Rating: 
Summary: Try it... you might just love it.
Review: I could go on for a very long time about this book, but here's what it all boils down to: Yes, the book has fundamental flaws (sexism, questionable science), and is stylistically quite odd and not for all tastes. However, I still give it the highest rating possible, because a book that attempts something very easy and pulls it off perfectly is not nearly as valuable as a work that tries something much harder and comes close. With this story, Bester sets the bar higher than most writers seem capable of even imagining, and since I believe he achieves most of what he set out to do, what we are left with is a landmark achievement. If it does 'click' with you, you'll be eternally grateful you gave it a chance.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but dated...
Review: This book was written in 1956 and the reader can tell. Though there are some uncharacteristically strong female characters in this book (for the 1950's), they all fall in lock step behind some male character in the book and become submissive and completely unbelievable. Each of the lead female characters just happens to fall in love with one of Gully Foyle's pursuers. A testimony to the times in which the book was written. In the 1950's men were not allowed to feel and most of the male characters are either souless or deserve pity of some kind. The tepid of romance in this book was strained with men falling in love with women on sight without getting to know them. It would have been a much better novel without it. Aside from these huge flaws, I found the book an exciting read, full of intrigue suspense and some surprises.
Rating: 
Summary: A model of how SF should be
Review: This is a killer novel. It tells a great story that is timeless yet encompassess the realm of classic SF.I highly reccomend it. Tak!
Rating:
Summary: Best space opera ever.
Review: I suppose I've read this novel ten or twelve times in the past 30-some years. I always get something new out of it. Many people call it the best science fiction novel ever written, and I wouldn't argue strongly against that -- but isn't it curious that the science is absolute bullshit and the plot is frankly stolen from _The Count of Monte Christo_? In his encyclopedia, John Clute characterized Bester as "cynical, baroque and aggressive," and I think that sums up his unique charm and drive. Probably the best "space opera" ever written. If you haven't read it (and its companion _The Demolished Man_), you don't really know science fiction. I knew Bester slightly, and didn't like him. Egotistical and manipulative. The fact that I didn't like him but nevertheless will take time out to encourage people to buy his books might be worth something.
Rating:
Summary: A Sci-Fi Classic
Review: If you think about the future a few centuries from now, or if you like the idea of unlimited powers of the human mind, humanity in general, and one particular person, you MUST READ this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Like plot, like protagonist.
Review: I'm not one to chastise a story for being outdated. And I have to admit, this particular book does reflect its years with dignity in a conceptual context. Unfortunately, the plot never really ascends to its full potential. Like its hero in the beginning, the book is a well of possibilities with no purpose to drive it to greatness. Also, inconsistencies and non-researched science (the light side of the moon always faces the sun...there is no 14-day swap in light and darkness) hamper the story to anyone who can recall the last few pages or who's spent ten seconds in a high-school physics class. Morally, the book runs a tad preachy (don't abandon faith for it shall set you free) and ideologically it never really takes off. Recommendation: read Welles...fat dead men are always a kick.
Rating:
Summary: Great Stuff
Review: Tyger! Tyger! (dumbed-down to "The Stars my Destination" for American audiences who don't know their Blake) has one of the most gripping first 30 pages I've ever read. The hero's hopeless condition--trapped in an air-tight tool locker on board a drifting, half-wrecked and thoroughly perforated spaceship--and his efforts to escape this condition are gripping. Readers will find themselves unconsciously holding their breath as he ventures out of his prison in a tankless-space suit, the air in the suit rapidly fouling. The novel is not uniformly excellent from that point on (Bester's "Demolished Man" is a more sustained achievement), but the worst parts are better than the crap churned out today, and there are many scenes as engaging as the first. One of the other reviewers derided "Tyger! Tyger!" for being based on only one idea. This is exactly right. Bester changed one important thing, and from this change flowed all the myriad details of his fictional world. This is to be contrasted with too much recent science fiction, in which the author starts by changing half-a-dozen variables--the future has cold fusion, an alien race who feed off of emotions, intelligent oceans--and isn't content until he's added miniature apes and lunar Maoists. What creativity! Bester's acheivment arises from one simple change, a change, furthermore, intimately connected to the character at the center of the fiction, a character whose "fearful symmetry" will linger long in the brain.
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly advanced for its time
Review: Remove the publishing date and a couple of outmoded concepts, and this book could have been written yesterday - not decades ago. I would recommend it to any fan of more recent "cyber" works (W. Gibson et al). It's a good, fast, harsh read.
Rating:
Summary: Still good after all these years...
Review: I have read this book 3-4 times in the last 26 years and each time it is as enjoyable as the first.
Rating:
Summary: Bester at his Best
Review: Everyone has their own opinions on Bester's work, and here's mine. This is Bester at his finest. That's it. Fast-paced narrative, excellent plot, outstanding characterization, insights to human nature, what more do you want? Much better than some of his mediocre stories collected in Virtual Unrealities. This is where Bester solidified the intense narrative he first experimented with in his superb "The Demolished Man." It's a great book, and it hasn't aged a second in the 40+ years since it was published.
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