Rating: 
Summary: Blind-sided from the past
Review: I had always considered myself well versed in the pantheon
of classic science fiction until one day one of my 7th grade students
(the son of an editor) put this book in my hands and told me that I had to read it.
On a two hour flight to Knoxville, my ideas of modern science fiction
were obliterated, much as the title would indicate.
Because of the telepathic talents of some of humanty, murder
has become an unpleasant detail of human history. Cooperate giant Ben
Reich is about to change all of that. Tormented by both his dreams and his
rival, Reich decides to end both the man with no face and D'Courtney
with one brutal act that will shock society to it's knees.
Then begins the cat a mouse game between Reich and
telepathic policeman Lincoln Powell. Have fun figuring out
which man is the cat! Bester paints Reich as the solitary genius
with such skill that he is compellingly sympathetic while
still being horrifically repugnant in his motivations and actions.
As the story progressed, I found myself wishing for the coldly
calculating Reich to succeed in his rather brutal scheme
and get away with it, in spite of myself. At he same time, Powell proved to be
as admirable as his adversary by balancing his own intellegence with
an equally ruthless sense of honor. Add to the detailed insight into the mind and character of Reich
a rich tapestry of the society that telepathy has produced and you get a
view of future history that is both optimistic and unsettling.
In spite of it's rather short length, "The Demolished Man" is very complete in
the details of life and society in future earth. There is no other
book that could be the first Hugo Award winner. I can only thank my student
for openning my eyes to this major icon of Science fiction literature
Rating:
Summary: Four, sir; three, sir; two sir; one -- go and get this book!
Review: "The Demolished Man" by Alfred Bester won the first-ever Hugo Award, and it's obvious why it did. Extremely well written in a cyber-punk/comic book style, this book was revolutionary when it appeared in the 1950s, and remains fresh 50 years later. Fascinating idea, executed with style and panache, this book ranks up there among the best science fiction books ever, and a must read for anyone who likes that genre. Amazing. Still, having said that, I have to agree with another reviewer who points out that this is NOT Bester's best book, and that just about everything done so well in "The Demolished Man" is done even better in Bester's all-time classic, "The Stars My Destination." As usual, Bester explores themes of power, the human mind, personal freedom and privacy (in a world where telepaths can read your thoughts and where crimes can be detected before they happen), politics, high and low society, money, the nature of truth and reality, sanity, and the grayness of morality. All this is even more impressive given that the book was written during the paranoid, good vs. evil, democracy vs. communism, Joe McCarthy red-baiting 1950s. In fact, "The Demolished Man" can be read on one level as a clever commentary on/"demolition" of that strange decade. As in "The Stars My Destination," Bester writes in a highly entertaining, creative, and unique way, with unexpected - and often subtle - humor, plays on words and language in general, and song lyrics which are guaranteed to drive any telepath far away from your thoughts ("Tenser, said the Tensor. Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun."). This is not a perfect book, with obvious flaws in the plot and a somewhat contrived ending, but these are relatively minor problems. Overall, this is a work of soaring imagination and style, and I highly recommend it to everyone. So, go out and get this book, before the countdown ends - "Four, sir; three, sir; two sir; one!"
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting pulp...
Review: Well, to start a review of a first Hugo winner, one would need to compose ones mind, to agree with himslef what he has to say to other readers...I did that, and I still do not have a clue whaat to say to you. If you watched Minority Report you know the general outline of a world...It is the world where any crime is not possible, becouse one can not hide his raw instincts in a world of telepath... But Ben Reich did that, he murdered, with passion, in with that act he started his fight with society...Of course, one can not succesfully fight society which is the moral note of every anti-utopian book...
This is not the story of the world, world is presented in scratches, in the bits of information that we need to now to build a case for our character, this is the story about the desperate act in a world where desperate acts are not permitted...
where does, if it does, it fail? Plotline, development, dialogues are something that you will find in every pulp novel out there, book is interesting and you will not be able to stop reading it, but one can see too much influence of the SF writting stile of '50s...
Average book that you should read to build your common knowledge (or culture, as some would call it)...
Rating:
Summary: The Best Science Fiction Novel
Review: Even 49 years after its initial publication, The Demolished Man still stands as a true science fiction novel. The story of Ben Reich living in a future world where mind reading is a commonality amongst a group known as 'Espers.' In a world without crime, for one can know when you will commit one, how is one to go about plotting a murder? Ben Reich has the perfect plan. This book captivated me from beginning to end when I read it 10 years ago and I continually reccomend it to those that enjoy science fiction. Author, Alfred Bester, won the first Hugo Award for Science Fiction for The Demolished Man. In my opinion this book is still the hallmark of science fiction novels, unfortunately, however, Bester himself is so unheard of in many literary circles and more so in the general public. I highly reccomnend this book for anyone who has a flare for science fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Hugo series start with a bang
Review: The Demolished Man was the first novel to win the Hugo award. The book has everything: plot, strong characters. In the future, to committ a crime is an impossible task, due to all those telepaths running around. In case somebody do committ a crime, there is no prison ,what they do is just swipe your mind clean. However, Ben Reich decided that he will committ a crime anyway, He is even hired a telepath to help him to block his thougths. This is actually more the detective novel developing in Futuristic scenario. The Demolished Man is a novel of the future, where along with all new ways of life and powerful technology, only one thing remains unsolved: the mystery of human soul. P.S. Also if you like this novel read The Stars, My Destination. I think, this is the best novel Alfred Bester written.
Rating:
Summary: Tension, Apprehension, and Dissension Have Begun...
Review: Bester was a writer of the 50s, the brute-force, high-tension 50s of film noir, cool jazz, Brando, Tennesee Williams, and "Sweet Smell of Success". Nowhere is the essential nature of the decade better depicted than in his two novels of the period, "The Demolished Man" and "The Stars My Destination".
The premise of "The Demolished Man" is simplicity itself: how do you go about committing murder in a society where the cops can read minds, and alternately, how does the telepathic cop nail his man when he knows damn well he's guilty but has no evidence? A not unusual SF premise, more compelling than most, perhaps. But what makes "Demolished Man" worth reading a half-century on is its milieu and style. Bester was that rarity in SF, a writer of true sophistication. There is not a page of this novel that does not glow with that sense of knowledge of the world beyond the pulps. Some of us, alas, grew up thinking that this was what SF should be. (William Gibson learned from this novel--though not enough.) There was scarcely room for this kind of thing in the 50s. There is no room for it now, nor any sign that there ever will be again.
In its final pages, "Demolished Man" makes a metaphysical shift from detective story into something else, a near-religious leap of transcendance that could only be portrayed in science fiction, and then only in the best. A widely-known feature of the genre is the fact that its writers tend to stick to well-worn paths, grinding out the same ideas over and over. When Bester finished with the theme of "Demolished Man", no writer touched it ever again. Nobody dared try.
Rating:
Summary: One of the science fiction greats
Review: (First, just to make something clear: this book has no connection to the Snipes/Stallone stinker movie _Demolition Man_.) Bester's first novel (after years of short stories, comics, and radio) also won the first Hugo Award, and deserved it. This is cyberpunk mayhem thirty years before anyone invented the term, a lightning ride through language, deception, and murder. The book I find it most closely resembles is Paul Cain's crime thriller _Fast One_, duplicating its speed and moral relativism. In Bester's imagined future, Espers (telepaths) make murder impossible to commit, so mad industrialist Ben Reich just has to find a way to get away with it. The plot follows policeman Lincoln Powell, a powerful esper, in his quest to nail Reich, and Reich's delirious evasions. At stake may be the whole of society. I have only one negative thing to say for this book: it still isn't as good as Bester's other great novel, _The Stars My Destination_. Buy both of them today and plunge into the best of science fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous book, science fiction at its very best!
Review: I assume that you have heard of this book. If you haven't read
it but plan to do so "some day," today should be the day. Just
drop whatever else you're reading and read this book. You'll be
thankful for finally having taken the step, and you'll want to kick yourself for not having done it years & years ago!
Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: Still better than the best after all these years. Some complain that the Freudianim of this book is wrong. Alas, current cognitive therapy and brain sciences have come to the conclusion that a lot of what Freud said is right. They don't say it in those words, in fact they try to tame Freud into a subset of their theories, but he still hit the nail on the head.
Rating:
Summary: One of sci-fi's most acclaimed and influential novels
Review: The Demolished Man earned Alfred Bester the very first Hugo award for best science fiction novel of the year ever awarded, and the novel's influence on science fiction has been immense over the years. The novel is a wonderfully original, fascinating tale of a future society in which guns and murder are all but forgotten, yet this brave new world's very future comes to hang in the balance as a result of one powerful man's thoughts, dreams, and fears. In the world of 2301 A.D., seventy years have passed since the last murder, and guns are nothing more than forgotten museum pieces. Espers, or peepers, men and women able to read minds when called upon to do so, are able to spot anyone contemplating a violent crime long before that person is able to act. Perhaps only one man would dare to plan a cold-blooded murder and have the guts, influence, wiles, and coercive power to pull it off; such an audacious action can only be achieved with the aid of a first class peeper, and the ethics of each and every peeper is basically unassailable. Ben Reich, head of the Monarch company and one of the most powerful men in the world, is losing his decade-long fight against the firm of Craye D'Courtney, and he eventually determines that he has no choice but to kill his rival. It won't be easy, especially the bypassing of peepers, but he has the will and the means to pull off the impossible. Prefect Lincoln Powell, a first class peeper, is called on to investigate the murder; figuring out who killed D'Courtney is easy, but proving it is something else. Convincing the super-computer at the district attorney's office of an open and shut case requires every single piece of the puzzle being put into place. The bulk of the novel revolves around Reich's machinations and brilliant moves and Powell's equally brilliant countermoves, with the case (and the novel) taking on much deeper implications toward the end as Powell begins to realize that his suspect is not only a dangerous man in the normal sense but is in fact a grave danger to the very universe as it now exists. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of The Demolished Man is Bester's presentation of thought and communication among peepers. Not only does he gives us a sense of the telepathic communication of a group of peepers, he describes it in an incredibly visual way; basically, he paints fascinating word pictures of telepathic thought communication. Bester also uses a good deal of slang and invented concepts in his story, which is just one of the many aspects of the writing that cyberpunk and other avant-garde science fiction writers have been influenced by over the course of recent decades. Lest you fear that Bester's writing is overly theorized and dull, I should point out the fact that the novel is blessed with a good deal of humor, action, insightful emotional complexities, and even a love story of sorts. The ending holds a surprise or two for the reader (although the careful reader will figure out many things along the way), ensuring that the ending is in no way a let-down from the suspenseful and engaging read leading up to it. It is a pity that Alfred Bester did not publish more novels and stories than he did over the course of his distinguished career, but the science fiction legacy he did leave behind will forever be studied, emulated, cherished, and most of all enjoyed by generation after generation of readers.
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