The human spirit in the 24th Century. Besters' Masterwork.

Author's Rating:

Pros: A magnificently-weaved tale of the evolution of mind, society and self, beautiful science fiction.

Cons: A little busy with concepts perhaps, theres a lot of brilliance to keep up with!

The Bottom Line: 
Strongly recommended, as a wonderfully entertaining read, exciting and visionary, as fine literature, and one of my favorite books!

Author's Review
Alfred Besters' "The Stars my Destination" is an absorbing and inventive read, telling the tale of Gully Foyle, goalless soul, and his personal evolution against a breathtaking backdrop of our own future.

This work is outstanding literature, regardless of genre, and in science fiction it is truly seminal. The central character, Gully foyle, a nobody, is tracked as twists of fate act upon him, forcing him to evolve beyond himself, not once, but a number of times, in the short course of this book.

The beginning of our tale finds Foyle a lone survivor of an accident in space, living only by fluke, and running out of reason and resource to continue.

Believing himself saved, Foyle is cruelly abandoned by the spacecraft "Vorga", which stops to observe him, then passes him by. This act, expressly forbidden by both law and common decency provides Gully Foyle with impetus to survive...in order to revenge himself on this ship.

Foyle promptly overcomes his circumstances, driven by his new need for revenge. We observe his driven journey throughout the length of the book. Foyle encounters many varied circumstances in his odyssey....from mutilation to imprisonment, from culture and education to murder and betrayal. Always the end goal for him is the same.....Vorga.

Besters' background for this story is a 24th century humanity, of astonishing detail, imagination and believability. Corporate moguls run our solar system, which itself is in times of war. Society has been dramatically transformed by the emergence of psychic translocation, which once found in one man, spread like a new virus to nearly all individuals. Humans now move continental distances at the speed of thought. Mechanical modes of transportation are nothing but the quaint affectations of elite regents.

Foyle himself is pursued by this society. Often unbeknown to him, he is the hunter and the hunted. Foyle has something that the Moguls need. He will discover only slowly what this is, as he grows exponentially in insight and resource. The tale of his lonely personal evolution illustrates a moving personal transcendence. Foyles' story is filled with mystery, intrigue, and even mysticism.

The final scenes of this book tie everything up beautifully, a mean achievement in such a complex, busy tale. Gully Foyles' final speech to the masses is remarkable literature, and since reading it, I have often recalled it as life has turned around me. Alfred Bester is sorely missed, a masterful writer, a prophet, and one of our true visionaries.

This book contains scenes of murder and graphic violence. There is also reference, somewhat veiled, to sexual assualt. I feel it is best suited to an adult audience.

As a negative, as previously mention, Bester is gifted with such a fecund imagination, and crams so many ideas in his books that the very creative force which makes his novel vivid sometimes gives it a feeling of overcrowding with concepts. In no way let this prevent you from reading this wonderful book.

Some of my other science fiction book reviews:

Rama Revealed
Prelude to Space
Stand on Zanzibar
The Demolished Man
The Stars my Destination
Cat's Cradle
The Gods Themselves
Watchmen
A Canticle for Leibowitz
The Hammer of God
The Left Hand of Darkness
Flowers for Algernon
Lord of Light
Rendevous with Rama
The Tombs of Atuan
The Dispossessed
I am Legend
The Einstein Intersection
Earth Abides
Peace on Earth
The Farthest Shore
Methuselah's Children
A Call to Arms
To your Scattered Bodies Go
The Lion of Comarre / Against the Fall of Night
To Say Nothing of the Dog
The Doomsday Book
Frankenstein Unbound
Batman - The Dark Knight Returns
Imperial Earth
A Case of Conscience
Solaris
The Sands of Mars
The Land of Laughs
Eden
His Masters Voice
Citizen of the Galaxy
King David's Spaceship
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Double Star
The Fabulous Riverboat
Songs of Distant Earth
Way Station
The Fountains of Paradise
The Long Tomorrow
Lincolns Dreams
Alas Babylon
More Than Human
1984
The Forever War
All the Myriad Ways
I Sing the Body Electric
Gateway
Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said
This Immortal
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress