Review by clong (2005-09-22)
Another strong collection from Sturgeon, although perhaps not quite up to the level of A Way Home. Sturgeon seems completely at home in the short story genre, more effective as a writer (to my taste) than his very famous novel More than Human. The short little title story was great, a humorous and affirming little fantasy episode. "The Touch of Your Hand" and "It Opens the Sky" were both brilliantly ambitious stories, that didn't quite fully realize their potential. "Mr. Costello, Hero" answers the burning question "what would happen if you let Karl Rove loose on a sparsely populated colony planet?"

I find it very interesting that so many of his stories feature emotional, and dare I say even "romantic" stories of relationships between men and women, in an era when female characters in science fiction tales either were non-existent, or were just there to be saved, protected, and ultimately appreciate the hero. This is not to say that these relationships are idealized in any way; they tend to be rather quirky. But then, in my experience, so does real life.