The Stars My Destination

Rating:
Summary: One of those books that change your life forever.
Review: My first experience with The Stars My Destination was when I was only 13 and at that time I read its Russian translation (I only recently began to learn English language). Since then, I consider it to be the best SF novel there is.
From its explosive begining, TSMD captured me with its amazing scenery, unusual - yet so closely familiar - protagonist and fresh writing style that characterize Bester's works. I won't go into details of TSMD's depth in terms of revolutionary but probable ideas, masterfully balanced pace, brilliant storyline, etc. They are all there, and some. All those elements, however are present in a number of other SF novels, yet I mark TSMD as the best one.
What makes Bester's masterpiece so special is the growth of the novel's protagonist. Starting as a mindless creature and through trial and error (as well as occasional twist of fate), Gully moves through the "evolutionary stages," eventually surpassing even the wildest expectations the reader might delevelop over the course of reading this novel. Depiction of Gully's "human" nature in all its perversion is simply brilliant. I can't believe 1950's public allowed that! But then making him use every conceivable method to fight that nature of his, bring it under control, it's really astonishing.
The buttom line: TSMD will be more than just a novel for many readers (myself included). It's a guide (perhaps somewhat sick and twisted, but still a guide) of how to change your life and pursue your goals, no matter the obstacle.

Rating:
Summary: Bester's Best
Review: The prologue of this book paints a whole world and time, into which is placed a truly unlikely, but unforgettable, main character, Gully Foyle. Who is introduced with: "He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead." Possibly the best opening line in all of SF. I still remember it 10 years after my last reading. Only the opening line in "Ringworld" comes close. Literally the textbook example of the "narrative hook."

The story, as such, is "The Count of Monte Cristo in the 25th Century" -- and Bester never claimed otherwise. But it's the fabric of the world he creates to set it in, the sheer mastery of prose, and audacity of his ambition, that sets this book apart from most. It's such a grand ride, like a roller coaster that keeps on going every time you thought there wasn't any more it could do.

A grand display of a first-rate writer at the peak of his form.

Is Demolished Man a better book? I don't think so, but, heck, read them both and decide for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Can revenge be transcendent?
Review: Setting: Hundreds of years in the future, Mankind has spread out to colonize the Moon, Mars, Venus (thus creating the Inner Planets), as well as the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune (the Outer Satellites). Man has also learned to "jaunte" or teleport himself over distances up 1,000 miles. The advent of jaunting radically changed the economies of all human-inhabited worlds, with the eventual reorganization of the Solar System into two camps (the Inner Planets and the Outer Satellites) of corporate fiefdoms or clans. A trade-war between the two major factions gradually grows, and eventually becomes outright war.

Gully Foyle is a thoroughly unsophisticated, uneducated, and unmotivated lump of a man, working as manual labor aboard a ship called the Nomad, which is owned by a large Inner Planet corporate clan. But, as the story begins, the Nomad is a derelict, full of holes, torn apart, and with only one airtight and air-filled room, where Gully Foyle has managed to survive for months, scavenging air, water, and food from the rest of the tattered hulk. Then, one day, another ship, the Vorga, comes within hailing distance, and Gully Foyle sets off every flare he can find. The Vorga stops . . . and then moves on.

Rage and a thirst for revenge are pale terms for the obsession that haunts Foyle from that day forward. Against all odds, he manages to escape, make his way back to Earth, make one failed attempt to destroy the Vorga, gets an education (the hard way), falls in love, completely remakes himself, and becomes a force to be reckoned with. Does he ever satisfy his thirst for revenge? Does he find happiness and peace? I'll leave that to you to discover.

"The Stars My Destination" is a bullet-train of adventure, mishap, triumph, setbacks, and metamorphosis. The characters are fascinating, the writing is flawless, symbolism and lessons abound, the pace is rocket-speed, the plot is complex but cohesive, and it's just a good, old-fashioned, great read. I had heard that this book was viewed by some as the greatest science fiction novel ever, and was skeptical. After reading it, I believe it is definitely a contender.

P.S.: The title has several meanings, the most important of which emerges only near the end. Chris McCallister

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest SF novels ever written.
Review: Capsule Description: Proto-Cyberpunkish dark future with some unique twists, a flawed and driven protagonist, and gripping action. On my Top Ten list. Read it. Buy it. Buy two and give one to a friend.

Review: Alfred Bester is generally recognized as one of the greatest writers of SF, especially on the strength of his plots and prose style. He made his reputation on short stories, but is best remembered for two novels: The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination (sometimes known as "Tiger! Tiger!" in the UK). First published in 1956, The Stars My Destination anticipated many of the staples of the later cyberpunk movement -- the megacorporations as powerful as the governments, body and mind redesign to specs, the dark overall nature of the world, even the cybernetic enhancement of the body. To this it added the standard "one wierd idea" of SF -- that human beings could learn to teleport, or "jaunte" from point to point, with various personal limitations but one overall absolute limit: no one could bridge the gap between a planet and anywhere in outer space. On the surface of a planet, the jaunte ruled supreme; off of it, mankind was still restricted to machinery. In this future world -- extrapolated with convincing and sometimes frightening accuracy by Bester -- we are introduced to the protagonist, Gulliver ("Gully") Foyle: "He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead..." Foyle is a former nobody, a man who had lots of potential but never had to use it, completely lazy, doing the minimum he could to get by, who is suddenly marooned in space with no escape. Even this isn't enough to motivate him beyond trying to find air and food on the wreck; he hasn't learned enough to know it's possible to FIND a way out of his situation. But he is galvanized to action when an apparent rescue ship deliberately passes him by.

In a sense, The Stars My Destination is simply a SF rewrite of a far older classic, The Count of Monte Cristo. It's the study of a capable, vengeance-driven man who escapes from an apparently impossible situation (twice, in Foyle's case) and returns as an utterly different man to wreak the vengeance that he was denied under his old name. Unlike many other Monte Cristo homages, however, Bester's is written with language fully as evocative as the original's, and with added intricate plot threads that make Gully Foyle's odyssey unique.

I cannot find sufficiently enthusiastic ways to recommend this book. It is one of the best, shining examples of what science fiction can be, in many ways. Read it.

Rating:
Summary: Another Jaunt for a Timeworthy Classic
Review: What incredible news for another generation of science fiction fans. Ever since I first read this novel, more than twenty-five years ago, I have always included it in my own "Top 10" list. This is rich tale of revenge and redemption set in a well-sketched, complex future society, bouyed by enough semi-hard SF to mask [pun intended] plot origins in Dumas, "The Stars My Destination" is a catching page-turner for a captive afternoon's enjoyment. THIS is one science fiction novel that would be a great movie. Arnold, are you listening? The central figure, Gulliver Foyle, floats through his life on the bottom of his society's ladder, until, under duress, he exhibits a skill that transforms him, and his society. In the process, he loses himself, his freedom, his heart and his humanity, in an excruciating series of incidents and challenges, ultimately finding simple love and simple human bonds are the true steel of existence. And society's beauties/norms/conventions may in truth be ugly. As would be typical of almost all novels from this era, the future society lacks obvious modern touches, but, overall, this book will have aged well. The S-F, rockets/space travel, planetary colonies, and the like are merely stage dressing for a psychological adventure. But don't worry, this isn't a psychobabble baby story. We should hate and despise Foyle, yet but the tale's end we are cheering him on. Since, "feeling his pain," we undergo the same transformation, and the stars are truly our destination. Can I say enough? They don't make them like this anymore.

Rating:
Summary: ... is filthy death for us
Review: Among the voluminous piles of predictable spaceships-and-aliens tomes of classic sci-fi, once in a while you'll find an off-kilter underground gem like this. Bester's bizarro novel from 1956 was way ahead of its time, at least in terms of sheer weirdness and cracked feats of the imagination. In this story, Bester has imagined a sci-fi future that is depressingly realistic - the miracles of interplanetary travel have been turned toward corporate profiteering, those who have learned teleportation and telepathy have used them for self-interested and criminal pursuits, and humans are still warring with themselves but now from different planets. This frantic universe and the frenetic story told here are being navigated by a quite strange character named Gully Foyle, whose relentless quest for personal revenge accidentally turns him into the nearly godlike figure that he narcissistically assumed himself to be. Gully's bizarre trips through Bester's strange universe will be matched only by the trippiness in your own brain, as you digest this story that was decades ahead of its time, if only for the very depths of its strangeness. [~doomsdayer520~]

Rating:
Summary: A classic work of hope and redemption.
Review: What a great book! And what a stupendous character is Gully Foyle! Brutish, nasty, self-centered, focussed, he hurts anyone and everyone in the drive for his answer: why he was left so dependent, so lonely.

And what a tremendous growth and rebirth he experiences! From ape to cosmic being, the stereotype common man, not recommended for promotion, becomes the newborn man of Clarke's 2001, a dream, a vision of tomorrow.

Pay attention to his epiphany: It isn't necessary to have something to believe in. It's only necessary to believe that somewhere there's something worthy of belief.

An outstanding, enriching addition to life.

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate in SF - It doesn't get any better!!!
Review: Why this hasn't been made into a full length motion picture, I haven't a clue.

And who could star in this awesome epic as our enigmatic hero???

Bruce Willis of course ;o)

Ahhhhhhhh, Vorga T-1339. I rot you filthy.

Doc

Rating:
Summary: It doesn't get any better
Review: I thought Asimov was the godfather of sci-fi, and then only recently I discovered Alfred Bester. This book is easily the best sci-fi novel I have read. It surpassed 2001 and the Foundation series on my top ten list. I hoped I haven't hyped it, but I simply have to encourage any fan of sci-fi to read this book.

Rating:
Summary: The medium contains the message.
Review: Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination (Vintage, 1956)

Considered by many (or so the book jacket tells us) the single finest science fiction novel ever written, The Stars My Destination (also known as Tiger! Tiger! in some parts of the world) is certainly a hefty train ride with a lot of fine sightseeing along the way. The best? I don't know, I'm not much of a science fiction fan. But it worked for me.

The Stars My Destination is the story of Gulliver Foyle, mechanic's mate third class on a ship called the Nomad when we come into the story. Or he was one, because the ship is a wreck, Foyle is the only survivor, and he's rapidly running out of air tanks. He sees a vessel going by him, and risks his life to get to the airless bridge and fire off the safety flares; the ship, called the Vorga, ignores him and goes on its merry way. He vows to stay alive long enough to revenge himself upon the Vorga and its crew, and thus we have ourselves a story.

Gully Foyle is, not to put too fine a point on it, an archetype. (If only more like him existed.) The brilliance of The Stars My Destination is that Bester is able to couch Foyle's archetypal qualities in a great story, showing once again that if you let the art speak, the message you have underlying the art will show through just fine. (Overemphasizing the message has turned innumerable potential works of art into innumerable realized crap.) He bounces around from episode to episode on his quest for revenge, acting, reacting, trying to figure out what to do next, and above all being a three-dimensional character, which far too many archetypes in literature are not. He is surrounded by a cast of other three-dimensional characters. And while some of the situations may look all too familiar to readers of cyberpunk (especially the large multinational corporations), don't let that put you off; Bester may have been the single biggest influence on cyberpunk, but he could outwrite the rings of Saturn around most of its practitioners. The multinational corporations in The Stars My Destination are not just big, faceless symbols of evil; the main B.M.C. not only has a name, it also has a face, and its face is one of the novel's main characters. And he's not just some two-dimensional pansy here to advance a knee-jerk anti-establishment position. Thank the lord.

In other words, a whole lot of writers today (if one counts amateurs, I would not hesitate to change that to "most writers today") have a lot to learn about writing from Mr. Bester's fine little novel, not only on constructing characters, but on how to let the art speak the message instead of letting the message crap on the art. (One wishes more artists, especially poets and songwriters, had spent the last half-century learning these lessons.)

Unfortunately, they may also learn that the unbearably stupid typographical tricks Bester resorts to about fifty pages before the end of the novel are okay, too. One wonders what on earth possessed the man to suddenly go from being an intelligent creator of a brilliant novel to being a literate five-year-old with a box of crayons, a few blank walls, and too much time on his hands. But that section of the book only lasts a few pages. You'll get through it quickly.

Must-reading, especially for the artists (including, especially, the writers) in the crowd. ****