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Summary: awesome awesome awesome
Review: classic pulp scifi. a fantastic read, well written, entertaining, thought provoking, engaging...too bad the author didn't spend his whole career writing scifi! (he switched to travel writing, according to the brief bio). anyway, a must read, a clear progenitor for much of the scifi that followed.
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Summary: Tight, Engaging Story
Review: Powerful corporate executive Ben Reich attempts to get away with murder. He's opposed by mind reading police detective Lincoln Powell.This book was a pleasure to read. Bester has a wonderful, crisp writing style that lends itself well to his quick-moving plot. Plot is the real focus of this story. Bester explores both the characters of Reich and Powell, but he never does so at the expense of the story. Mind reading is Bester's key conceit in "The Demolished Man". In Reich's world, Espers, as they're called, are ranked into one of three groups based on their mind reading ability. Much of the plot revolves around both of the main characters trying to use mind reading to their advantage. Powell relies chiefly on his innate mind-reading ability, while Reich obtains the help of other Esper characters. Bester does a fantastic job of integrating this main concept into his story. I always derive some amusement from the technology imagined in older sci-fi novels. For instance, why do the humans who have developed the technology to take quick flights to the moons of Jupiter, still use computers that read and write via tape? Too many modern sci fi/fantasy authors write slow-moving, bloated books. The Demolished Man is the exact opposite -- succinct, fast paced, and engaging. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: fast-paced thriller in the form of a science fiction novel..
Review: The Demolished Man is my first Alfred Bester novel. And I was very impressed with it. It has the delicious characteristics of being a mystery novel in a futuristic (24th century) science fiction setting. A great story that is also very competently written. As for the story, we are in New York City a few hundred years in the future. Mankind has evolved to the extent where there is a substantial number of people with mind-reading (ESP) capabilities. These people are somewhat segregated from the main populace, unionized, and serve specific roles in society. Because of the difficulty of keeping secrets with such people around it seems that society benefits greatly from their presence. Yet there is a power-hungry man who has rather forceful and nasty ambitions. He is not adverse to using anyone, including the ESP-enriched individuals, to his own self-interests. Then he gets involved with a murder, and a super mind-reading cop enters the fray. Mix this with some rather intriguing dream sequences and you have a wonderful reading experience. Bottom line: a terrific early science fiction masterpiece. Strongly recommmended.
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Summary: When Sci/Fi was young
Review: I have been reading science fiction for the last twenty years. How is it that I missed out on this treasure? "Demolished Man" sports a full-throttle driving plot that never lets up. Murder is the game. From page one to the end the story is utterly focused on the execution of a murder and the capture of a murderer. Very well written and spiced with psychic "peepers", it is very clear how this book became a classic. However, this is not "hard" science fiction. The author tells us that there are people living on the moon, Ganymede, and Venus, but does not go into any detail at all as to how it was done. Sometimes we are asked to suspend our disbelief to a greater extent than normal. That aspect is not necessarily a drawback, just a point to be noted. Bester's vision of the future is fascinating and quite racy at times, at least a PG-13 if not R. While the reader is not pummeled with "here's how the future looks" he does get tidbits here and there gracefully inserted into the narrative and dialog. As good as it is, there are not really any deeply probing points that prompt introspection or philosophical meandering. It's more like a roller coaster, just good fun.
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Summary: REPROGRAMMING MANKIND
Review: Written fifty years ago, Bester's story gives us another tactic for polishing man's morality-human Espers or peepers who can read the minds of would be liars, cheats and murderers. However there is always a method for circumventing the truth. In this case it was the constant recitation of a musical jingle (a similar device was used in Helperin's TRUTH MACHINE). The peepers are presented as the keepers or priests of man's morality in spite of fact that several of them broke their vows in search of money or power. It is strongly suggested that in the evolution of man, development of esp powers will become essential for peace. Although there were satellite villages, space travel, high tech weaponry and artificial intelligence framing the story, I kept realizing that I was only reading a psychological, murder mystery. The futuristic setting wasn't really essential. The title may easily have been THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE, the murderer's recurring dream and hallucination. The ending flows into the realm of Freudian theory and repressed guilt. The title, THE DEMOLISHED MAN, refers to a total reprogramming of a man's brain, whereby criminal traits can be erased as the subject receives a second chance at life. The most I can muster is three stars.
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Summary: Crime and Punishment...Sci-Fi Style
Review: Alright, so this was not crime and punishment, but that is exactly why I picked it up. Every once in a while I get the itch to read something that is Science Fiction, but I find it hard to find sci-fi books that are my style. I prefer the sci-fi I read to be interpretations or depictions of our future (as in the future of "Earthlings." For example, I really liked 'Farenheit 451' (~Bradbury) and 'Brave New World' (~Huxley). This book was exactly what I like to read. Despite taking place in a future where ESP is a skill you'd have on your resume, this book contained well-developed, "real" characters. The psychological development of the characters was excellent. You get a good sense of Ben Reich's myriad of feelings as he tries to pull off a crime that is virtually impossible to pull off. The mistakes he makes, the effort he goes through to escape his antagonist, the emotions he feels as he's being pursued...all make for a fast-paced storyline (I read this book in one evening all in one sitting). There is so much I could say about this book, but if I had to pick one thing that I really enjoyed it was the sense of chase...you're on edge to see if Reich gets away with murder. In that sense it really made me think about Farenheit 451 (which could've been why I liked it so much). Overall, this book had solid characters and a good theme...I recommed it.
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Summary: this is so cool
Review: this book is based off an ausome idea. people can read your thouhgts, you can't pre meditate a crime. weaving patterns of thoughts SO COOL.
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Summary: The First Book to Win the Hugo Award -
Review: And rightly so.
Telepathy causes crime to be impossible - or does it? Bester describes the perfect crime of the perfect crook, set against the perfect cop in a world not perfect at all. For telepathy brings back social classes with all their ugliness.
You'd think a book written that long ago might be outdated, now in the 21st century. Well - it is as relevant today as at its year of publication. But relevant isn't the half of it: it is witty, funny, sad, brilliant and thought provoking.
Read it.
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Summary: A worthy winner of the 1st ever Hugo
Review: By a coincidence of timing, this book was written just in time to win the first ever Hugo Award. On hindsight, it is a worthy choice. This is the story of a world where a small group of people have ESP; they belong to a guild designed to police themselves and to use their powers for good. In such a world, murder is generally stopped before it can occur - as soon as you have murderous intent, your thoughts betray you to the vigilant Esper society. Enter Ben Reich, one of the (2) richest, most powerful men in the solar system. He wants to murder his main rival, and the book first follows his story of how he tries to get away with it. He starts by enlisting his own Esper to run interference for him, and by learning an annoying advertisement jingle to fill his conscious mind and distract the mind-readers. Once the murder is committed, we switch to the Esper police investigator trying to prosecute the crime. He knows Reich has done it, but the problem is finding objective proof, as Esper testimony based on mind-reading is inadmissible. This sets up a stragetgic game of move and counter-move between the two adversaries. The book is enjoyable to read - it has an optimistic, yet realistic tone. There are slums and some Espers try to use their powers for personal gain, but on the whole the society is lawful and the people are prosperous. You feel comfortable in the world, and that helps you get on with the intricacies of the story. Others have mentioned that it's a little dated, and heavily emphasises a Freudian view of the mind. That's true, but it's still fun to read, and is much less dated than, say, Heinlein books of the same vintage, because it deals with primeval instincts more than technological advances. Thus, I feel this book has stood the test of time, and is still worthy of another look (or a first look, if you haven't yet read it).
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Summary: The Man With No Face!
Review: After hearing so many good things about this book, I decided to give it a try. From the very first paragraph, one should be able to see why this book got the first Hugo award. A comic-book style? In a novel? Sounds unlikely, but all those exclamation points and italicized type really add flavor to this work and draw you in. Also, one couldn't hope for a much better beginning to a novel. Let me put it this way: if you're ever stuck overnight in the airport, this is the type of book you want: fast moving (Jet! Rocketing!). And I particularly admire how Bester shows how the telepaths are transmitting all at the same time by scrambling their conversations all over the page, as if some kid had gotten hold of the book and cut the sentences out with scissors, then recklessly rearranged them. Unfortunately, this book failed to exceed or meet my expectations, and this is mostly because some time ago I had read a Science Fiction Mystery that just blew me away: Philip K. Dicks's A Maze of Death. Bester was really going somewhere with the beginning of his book, but as I read further, I felt as though the book was losing momentum, perhaps nearing . . . Demolition. And in my mind, the END of a book is what really should be good, because that is the last thing the reader reads. The end of The Demolished Man, although good, can't possibly hold up against the ending that PKD revealed in A Maze of Death.
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