I picked up this recommendation from the thread about science fiction novels to recommend to new readers of the genre; I'm hardly a new reader, but I am not widely read in it, I don't think, and I'd like to expand my horizons.

This was a good choice to do so: yes, it was written in the 1950s, and is somewhat dated in some small ways, but generally the story holds up exceedingly well. The main character, Gully Foyle, is a "dumb ox" at the beginning of the book, a worker on a space craft. He survives an accident that leaves everyone else on the ship dead; Gully lives for six months waiting for rescue. When a ship comes by and pauses after seeing his distress flares, then moves on without rescuing him, Gully becomes obsessed with the desire for revenge.

A central premise of the novel is that humans have learned to "jaunt," to travel instantaneously from one place to another. The process is limited in that a person needs to have a firm picture of the place he is going, and that about the furthest anyone is able to go is 1000 miles at a time. Bester explores some of the implications of this development on society, commerce, and crime; jaunting is an important factor in what happens in the novel.

The story moves along briskly and has a fair number of surprises along the way.

(2nd reading)

Gully Foyle of The Stars My Destination is a freak in a world of freaks. Like Paul Atreides (Dune) and Jack Remillard (Jack the Bodiless), Foyle has powers which make him the agent of evolutionary change for humanity.

This book rollicks along through the bizarre and sometimes brutal Solar System of the 25th century, following Gulliver Foyle on his vengeful and apocalyptic path. It's obvious that cyberpunk novels such as Neuromancer owe quite a debt to this book. Its language is fresh and clean, characters larger than life. Parts of it (Geoffrey Fourmyle's circus for example) also reminded me of Jack Vance's 'To Live Forever' (not sure which came first).

The only thing which didn't quite convince me this time (although I can see how integral it was to the plot) was Gully Foyle falling in love with Olivia Presteign. Gully seemed incapable of love up to that point; his rage against Vorga was too much. But otherwise, a ripper of a book. ( )

I enjoyed the book, I just don't quite understand why it ended when it did. Like much science fiction to me, it just didn't have a very satisfying ending. ( )

The writing is clean and spare, economically giving the reader the information they need (primarily through action rather than lengthy description). Extremely well-written and a very engaging plot.

"He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead."

Possible spoiler alert.

Good writer. Even though it was written in the 50's, Tiger Tiger! is not dated. Bester was ahead of his time, and should maybe be considered the first 'cyberpunk' author. The protagonist is dark predator, who finds his conscience after being confronted with his nemesis. Even though there is nothing likeable about Gully Foyle, it is hard to put the book down. Haunting, dreamlike ending. Negatives: Gullys tranformation into Geoffrey Fourmyle seemed out of character, and the end leaves you wanting, needing closure. Features: 'jaunting' (teleporting), as well as telepaths and telesends. ( )