The Stars My Destination | Alfred Bester

The Stars My Destination | Alfred Bester | firey vengence sparks adventure and self-improvement

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The Stars My Desti...

	The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester Vintage, 1996 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 222 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Marooned in outer space after an attack on his ship, Nomad, Gulliver Foyle lives to obsessively pursue the crew of a rescue vessel that had intended to leave him to die. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

Best sci fi

I've been reading sci fi for years yet I was like a blind man until I read Tiger Tiger aka The star's my destination by Alfred Bester. He manages to fit so much in a few pages. It's fast paced and action packed, yet slow enough for you to catch every gem, which you will find in every single line. It forces you to contemplate life, the universe, and everything and will make you laugh while doing it. This is it folks. The best of the best, no wonder his name was Bester. It's cyberpunk before the genre existed. Gully Foyle, wadda character! Greg Bear called Bester's writing Jazz. It's that and at the same time a truly classical piece-the type often imitated but never as good as the original. This topped The foundation series and Ender's game for me-two other fave sci fi books. It is howling roll on the floor as tears stream down your face funny. Laughed out loud quite a few times reading it on the subway. Read in public at your own risk. Don't want you to be hauled off to the madhouse because I highly recommend you read it, but even then it'll be worth it. It's that good. And when you're done, feast your eyes and mind on The demolished man and Psycho Shop.

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firey vengence sparks adventure and self-improvement

Considering its 50+ age, it's a solid piece of SF.
Sometimes heralded as the grandfather of cyberpunk (as many books tend to be labled), it's a interestingly techy novel. Lots of ideas thrown into a tub full of characters on a one-way plot to a fine blend.

What starts out as a sub-average joe works his way through suffering and up to revenge. He transforms himself, through his inferno-like revenge, into an articulate human. However, his actions don't correct themselves as his language patterns had. His conditioning is on display through his relationships with other characters. While he may not be on my top 20 favorite characters in SF, his journey is detailed and novel. On top of a good story, there are surprisingly numerous bits of technology involved in the plot, whether major or minor.

If it were written nowadays, it would have been a 4 star book. But considering its age, the craftsmanship from that era merits this book a 5 star rating.

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Bester's Best

I have read this book repeatedly since the early 70's when I first learned of the novel. I have also read everything Bester has written in the scifi category. I have lost so many editions of this book (including a first edtion) loaning it to friends for their enrichment only to never have it returned. This book has served me as inspiration of human endeavor and spirit. I have studied psychology and am employed as a Director of Social Services with a treatment program. This book entails many Jungian principles plus confrontation of the bright and dark aspects of our personalities. It is easily read re: length, but do not disservice yourself with a quick read. This book will stir your soul related to intropection and self-assessment. Buy it, borrow it, steal it out of a library if you have to.

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Dated, but Great

This book is over 50 years old, and it shows. There seems to have been a wave of more literature-minded sci fi authors to come later, and works like Dune or Hyperion make this one look rushed, silly, pedantic, and shallow.

However, I think you could consider science fiction of this age to be its own sub-genre, including works by Bester, Heinlein, Asimov, and others. It might seem campy, but it's fun. The allegory may seem overwrought, but these guys were breaking new ground at the time. I think if Bester thought he could have gotten away with writing two 700+ (think Hyperion or Robinson's Mars books) page monsters to tell this story he would have jumped at the chance. I don't know, maybe at the time editors underestimated the attention span of the average scifi reader, maybe grouping them in with comic book fans. The books of this generation are fast-paced, action packed, and brief (for the most part), and basically share a lot of characteristics with pot-boilers, pulp fiction.

I really admire this generation of writers, their quest to serve up something of real substance in such a limited format.

So yeah, I can't really disagree with reviewers here who rip on this book for being farfetched, or the characters for being shallow or archetypes, or for it being just plain silly at times. But I can't help seeing the book in context. It's not great literature, but it's an exciting read, and the reader can't help but be a little intrigued, if not by the science then by the theme (pedantic as the delivery might be).

I guess either you like this subgenre or you don't. I am starting to like it more and more, and I think this is a wonderful book, one of the best from this era.

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