The Cosmic Rape is a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel by Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...

, originally published as an original paperback in August 1958. At the same time, a condensed or edited-down version of the novel was published in Galaxy

Galaxy

A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...

magazine as a short novel, probably condensed by the editor, under the title To Marry Medusa. It was reprinted in 1977 by Pocket Books

Pocket Books

Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...

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Its plot concerns an extraterrestrial hive mind named Medusa, which has assimilated many worlds and life forms and plans to absorb Earth as well. Dan Gurlick is an alcoholic who unknowingly ingests a spore from Medusa, which turns him into a host.