Eight-year-old Horty Bluett is mocked by his classmates and abused by his adoptive parents until the day his father severs three of his fingers. He runs away, taking only a gem-eyed doll he calls Junky, and joins a carnival. Finding acceptance at last, Horty never dreams that Junky is more than a toy, nor does he realize that a threat far greater than his cruel father inhabits the carnival and has been searching for Horty longer than he has been alive. Though less well-known than Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, or Robert A. Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) is even more important to the development of literary and humanistic science fiction. He received the Hugo, Nebula, and International Fantasy Awards, and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award. The Dreaming Jewels (1950) was his first novel. --Cynthia Ward
From the Inside Flap
Winner of the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Life Achievement Awards
"One of the masters of modern science fiction."--"The Washington Post Book World
Eight-year-old Horty Bluett has never known love. His adoptive parents are violent; his classmates are cruel. So he runs away from home and joins a carnival. Performing alongside the fireaters, snakemen and "little people," Horty is accepted. But he is not safe. For when he loses three fingers in an accident and they grow back, it becomes clear that Horty is not like other boys. And it is a difference some people might want to use.
But his difference risks not only his own life but the lives of the outcasts who provided for him, for so many years, with a place to call home. In The Dreaming Jewels, Theodore Sturgeon renders the multiple wounds of loneliness, fear, and persecution with uncanny precision. Vividly drawn, expertly plotted, The Dreaming Jewels is a Sturgeon masterpiece.
"An intensely written novel and very moving novel of love and retribution."--"Washington Star From the Back Cover
In The Dreaming Jewels, Theodore Sturgeon, winner of the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award, renders the multiple wounds of loneliness, fear, and persecution with uncanny precision. Eight-year-old Horty Bluett has never known love. His adoptive parents are violent; his classmates are cruel. So, when his stepfather slams Horty's hand in a door, severing three fingers, Horty runs away from home taking only his beloved doll, Junky, and joins the carnival.Performing alongside the fire-eaters, snakemen, and "little people", Horty is accepted. But he is not safe. For among the freaks is a man who knows that Junky is not a normal doll and that Horty is not a normal boy -- and he knows why Horty's fingers have mysteriously grown back. Using this knowledge he will threaten not only the life of the boy, but the lives of the outcasts who provided the boy with a place to call home. Vividly drawn, expertly plotted, The Dreaming Jewels is a Sturgeon masterpiece.
About the Author
Theodore Sturgeon (1918–1985) is considered one of the godfathers of contemporary science fiction and dark fantasy. The author of numerous acclaimed short stories and novels, among them the classics More Than Human, Venus Plus X, and To Marry Medusa, Sturgeon also wrote for television and holds among his credits two episodes of the original 1960s Star Trek series, for which he created the Vulcan mating ritual and the expression “Live long and prosper.” He is also credited as the inspiration for Kurt Vonnegut’s recurring fictional character Kilgore Trout. Sturgeon is the recipient of the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the International Fantasy Award. In 2000, he was posthumously honored with a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement.
