Pre-registered before reading, will edit entry once read. Short story collection.

Sturgeon is a strange author, known for the maxim 90% of everything is crud (with the occasional addendum "...but the remaining 10% is worth dying for").

Derm Fool is a strange story about a couple who are literally falling apart, and actually end up putting their condition to good use. Unique, for sure.

The Haunt is rather cruddy, with poor treatment of a woman and a protagonist who's just an asshole. How To Kill Aunty is a bit off but has a somewhat fitting twist. Artnan Process is imaginative but nothing to write home about.

On the other hand, The Pod And the Barrier has a surprising and unique solution to a well-realized sci-fi puzzle, a solution even the characters are unaware of. And The World Well Lost is a well-ahead-of-it's-time tale about the power and joy of love, whatever form it takes. And also the power of prejudice and stupidity.

Thus the loverbird episode became another item in the weary procession of proofs that Terra's most reasonable intolerance can conquer practically anything, even magic.

Left in waiting room, along with Interesting Times and Bibblings