![]() Overall: flawed but thoughtful, often fascinating-with a potent theme (how to define humanity?), the brilliantly conceived alien jewels, and the usual Sturgeon weaknesses (disjointed plotting, pulp-ish patches) in the narration. in preparation for the ultimate showdown with the megalomaniac Maneater. (He controls Zena by controlling the crystal that made her.) So Zena, who recognizes that Horty is a jewel-being, helps him to develop a secure human personality. The carnival's owner, however, is a vicious, amoral doctor, the ""Maneater,"" who knows about the jewels: he can cause them great pain and thus force them to do his bidding. This is the strange tale of Horty, a little boy who ran away from home and took refuge in the bizarre world of the carnival. When Horty Bluett was adopted he arrived clinging to a beat-up doll with eyes that seemed to glow. ![]() ![]() But the rare paired jewels produce perfect copies-like young Horty, an apparently human lad who runs away from home and joins a carnival, where he's befriended by midget Zena and the other carnies. The Dreaming Jewels - Theodore Sturgeon 1985. Crystalline, jewel-like aliens, intelligent but utterly incomprehensible, exist on Earth as part of their life-processes, they sometimes produce flawed copies of objects, animals, or people. ![]() Sturgeon is excellent at conveying the emotions of children-a talent on ample display in this 1950 novel. ![]()
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