Rating: 
Summary: Gully Foyle vs. the Universe
Review: Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination functions as not only an exhilarating science fiction novel, but as both a profoundly prophetic allegory and a curious homage. In the world that Bester has painted, with his richly futuristic palette, humans are capable of teleportation, deep space travel, and staggering devastation via the psychokinetic weapon "PyrE." However, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Corporations are still in control of much of public policy. The elite are still able to disconnect themselves from common life. The inarticulate outcast is still disenfranchised, and left with a bitter thirst for vengeance. When he wrote this fantastical novel detailing Gully Foyle's crusade to find the Vorga and obliterate those who left him for dead, Bester probably did not foresee an era in which the marginalized lash out at a government they believe has equally left them for dead. He did not foresee a world in which unskilled and untrained pariahs would take on the world through anonymous, yet far-reaching acts of terror. The Stars My Destination aims to please; it combines suspense with action and romance. However, it might be wise to look upon this novel with a contemporary eye, realizing that the possible future that Bester outlined has all but arrived. Incidentally, it is also important to note that The Stars My Destination is loosely based upon a much older masterpiece, The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexander Dumas. Although, at times, this seems as a mere inside joke, the saga of Gully Foyle would be naught without the swashbuckling tale of Edmond Nantes. Bester blazed a trail for all subsequent science-fiction writers, from classical to cyberpunk. This is the reason that many consider The Stars My Destination to be the greatest science fiction novel ever.
Rating:
Summary: Some people call this one "The Best SF Book Ever".
Review: They are absolutely and completely right. Even a weak Bester book can put to shame many respectable SF (and mainstream) writers, but THIS is Bester at his PEAK. The saga of Gully Foyl, his quest for revenge of the spaceship which abandoned him, a non-stop action tale which makes the reader laugh even before realizing he was crying, this is, to my opinion, a true masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: the greatest
Review: For the longest time Child Hoods End was my favorite book, beyond reach of anything Ive read. That is until i read Stars My Destination. This book is quick and captivating. It took me less then a week to read it. Just when you think, "Ill read one more chapter," you'll read 10 more. I often felt I was watching a movie in my head when reading this. There is non-stop action and non-stop adventure. The ending is complex and intriguing. I recommend this to anyone who loves adventure and sci-fi. Heck, i recommend this to everyone who can read!
Rating: 
Summary: Half brilliant, half rehash
Review: "The Stars My Destination" is, at its heart, a fusion of two dissimilar stories. It's Fifties scifi written in the shadow of the H-Bomb, colliding with "The Count of Monte Cristo." Bester does a pretty decent job on both aspects. The novel's best feature is Bester's ability to spin out the consequences of something monumental, like easy teleportation. He thought these changes through and presented them well, although some "futuristic" elements of the story seem gratuitous, added in just to generate a sense of difference from the real world. The "Monte Cristo" storyline is handled well enough, but he muddles it with a messianic ending and other unrelated jazz. There's a clumsy plot device about the twenty-fifth century equivalent of the atomic bomb and a "Jesus of the Spacemen" ending that comes from nowhere. Another outsider to bring wisdom and enlightenment to all of the Earthbound boobies, showing us our true potential? -sigh- Again? At least that part is kept short. The revenge storyline takes up the bulk of the book. The characters are decently rendered, although it's bizarre how the women fall in love with the male characters so fast. Most all of the romances in the novel seemed arbitrary. One impressive thing was to see how the main character actually changed over the course of the book. Granted this change was cribbed from "Monte Cristo," but it works. It's a fun book and a worthy SF read, but it ain't a classic for the ages. I say check it out.
Rating:
Summary: A Timeless Classic
Review: This story never ages on me - having read it at least 4 times. This view of a civilization where everyone can travel by teleportation -"Jaunting" - is well drawn and complete. A story of revenge against a background of interplanetary war in a seething future that still seems possible even after being written 40 years ago. Micro surgery, teleportation, space travel, telekinesis, and finally time travel, its all there. High speed story telling - this one cannot be put down until the climax. This better than Dune. There are science fiction themes presented here for the first time you will read in other books. If you haven't red this one - you don't know Science Fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Gully Foyle
Review: Over the last few years I've read loads of science fiction, from "Battlefield Earth" to "Dune" and everything I could find in between. What I love about science fiction are the inspired ideas you find in it and the boundless freedom the writer has in expressing them. "The Stars My Destination" may not be a literary masterpiece: there are chapters in it that are-at best-arguable, however at it's best it is one of the best books ( not just science fiction ) that I've read. The protagonist Gully Foyle takes you on a rollercoaster ride around our solar system and although he starts out as a thorougly despicable person, he manages to get under your skin so that in the end you can't help but feel sorry for him. A friend of mine pointed out that there are alot of other cool characters in it like: Saul Dagenham, Prestige of Prestige and Jizibel. None of them comes close to Gully in my opinion, he made such an impression that he's about as easily forgotten as Myshkin and Raskolnikoff in Dostoyevski's masterpieces. I'm usually pretty sceptical of these reviews that give 5 stars, I've had some bad buys here because of them. I'm not going to say that it's a book for everyone, but I'm pretty sure if you like excitement, intrigue, mystery and drama you'll love this book. I, for one, will never forget that opening scene "Vorga, I kill you filthy".
Rating:
Summary: Still mind-blowing after all these years
Review: I came to Alfred Bester's oeuvre long after he died, and when most sci-fi readers thought that Frank Hebert's Dune was the be-all and end-all of all science fiction. (I am not dissing Dune here -- that book remains the definitive example of what critics mean by "worldbuilding" and is a must-read in its own right.) But The Stars My Destination is something completely other. What I mean is, the writing is crisp. Unlike Clarke and Asimov, Bester's Gully Foyle doesn't explain, he DOES. In fact, that is what makes Gully Foyle so special, both as a character in a fictional novel, and as the main character in Bester's fast-paced story. Gully, with all his anger and violence and baser instincts, manages to become a groundbreaker because he is not hampered by conscience or intellectualism. Gully does everything from the gut -- the personification of what it means to have a "fire in the belly." Consequently, nothing he does is boring. Gully will keep you on the edge of your seat, hungering for what's next. That's what makes this book so compelling, and keeps it compelling nearly fifty years after it was written. We believe Bester's vision because it is not based on airy-fairy, overthought "what-if" concepts that have plagued science fiction writers from the beginning. Bester's vision draws from our animal instincts, those parts of us we just can't seem to think away. It's a breath of fresh air, even today. Maybe that's why some of today's most innovative writers cite to Bester's work, and this book particularly, as a key influence.
Rating:
Summary: Epic sci-fi of the first magnitude
Review: The most astounding thing about this book is how fresh and vibrant it feels, even after more than forty years. Whereas so much of the sci-fi written in the 1950s feels dated, breathless and trite, this book could have been written today. Actually--on second thought--the book probably couldn't have been written today: it's just too good. From the initial scene of anti-hero Gully Foyle stranded in the remains of a wrecked spaceship drifting near Jupiter to the final, mind-blowing climax, Bester proves himself to be one of sci-fi's unsung masters. The plot moves like the wind: just as you feel that you have grounded your understanding of the book and are settling in, Bester drops you through yet another conceptual trap-door and leaves you breathless. As the great Samuel Delaney himself noted, this is possibly the finest sci-fi book ever written. Buy it today.
Rating:
Summary: A SciFi masterpiece. Really. Well, close enough anyway.
Review: A SciFi masterpiece. Really. Well, close enough anyway. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this book is that it was written in 1956, a year before Sputnik, and it seemed as modern as anything written this year. A very fast paced, very exciting story full of twists, new ideas and intrigue. My only complaint is a few too many coincidences, you know, the unlikely kind where the 10 main characters have highly unlikely connections.
Rating: 
Summary: Looking Up Into the Sky
Review: My first impression of the book The Stars My Destination was quite a confused one. The book, being science fiction, used many terms that are not known to the modern world. For example, "gutter slang" was used throughout the book, supposedly the way people of the lower classes communicated. However, it was quite difficult to comprehend and one would have to read the passages several times to understand the real "gist" of it. The characters in the novel, in my opinion, were very creatively chosen in respect to their personalities and actions. All the characters possess different types of personalities, all of which we see in the modern world. The author portrays the way the people react to one another's actions quite well, for in the plot comes many conflicts, which are solved in ways many people would not expect.
The best qualities of the book are the story line and the way conflicts were solved in the story. The story line was action filled and refreshing, allowing the reader to both analyze situations and enjoy a well-written plot at the same time. Furthermore, the story line does not "go with the flow" of many of the story lines of other works, and therefore adds a sensation of mystery and curiosity for the reader, and making it hard for them to "put the book down" in the middle of the novel. The way conflicts are resolved in the novel are also quite puzzling and yet refreshing for the mind. Unlike most novels, The Stars My Destination includes many conflicts that are not necessarily "resolved" completely, which is what one would see in the world today. Therefore, the book pertains to the living styles or human nature rather than the "dreamsville" we all long to live in.
The one thing that makes this plot hard to understand is the "gutter language" used throughout the novel. The main character, Gulliver Foyle, comes from the dregs of society, and therefore speaks gutter lingo, which is not at all grammatically correct or flowing, and in turn makes it hard for the reader to comprehend what he is trying to say at times. On the other hand, the language is very fitting due to the fact that Gulliver is uneducated and supposedly of a lazy nature. So in essence, the language chosen would be the best choice, however confusing the language might seem.
In whole, I believe that the novel, The Stars My Destination was very well written. If you enjoy adventurous plots and have a widespread imagination, The Stars My Destination is a great book for you.
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