Alfred Bester (1913–1987)

I intensely disliked main character, Gulliver Foyle, as an individual and really wasn't sure I wanted to keep reading, but about a third through I started thinking of him as a personification of the struggle of the lumpenproletariat to achieve class consciousness, and that seemed to work for me, though I wasn't sure if that was Bester's intention. Ultimately, it did work that way for me, and the story is, if imperfectly, a dramatised sci-fi setting of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the show more Oppressed, the "cosmic" ending symbolising Foyle's awakening to his potential as a revolutionary liberationist figurehead. It was worth sticking with.

A couple of the names struck me as being symbolic, though I'm struggling to fully integrate them, so maybe I'm pareidolically seeing what's not there:

• Gulliver Foyle - Gullible Foil - Gullible Fool
• Presteign - Pristine - Prestige - Priest-Stain show less

4.5/5

On a shallow level, The Stars My Destination is an exciting caper as a compelling anti-hero tries to exact revenge upon the people who left him for dead. It feels fresh for it's age, at least most the time, there are some terms that date the novel quickly. It's incredibly well-paced, drops unexpected twists to the plot line, and has ideas that well realized and integrated into the weave of the world.

The biggest of these ideas is human teleportation, which in this fictional future is show more something that most everybody can, at least to varying degrees. What surprised me was the level to which Bester thought through the implications of such a change upon our societal structure. Bester identifies the ways in which economic class will hinder a persons use of teleportation, the ways in which our government will adapt to continue to shackle us to our work and to their ideals, how the elite will grow to revile this development, preferring to use antiquated methods of transportation while continue to benefit from it passively. Most of the ideas in The Stars My Destination are similarly well realized. I also especially enjoyed the concept of PyrE, an explosive so powerful that it can rip through entire galaxies and is triggered by a targeted thought, one-way telekinesis, a cast off-cult of scientists that use space refuse as a building medium, and what 'jaunting' eventually leads to in the end of the book.

Bester also explores more philosophical ideas, especially towards the end of the book, which is certainly more new wave than the rest, and an absolute joy. Bester asks what it takes to wake up the everyday person from their satisfaction with being mundane, what it takes turn them into a leader, or conversely, a nightmare? What sort of burdens are we willing to carry with us for the rest of our lives? How much will we contort ourselves to fit into the set of standards that society has for us? Like I said earlier, this novel is focused vengeance, on the dichotomy of love and hate, on the power of obsession. Gully Foyle is such a great character to explore these emotions, to play with bigger ideas while still providing a genuinely thrilling narrative.

“Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation.
Deep space is my dwelling place,
The stars my destination.” show less

Brilliant but not very pleasant SF classic in which a wronged everyman wrecks vengeance in a future where humans can instantly transport themselves around the globe. Written in the 1950s, the book has aged very, very well, with just a few anachronistic references to break the spell. You'll be dazzled by Bester's vision, but don't expect to like any, and I mean any, of the characters.

It was cool to read the book that contains the namesake for one of Stephen King's better short stories, "The Jaunt." You definitely get the feeling while reading that its influence spans many authors and decades. Its originality is inarguable, the style fresh and bold, and in the end it sort of reminds me of Isaac Asimov on acid. . . not your sterile, buttoned-down science fiction but rather your crazy ex-hippy uncle of a sci-fi story.

That said, crazy ex-hippy uncles are not noted for their show more stalwart reliability, and Asimov is notable for his horrendous writing (especially his earlier works, which I address most directly in my review of [b:Foundation and Empire|29581|Foundation and Empire (Foundation, #2)|Isaac Asimov|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320416087s/29581.jpg|1703483]). Unfortunately, "Stars" suffers from both these defects. While it is head-and-shoulders above [b:The Demolished Man|76740|The Demolished Man|Alfred Bester|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360171879s/76740.jpg|1247570] in quality and scope, it is still quite rough around the edges with stilted dialogue, thin characterization, too-sparse narration (especially of the action sequences) and a casual misogyny that exemplifies an ultimately very dated atmosphere. Try this on for dated:

Presteign did not care for the artists, musicians, and fops Olivia kept about her, but he was pleased to see a scattering of society notables this morning. There was a Sears-Roebuck, a Gillette, young Sidney Kodak who would one day be Kodak of Kodak, a Houbigant, Buick of Buick, and R.H. Macy XVI, head of the powerful Saks-Gimbel clan. 45

This is the 25th century we're talking about, with the same economic royalty that didn't even make it out of the 20th.

I'll admit it's a minor quibble and I want it on record that I admire the hell out of Bester's bold vision. It's inevitable that you're going to fall on your face a few times when you're projecting that far into the future. And some of his predictions really work: telepathy, the idle leisure class, the interplanetary colonization wars, the anti-gravity fields, etc. Even the jaunting (his name for "teleporting") he handles deftly, imagining the full security and privacy implications of everyone being able to instantly transport themselves basically anywhere. I still don't really buy some of the logistics (e.g., how does knowing the coordinates correspond to being able to visualize your exact location, and vice versa?), but the whole venture is quite impressive.

The thin characterizations were the real drag of the book. There is only one character, the protagonist, who is not completely one-dimensional, and he is merely two-dimensional. He experiences four "romances" during the novel and apparently picks them up and drops them off at random, with no real explanation or consideration. One of them is a "true love" and we know this because at the moment he falls in love with her we are told over and over how much he loves her. There's no build-up or rational context. He makes a transformation at the end that is hollow because until then he has been a murderous, savage, torturing, raping vengeance-seeker with no conscience and no depth.

This lack of depth keeps the reader at a remove, unable to fully engage with the story or care about what happens to Foyle, to Terra, to the solar system, or whatever else. This is worsened at the end when the entire explanation for Foyle's abandonment, which led to his revenge in the first place, is revealed to be nothing more than psychopathic bitterness about being blind on the part of a heretofore minor character. . . nevermind that she has visual capabilities outside of the normal spectrum that appear to dwarf a regular person's.

That said, the end offers a lot of pleasant twists and turns. Despite a relatively simple message ("Revenge is bad."), Bester is able to turn the book into more than just a revenge tale in the last couple of chapters. You find out that Foyle is about to open mankind to an entire new era, and the way he illustrates Foyle's cross-sensed perceptions is innovative and ingenious (you can see the same mind that wrote some of the telepath choreographies from "Demolished"). There's even a moral dilemma about whether or not dangerous secrets should be kept from the masses, and although it's lamentably answered by a "robot ex machina" Bester's attempt to tackle the question head on is laudable.

All in all the pluses of the book -- its bold vision, compelling narrative and memorable protagonist -- is weighed down but little by the principal minus (clumsy prose). I tend to think the most memorable sci-fi writers are primarily idea men, their prose led by their vision, so I don't think less of them if their writing doesn't quite hold up. Asimov was definitely this way, as was Bradbury most of the time (despite the literarily underrated [b:Fahrenheit 451|4381|Fahrenheit 451|Ray Bradbury|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351643740s/4381.jpg|1272463]) and maybe even Huxley. Bester definitely belongs in this group, and not in the next tier which I reserve for the greater literary talents of sci-fi: Vonnegut, Dick, Le Guin and [b:1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348990566s/5470.jpg|153313].

Here's some praise: I checked it out from the library because I figured after "Demolished" I'd probably be okay not owning it. After reading it, however, I'm putting it back on my list to buy. show less