A mad thing of a book. Wild and fun ride. The Moleman a great conception well palayed through out, a bit like a trip on Jose Farmer's Riverboat, but the Extro thing was not so well executed. Came to this one too late I fear. In 1975 I would have been utterly bewitched. ( )

There was a strain of exuberant writing in the late 1960s and early 1970s and this is solidly in that vein. It ranged from Hunter S. Thompson to Richard Brautigan and beyond. This is solidly in that micro-tradition.

Let go and join the flow. Don't try to figure out the science or the slang or any of those things you are used to digging into in an SF novel. This is a wild ride with fireworks at every turn. ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3287464.html

Very much in the shadow of Bester's better-known The Demolished Man (winner of the first Hugo for Best Novel) and The Stars My Destination, this was his first novel for almost 20 years when it came out in 1974. Critical reaction then was disappointed; Bester had perhaps laid the path for the New Wave writers of the intervening period but was now behind the curve. Forty years on, I must say I enjoyed it a lot; the plot concerns a group of immortals in the very near future, who are dealing with a supercomputer that has acquired human intelligence, and the style remains pyrotechnical - and yet I never lost track of what was going on, or why we should care about these characters. Bester's reading of Native American traditions would not really pass muster today, but in fact he uses the perspective of his Cherokee characters to make some statements about American society in general and to an extent also about gender politics. I came away feeling that his has been underrated and might be due a reappraisal. ( )

First read this book when it was published, and remember enjoying it immensely. Less enthused now, but it's a fun read.

I remembered a few things from the earlier reading, but didn't really remember the story. Which is OK; the story's pretty flimsy.

A note, though: It's not a casual read. You need to pay attention. ( )

Wow, that is one serious pile of New Wave, thick with the style of the time and almost dizzying to hack through. ( )