Rating: 
Summary: Well, I liked the end...
Review: Before I bought this book I have never heard of Alfred Bestler, and normally I don't read SF. But a few months ago, for one reason or another, I bought this book and have just now read it. When reading this book, I found myself going back in pages to re-read parts that I assume I must have missed. At some points I caught my self saying, "Huh?" To me, this book was interesting only to the point to keep me reading. It was at the end where I found this book most interesting and if I dare say thought provoking. I would have enjoyed this book if it were one giant continuous ramble about the concepts talked about at the end. So to summarize, it's worth putting up with the beginning so you could get to the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Two Stars My Destination
Review: I bought this book as a recommendation, based on the glowing reviews of this seminal classic work. This work is a classic in the sense that it is, indeed, old. Published in 1956, it provides an interesting insight into what fifties pulp authors thought the future might bring. Unfortunately, the only genuine insight I found in the entire novel is the potential impact of teleportation and telepathy. The characters seem to be one-dimensional creatures lifted bodily (but soullessly) from Ayn Rand--Evil money-grubbers and totalitarians bested by heroic, animalistic savage-...-philosopher. The plot is jerky and difficult, with a sensual/sexual violence and misogynistic bend often found in fifties pulp sci-fi. The Eisenhower Era obsession with The Bomb surfaces here with a new interplanetary, elementary ultra-weapon called PyrE, but that potentially fascinating plot thread is treated with the now-mundane Cold War “Mutually Assured Destruction” attitude and otherwise abandoned. The ending is reminiscent of third-season Star Trek, “then he teleported to the future, got the answers and gave everyone the clue they could use to save the universe--if only they listen.” Bah. This book is, I’m sure, fascinating to sci-fi archeologists, trowelling through the detritus of the dawn of Science Fiction, looking for the prototypes and seeds that grew into the thriving culture we see today. Unfortunately, all of the themes in this book have been done, and done better, even by Bester’s contemporaries. Remember that this man wrote in the time of Giants: Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein, Rand, and others. This book is acceptable reading, but to put in the “classic” category of the great early sci-fi writers is simply unwarranted. Two stars for good writing style and true (if shallow) characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Novel!
Review: I am primarily a reader of Fantasy like Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, etc. However, the newer books by these authors are not as good as their earlier works. I saw 'The Stars My Destination' on Amazon's Sci-Fi classics. I have read many modern sci-fi books like Dune, Foundation, etc. I think this book is easily as exciting and well- written as any of those books. What is amazing to me is that a book 50 years old can be this good! Read it, you won't be sorry you did!
Rating:
Summary: Vintage Science Fiction at its Finest
Review: In the age of 1000-page best-sellers, this succinct tale of struggle in the 25th century comes as unusually refreshing. The reader will be pleasantly impressed by the supersonic pace of the story as well as by the subtle writing skill of the author. The book is full of witty yet futuristic remarks, many of which are strangely familiar: religion gone underground, drugs, environmental protection, doomsday weapons... All these point to the fact that the author is endowed with truly amazing vision. Bester is remembered for his 2 science fiction masterpieces: Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination. Whereas the former is essentially a crime mystery, The Stars My Destination is loosely based on the Count of Monte Christo, a tale of revenge. The main argument, though, is that desperation will drive a person to achieving the impossible. In the science fiction realm, this may also drive a man to reach for the stars...
Rating: 
Summary: Worth Reading to understand modern SCIFI
Review: I read this book because of the many raves it has gotten from friends. I liked it, but did not love it the way many other readers do. However, Bester's work is an integral step in the creation of modern sci fi. In many ways his work prefigures great works like Hyperion and Diamond Age. People who love the genre should take the time to read his work, just so they can understand the juncture between the old masters (Asimov, Clarke, etc) and the moderns.
Rating:
Summary: One of the classics of the gendre.
Review: It is incredible that this book is not dated at all. It has reallys stood the test of time, both in terms of the technologies described and in relation to potential socioeconomic changes in Earth and further afield. The concept of a new nobility derived from the great commercial empires is practically a reality today. What is most incredible about this book is the appeal of Gully Foyle. This is a nasty character, an unambitious layabout who has a life changing experience and becomes a dedicated seeker of revenge. This dedication to revenge galvanises him to learn, create build and do all a good man can do, but all in the name of destruction. Foyle is thief, rapist, killer, liar, and yet manages to retain his position as the "hero" of the tale. On some level we identify with this ignorant brute. That in itself is a salutory lesson in good writing. A seminal Sci-fi classic. This book is one every real sci-fi fan should have permanently in the bookcase.
Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: Many people have told me that this novel is the greatest sf novel ever written. This novel was written in 1956 when the standards of sf literature were different. I can see how in its day this was a groundbreaking novel. It was the first cyberpunk novel and it's influence on the sf genre is obvious. While I can appreciate that, any great novel should be able to stand the test of time. I don't just mean the science, that can be overlooked (and scientific advancement has not been kind to this book). It is well written apart from the occasional infodump and the plot is fairly tight. However, certain surprises felt cheap to me. Kind of like a mystery where it's impossible for the reader to guess the outcome ahead of time because there were no clues given to form a hypothesis. The characters are shallow, their motivations suspect and there are a some glaring logic flaws. One character is motivated to destroy as many people as they can because of a disability even though millions have had that disability before and got along just fine. The inner planets can't attack the outter satellites because their secret weapon is missing, even though the outer satellites have no problem attacking the inner planets several times with conventional weapons. Reviewing by today's standards I give this novel 2 stars. It is an enjoyable read and its influences on the genre are many. But compared to contemporary sf, I find it a little lacking. If you are a big fan of golden age sf or of Burroughs you will probably enjoy this more than I did.
Rating:
Summary: Well, I liked it
Review: If there's anything to say about it for me, well, it was intriging. Certainly worth the dime I paid for it at a garage sale, so it wasn't a waste of money the way some books are. I thought the image of the burning man following the main character around was interesting, and everyone stayed in character. I liked it. PS, Guy fiction? What's that? Does that make me a more mannish woman than I thought I was, that I enjoyed this book?
Rating:
Summary: A unique character i'll always remember
Review: This is the story of a mysteriously important, revenge-crazed, invalid named Gulliver Foyle who lives in a world where nearly every human beings has the ability to teleport. Quite a premise I'd say so if you're expect a good book, you would be wrong; it's an AMAZING book. Foyle's psychological drives and his personal metamorphasis make him an extremely well developed character placed at the center of an expertly crafted plot. However, Mr. Foyle is not your typical hero, in fact he's more of a deceptively resourceful anti-hero who rapes, takes advantage of others, is completely ruthless and yet remains the one I was rooting for. I was captivated by each convoluted twist, which never seemed to stop, and when it finally came together at the end, I sighed a breath of awe and then felt somewhat sad that the story had come to a close. I congragulate Alfred Bester on creating such a memorable character and I recommend this book to any serious SciFi fan and even to those who aren't.
Rating:
Summary: Inventive, colorful and flawed
Review: In this innovative 1956 novel, Alfred Bester laid the groundwork for cyberpunk. He made use of biological, biomechanical and psychological angles which were rarely seen or entirely absent in contemporaneous sf. The science is of course a bit dated and in some cases actually wrong; nontheless, it was an impressive step forward in its time. Bester did a reasonable job of trying to envision the impact of his central concept, i.e. 'What if people could travel by telekinesis?' Indeed, he took the unusual step of beginning with a prologue explaining how this 'jaunting' came about. He thus brings us up to speed quickly, albeit at the risk of boring us with several pages of raw exposition. Unfortunately, in this novel and so many other sf works, the whole 'What if?' question proves to be a terribly simplistic way to posit an entire future society, and on even a cursory inspection it fails to hold up or even to maintain its own internal logic. The quasi-Victorian treatment of women is especially rankling to modern sensibilities and fails to make much sense even in the book's structure. The novel is cleanly written and tightly plotted, but lacks anything that resembles nuanced characterization. A revenge motive and event narration are what you get. Bester has a good ear for dialog and comes on tougher than than you'd expect for a '50s sf novel. This makes the book seem a bit more sophisticated than it actually is. The novel contains a good deal of lightweight corporate and political satire, and the political view expressed at the end seems incredibly naive. On its merits, this is a tightly-plotted space opera with a breathless pace, innovative technical gimmickry, shallow characterization and second-rate political satire. This is also a tale of transcendence, of a supposedly 'common man' who ends up changing the world. Alas, in sf, even writers who seem willing to elevate the 'common man' from his usual position of contempt are unable to let him *be* a common man. The journey of Gully Foyle from low-life spacer to self-educated world-changer rings hollow because it's just a few steps short of the scientifically-induced change in "Flowers For Algernon". In short, I feel this novel is a good light read. Its actual quality has been wildly overrated, but I do recognize its historical significance. Cyberpunk and a scene in "2001:A Space Odyssey" demonstrate this significance well enough.
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