Gettin' all Literary

[cyrano]

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester


My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Maybe my expectations were too high. Bester is one of the revered grandfathers of Science Fiction, and I'd wanted to read his works for a while. And while for the most part this is a readable story, it has not aged well. I was glad to see non-white characters in fifties SF, I readily admit, but the women were painful to read. The story is a sort of Randian proto-cyberpunk space opera Count of Monte Cristo, and our main character is repeatedly described as the Everyman, nothing distinguishing about him, nothing outstanding. That is, until he gets a case of Vengeance Fever. Then he becomes our proletariat juggernaut, his thirst for blood making him uberspecial. Suddenly all women loathe and desire him, and all men fear and admire him. He punches and rapes his way across the solar system until, four pages from the end, he undergoes a dramatic philosophic transformation, emerging from his chrysalis to unlock the secrets of the universe and shatter technological boundaries.
The good and the bad were well marbled in this book, and you can't separate them without destroying the work, I don't think. I'll still read Demolished Man, but with adjusted expectations.

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Comments

[reluctantgenius.livejournal.com]

I found The Demolished Man to suffer from some of the same culture-bound faults as you find here, but I still found it well worth reading. If you get a chance, Psychoshop is still Bester, but cleaned up by Silverberg.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Excellent--I think Bester definitely deserves credit for the work he did in the genre, and I can see a trip to the library in my future. (:

[reluctantgenius.livejournal.com]

If that fails, I do have a copy of Psychoshop I could loan you.

[drivingblind.livejournal.com]

Psychoshop was a HOOT, especially when you see little hints of the ways in which Zelazny got a hold of it.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I don't see Psychoshop in the library, and it's not in "Virtual Unrealities".

[reluctantgenius.livejournal.com]

It's a full-length book based on some notes Bester left at his death. Roger Zelazny picked it up and ran with it. As db says, it's a hoot.

[drivingblind.livejournal.com]

Aw, man. I really liked this book when I read it. Don't break my illusions.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

That's my job--I'm a bitter misanthrope who finds that the dreams of others taste like bile and therefore must quench their flame.
And I wish I *had* really liked it. There's a lot in the book to like. And I can obviously put up with *some* misogyny, given the number of Harlan Ellison books I'm taking to the used bookstore. (That will pinch.)

[drivingblind.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Unfortunately, misogyny is the speedbumps in the parking lot that is earlier era SF.