Comments | calico_reaction: Bester, Alfred: The Stars My Destination

calico_reaction

Bester, Alfred: The Stars My Destination

Dec 14, 2006 19:43

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blog: reviews, ratings: worth reading with reservations, fiction: science fiction, , alfred bester

Comments 28

jeffhowell December 15 2006, 09:05:55 UTC

Glad to see you read and reviewed one of my all time favorite books. I find Bester's writing to be very accessible, imaginative, there's a good amount of 'telling' but it's not boring. It's what I strive for in my own writing. It's really well done science fiction, or science fantasy depending on how you want to view mental teleportation ;) I've re-read this book probably once a year for a decade now. The ending always gets me, wonderful plotting, coming back to the beginning, putting power into the hands of the people, a lot of ethical questions to think about, neat to read about how civilization would react and evolve to telepaths and teleporters, imaginative typefaces. I love fonts. I don't think you'd be disappointed by Demolished Man, it's also a good book and I believe set in the same 'universe'. But of the two, Stars will always be my favorite. Also, I can't escape the notion it would make a cool movie with someone like Marilyn Manson in the lead role ;) Later, Jeff

calico_reaction December 15 2006, 12:00:35 UTC

OMG Manson in the lead? Whew...I can see where you're coming from, but...that's just creepy. :)

Course, Manson IS creepy...

kirwar4face December 15 2006, 19:27:57 UTC

Marilyn? Kicky. But why look any further than the man: Bruce Willis? If you thought Hudson Hawke was cool...!
I'm really looking forward to the big "Olivia Presteign!?" song-and-dance number between Gully and the Burning Man in the catacombs.

(The comment has been removed)

satanicharisma December 15 2006, 20:17:12 UTC

AH yes, that story is prilliant. Also the painfully gnostic "Hell is Forever".

trilobitekid December 15 2006, 21:39:31 UTC

Somehow I've always compared Bester to Cordwainer Smith. Smith's stories are more compact and Bester's more flowery IMHO.

Despite his flaws I like Gully as I see him to a damaged messianic figure much like the biblical king David or the Greek hero Jason.

satanicharisma December 18 2006, 14:10:13 UTC

Cordwainer Smith though is much underrated as a writer. I like him a hell of a lot and kind of wish he'd written more stuff.

digitalclone December 17 2006, 00:00:36 UTC

Yes, here I am after--according to my main journal page--eight weeks.

Interesting review and some good points. Glad you enjoyed the story. I think of Bester as driven mainly by his characters.

Like you, Blake's The Tyger is a favorite of mine.

Demolished Man may not be quite as good overall as TSMD, however, his method of dealing with telepathy was cutting edge work--very unique. I am not aware of any writer who has done it better since.