The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester

 

I’d never read any Alfred Bester until now, not that he was a prolific writer. I’d vaguely pigeonholed him as another ‘50s writer of hard science fiction. And he really isn’t.

This is, to put it mildly, not the novel I was expecting. It isn’t really space opera, although it has spaceships in it. Telepathy and teleportation- “jaunting”- are important concepts here, but not necessarily the main point. The future society prefigures cyberpunk with extraordinary prescience: we have a future dominated by corporate clans, urban dystopia and casual cruelty. There are lots of wonderful details, and cool concepts thrown away almost casually.

Yet it’s all about the weird but compelling prose, and the unique central character, a simplistic thug whose crude desire for revenge ironically leads him to wisdom and to freedom- and not only for himself.

This is a difficult novel at times, but full of great ideas and wild experimentalism. I’ll remember it for a long time.