Didn't realize it was written in the 1950's and it's fascinating from that point of view - what did someone in the 1950's think would be the cultural changes of the far future. Jaunting (psychic teleportation) was the new transportation and it's impact on society was fascinating.

But Gully Foyle didn't work so much for me, we kept being told how all the characters felt rather than meeting them as flesh and blood people. It's dated in it's style but worth reading (or skimming) nonetheless. ( )

Read this first in 1980, again in 1985, and again in 2000. One of my favorites. ( )

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. ( )