else I know of, in my sixty-four years.He made me laugh, he made me cry, he scared me, he comforted me, he made me dream, he helped me like myself and my world better.I never met the man, but I always felt that he knew me -- better than the teachers, the parents, the friends who thought they did.And unlike many stories I read back then, his have remained fresh and relevant, old friends that have grown along with my world.

Robert Heinlein said it more eloquently than I could aspire to match (of course!) -- it seems as though Mr. Sturgeon somehow knew he wouldn't be with us much longer.He summed up everything -- all he'd said, and all he hadn't said yet.He distilled that down to its *essential ten percent. The result is this book.

*In case you don't know this, "Sturgeon's Law" asserts that 90% of everything is (to paraphrase politely) trash.

I honestly believe that anyone who reads Godbody will be the better for it.I buy a copy for everyone I like, sooner or later, if they don't already own one.When they thank me, I tell them about the Sturgeon Project -- a republication of all the man's insightful, magical short stories.Eleven volumes thus far, beautiful hardbound treasures on my bookshelf, and I'm anxiously awaiting volume 12, which I hope contains my two favorite stories from a collection called Sturgeon is Alive and Well.Maybe, some day, someone will film them all.

Magic realism on a sexual Christ figure
A Christ figure comes to a small American town, bearing a message of love and compassion, expressed through making love.Some hear the message and are changed, others seek to destroy it.Despite the focus on love through sex, this is not camouflaged pornography, but a sincere attempt to present this vision by a master of speculative fiction.

Sturgeon presents the story through the first-person accounts of the people in the town, and handles this technique well.

Robert Heinlein, Stephen King, and Stephen Donaldson all praise the book highly.

Find this book and read it
This was my favorite book for quite a while.I read it while I was young, a teenager.I don't like it any less now, but I am no longer dealing with the same issues and don't think about it as much.It is to Sturgeon'scredit, though, that every reader review here has given the book thehighest possible rating.He was an enormously underrated American author;better than anyone else in SF and as good as any American author of the20th century (though to appreciate his skills, you'd have to read more thanjust Godbody).Fortunately, his short stories are being collected andreleased, the first five volumes being available currently through Amazon. As for Godbody, it is available in libraries (particularly in big cities),in used book stores, and through used book searches.Email me if you havedifficulty finding it.

Godbody is a life-changing book
This book opened my mind and blew my useless prejudices away. I read it shortly after reading Heinlein's _Stranger in a Strange Land_, and the combined effects of the two books made the world blossom for me. Iunderstood love, and I understood honesty, and I had Sturgeon and Heinleinto thank for it.

Sturgeon's book tenderly shows us that there ishumanity and value buried even in the most twisted personality. He shows usthe value of empathy. I strongly recommend Godbody, especially forChristians or recovering Christians. ... Read more