More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
Published 1953 · 75,674 words · about 5 hours at an average pace · Science Fiction
How hard is More Than Human to read?
More Than Human scores 47 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 45 out of 100
- Poetic, sensuous prose with psychological vocabulary. Sturgeon writes with a poet's precision.
- Sentence structure: 52 out of 100
- The first section uses fragmented, stream-of-consciousness syntax. Later sections shift to clearer styles. Deliberately varied.
- Abstraction: 58 out of 100
- The gestalt concept and its ethical implications require abstract thinking. The final section is explicitly philosophical.
- Information density: 45 out of 100
- Emotionally dense rather than informationally dense. Every scene carries psychological weight.
- Narrative indirection: 50 out of 100
- Three sections with different protagonists and styles create a mosaic. The reader must connect the pieces.
- Symbolic density: 60 out of 100
- The gestalt as humanity's next evolutionary step. Each member's disability represents the insufficiency of isolated individuality.
- Ironic distance: 30 out of 100
- Sturgeon writes with raw emotional sincerity. The misfits' suffering is presented without ironic distance.
- Resolution withholding: 35 out of 100
- The gestalt achieves conscience. The resolution is hopeful and clear.
- Structural complexity: 55 out of 100
- Three distinct sections with different protagonists, styles, and timeframes. The triptych structure is the novel's formal innovation.
How More Than Human is regarded
More Than Human holds a literary regard score of 49 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.