I have been very interested in reading these, I think I might now be motivated enough to find actual copies instead of waiting for the interlibrary loan copy, although I didn't read more of your review than the beginning and the end because I don't want to spoil it.
Oh, hey you. :P .. yeah, you should definitely read "The Stars, my Destination" ... it's fantastic, though I can't help but compare it to Jack Vance's "Demon Princes" saga ... still, the stories are different enough and Bester is perhaps a bit more concerned with character development and justification than Vance is. It's really just "favourite author bias", I guess. :D...anyway, I liked "Stars" far better than "Demolished Man", though I still enjoyed the latter.
What did this blind character say in "Cold Mountain", anyway?
I enjoyed this book - you have to like Gully Foyle's signature lines:
"I kill you, Vorga. I kill you filthy."
It has a lot of energy, and the ideas that are packed into it aren't put forward as ponderously as they would have been in the hands of a typical modern sf novelist.
The Demolished Man isn't nearly as good. For whatever reason, it hasn't held up as well, although I think it was probably a bit "meh" when it first came out. Bester should have left the detective novel-ing to Chandler and the like.
I do count TSMD as my second favorite sci-fi novel of all time (behind Sturgeon's More Than Human and ahead of Willis' To Say Nothing Of The Dog, if you were wondering), though. I'm hard pressed to think of another character in the genre who's presented as completely as Gully. Bester does a wonderful job with his character development.
As for the blindness issue, I think it's pretty clear that sociopaths don't have logical reasons for being sociopaths. Their brains are broken, after all.
"As for the blindness issue, I think it's pretty clear that sociopaths don't have logical reasons for being sociopaths. Their brains are broken, after all. "
True ... but better to say perhaps that Olivia did what she did because she is Olivia .. some people don't find bitterness until something comes along to awaken their rancour, and some don't find it at all .. some will always be bitter. It doesn't matter if you never had something .. merely the fact that you notice that everyone around you obviously does could be enough.
Maybe Stars is the better novel, but I don't think you'll be disappointed by The Demolished Man- I wasn't. I'm looking forward to reading that one again soon for the third or fourth time.
Having read TSMD five times, I still can't accept Olivia's excuses for being a monster. Maybe the bad influence of her old man? Just a Presteign princess...
I think Tiger, Tiger (or was it Tyger?) was Bester's working title, which was changed by his persuasive editor, H. L. Gold, for serialization in Galaxy.
I started rereading The Demolished Man last night (working title, Demolition, BTW). Someone in this community previously remarked on its pulpish style. I hadn't noticed it before, because I used to read so as to gobble gestalts without slowing down to notice style. Now I like to actually read aloud to myself to get the full flavor (okay, because I like the sound of my own voice) and I now see TDM is painfully pulpish in spots. Never mind, still a rattling good action novel (with pretentious psychological theories to fill the Galaxy lettercol).
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What did this blind character say in "Cold Mountain", anyway?
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"I kill you, Vorga. I kill you filthy."
It has a lot of energy, and the ideas that are packed into it aren't put forward as ponderously as they would have been in the hands of a typical modern sf novelist.
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I do count TSMD as my second favorite sci-fi novel of all time (behind Sturgeon's More Than Human and ahead of Willis' To Say Nothing Of The Dog, if you were wondering), though. I'm hard pressed to think of another character in the genre who's presented as completely as Gully. Bester does a wonderful job with his character development.
As for the blindness issue, I think it's pretty clear that sociopaths don't have logical reasons for being sociopaths. Their brains are broken, after all.
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"
True ... but better to say perhaps that Olivia did what she did because she is Olivia .. some people don't find bitterness until something comes along to awaken their rancour, and some don't find it at all .. some will always be bitter. It doesn't matter if you never had something .. merely the fact that you notice that everyone around you obviously does could be enough.
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I hope you enjoy! :)
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Having read TSMD five times, I still can't accept Olivia's excuses for being a monster. Maybe the bad influence of her old man? Just a Presteign princess...
I think Tiger, Tiger (or was it Tyger?) was Bester's working title, which was changed by his persuasive editor, H. L. Gold, for serialization in Galaxy.
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