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The Stars My Destination

Alfred Bester,1957
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The raw, rough-edged, biting quality of early science fiction in full form. Samuel Delany described it as "...the greatest single SF novel" and Gardner Dozois as "never equalled in scope, audacity, or imagination." Few books before or since rival its inventive creativity or vibrant power. Some parts like the Government House ball border on genius.

Alfred Bester didn't write many books, only two in his early years and two more twenty years later. But at least the first two, this and The Demolished Man, pack in more creativity, imagination, and deep thought than 10-15 typical books.

It's amazing to me that someone could take a few lines from Blake

("Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?")

and staying true to this imagery amplify them into such an artistic, entertaining work.

It has highly imaginative humor as in the lost colony on one of Jupiter's asteroids: "Arrival of the fittest is the doctrine of Holy Darwin. Most Scientific. 'Quant Suff!' the crowd bellowed." (From a misunderstanding of an old note meaning quantity sufficient.) And in many interspersed one-liners like "There's one thing to be said for the outlawed religions...At least they built churches big enough to house a circus."

It has high literary style­for example the first paragraph, "This was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living, and hard dying . . . but nobody thought so. This was a future of fortune and theft, pillage and rapine, culture and vice. . . but nobody admitted it. This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks. . . but nobody loved it."

It has insightful social commentary and revealing understanding of human nature. "...progress stems from the clashing merger of antagonistic extremes", "...the joys and terrors of private phantasies (sic) are a common heritage shared by all mankind. Fears, guilts, terrors, and shames could be interchanged, from one man to the next, and none would notice the difference.", "no matter how we defend ourselves against the outside we're always licked by something from the inside."

It has a powerful, inspiring vision for humanity: "You're all freaks, sir. But you always have been freaks. Life is a freak. That's it hope and glory.", "I believe in them. I was one of them before I turned tiger. They can all turn uncommon if they're kicked awake like I was."

This is one of the best science fiction books ever written ­ first printed in 1956 but timeless.

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