The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester

[nwhyte]

Second paragraph of third chapter: "Half and half, ma'am."
Weirdly, I had never actually read this (though thought I had). I got an electronic copy as part of a humble bundle in February, and then found I had a paper copy on the shelf, with a business-class boarding pass for a plane flight from Zagreb to Frankfurt on October 30 of an unspecified

Comments

Earthlight

[ext_3235758]

Earthlight was one of my favorite Arthur C. Clarke stories as a kid. I reread it within the past year and was pleased to find it just as enjoyable 40 some years later.

[seawasp]

The Stars My Destination is one of my favorite old SF books, and is close to unique in having such an unlikeable person as the protagonist (although he grows a hell of a lot by the end of the book) and still making me enjoy reading it more than once.

[londonkds]

The ending of the TV version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (not counting the comics continuation) strongly reminded me of this.

[matgb]

I both love and loath Stars, for mostly the reasons you give. It's both weirdly prescient and feels a lot more modern than it's actual publication date, but also with horrific gender politics and a weird view of how people and women would react to the teleport ability.

I got one of the Gollancz Masterworks editions[1], a really nice print, but I can never bring myself to reread it because I know I'll concentrate more on the problems than the brilliance.

And I probably ought to get around to reading the Count of Monte Cristo at some point just so I can spot all the references or nods towards it people seem to make…

[1] Weirdly, the two I bought together were this and Cities In Flight, which James reviewed this week as well by random happenstance.

Tiger! Tiger!

[anonymous]

I first read Bester's book under the title "Tiger! Tiger!", which I think is a better title than "The stars my destination" (bleah).

I'm a bit startled that you think rape is "dated". As far as I know, it still happens. We may like to think it won't happen in the 25th century, but who knows? Likewise, someone else mentions "horrific gender politics". The social setup described in the book doesn't seem palatable or very plausible, but who knows what things will be like in the 25th century? No-one's vision of that distant time is going to be at all accurate; Bester's vision is, I suppose, no more unlikely than anyone else's.

But I don't think he was aiming to be predictive. He was creating a colourful fantasy of the future, and doing his own thing.

Re: Tiger! Tiger!

[nwhyte]

Hi, I think you completely misunderstood my point, which is that it is less acceptable now than it was in the 1950s to have a rapist as protagonist.