The Stars My Destination (S.F. MASTERWORKS): Alfred Bester

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The Stars My Destination has often been called one of science fiction's greatest works, sometimes the greatest. Yet, the first time I read it, I didn't get the fuss.

In the mobile game Tokyo Afterschool Summoners, the lore of the character Nomad is based on the contents of the book, as well as the poem " The Tyger".The Stars My Destination is one of the few sf books that is included in almost every all-time best sf books I have ever seen, and I have seen many. If I see such a list without this book I will probably dismiss it. As, for the book, it is a classic, with its dated flaws and its marvelous ideas. I would not touch it for anything, the scars must remain! A man is a member of society first, and an individual second. You must go along with society, whether it chooses destruction or not.

From Nobody to Nightmare: Gully goes from the most insignificant cog in the machine to one of the few who truly lives outside its control. Alfred Bester began his career with stories published in Thrilling Wonder Stories , Startling Stories , Astounding Science Fiction - names that have come to define that brief period known as the Golden Age of SF, when the possibilities offered by science seemed limited only by the human imagination, and the opening of the road to the stars only a couple of decades away. Less concerned with practicalities like deadly solar radiation, terminal cold or the barrier of the speed of light, writers played the game of 'what if ...' and then went on to speculate on the chages future technologies and discoveries would play on the individual psyche and on society as a whole. Displaying all variants and translations • Do not display translations• Do not display variants or translationsDeadly Environment Prison: Everyone can teleport unless lobotomized or drugged, so criminals are usually kept in a location they don't know. You are welcome to Tele-Frag yourself whenever you want.

Story - The central plot is fairly entertaining. It takes a little to long to wrap up and there are far to many tangents that are not fully realized. The book should have been shorter and some of these tangents edited out or it should have been longer with the tangents fleshed out. Either way not quite there. SF Masterworks 5: On the face of it, the story of Cully Hoyle, a man with limited education, skills, merits etc, and his relentless quest for justice... did I say justice? I should have said revenge. But this book is much more than a Count of Monte Cristo in the 24th century. First published in 1956, one of the seminal cyberpunk stories; first written usage of 'jaunt' to mean teleport; first use of synesthesia in written English language and more! Also Bester unlike almost every other creator really thinks through how a reality would evolve if mankind produced teleportation technology. Concept/story line - Kind of brilliant. There was a really good idea in here. Sometimes it was hard to see. This concept is something I think Asimov would have been better equipped to convey. The story is pretty heady and eventually ends up in a really fascinating place. A really good tale about good and evil and what makes a person good or evil. The Stars My Degradation, an early comic strip by Alan Moore (later with writing assistance from Steve) parodies the "Gully Foyle is my name" rhyme in the first installment. Yellow Peril: In the future, all intelligence work will be handled by the Chinese, 'cause they're so good at it, don't you know. However, jaunting has created a virtually post-race society. The main Chinese intelligence agent is said to have almost no physical indication of his Chinese ancestry.As this is one of the most beloved sf books ever recommendation is not usually necessary for regular sf readers, readers new to the genre will find this an ideal starting point. Merchant Prince: Businessmen like Presteign of Presteign have so much power that they essentially are the government, and their family names are treated as titles. Bester once wrote that he used playful narration at one point to grab the reader's attention. [ citation needed] Publication and reception [ edit ] Super-Speed: Foyle eventually has his body upgraded with various functions, including being able to think and move five times faster than normal humans. Notably, it doesn't give him Super-Toughness, so he has to avoid accidentally bumping into anything while super speed is engaged— especially other people who also possess this ability. (His one brief skirmish with some Martian commandos resembles a sped-up game of touch football, in which an actual collision would be messily fatal to both parties.)