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: 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.
| 
