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The Stars My Destination

Alfred Bester

Why we're reading this: #9 on Locus Magazines Best SciFi novels of the 20th century http://www.locusmag.com/2012/AllCentu...
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[close] #9 on Locus Magazines Best SciFi novels of the 20th century http://www.locusmag.com/2012/AllCentu...

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Aug 21, 2016 Jim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1audio, 2fiction, scifi

4 stars is a bit of stretch for a space opera with plot holes I could pilot a ship through, but I allowed for when it was written, the ideas contained, & the narration. As a straight SF novel today, it's barely OK - the characters are unlikable, the science magical, & the romance is ridiculous - yet it manages to leverage these weaknesses into a story that is really intriguing & even inspiring, if you can put your sense of disbelief on hold.

Gully Foyle, the MC, certainly isn't a hero. He's a be 4 stars is a bit of stretch for a space opera with plot holes I could pilot a ship through, but I allowed for when it was written, the ideas contained, & the narration. As a straight SF novel today, it's barely OK - the characters are unlikable, the science magical, & the romance is ridiculous - yet it manages to leverage these weaknesses into a story that is really intriguing & even inspiring, if you can put your sense of disbelief on hold.

Gully Foyle, the MC, certainly isn't a hero. He's a beast that slowly becomes not just human, but the epitome of humanity in many ways. His crude, bestial drive leads him to break long established boundaries & eventually inspire all of humanity in a devil's deal delivered in the low class argot of the time.
"Take a war to make you spend. Take a jam to make you think. Take a challenge to make you great. Rest of the time you sit around lazy, you. Pigs, you! All right, God damn you! I challenge you, me. Die or live and be great. Bow yourselves to Christ gone or come and find me, Gully Foyle, and I make you men. I make you great. I give you the stars."
Fantastic.

The neat ideas:
- Synesthesia was known back then, but I've read this was one of the earliest popular novels that used it.
- One of the early, best examples of modern cybernetics. Not just as a prosthetic, but as augmentation.
- Time/space/dimensions as parts of a whole.
- Religion outlawed & become a 'filthy practice', yet people still use its words for profanity. Not explored enough, though.
- The drug 'analogue', not explored enough, but really intriguing.
- What psi powers would do to people & society. The main power is that most can teleport, but telepathy was also used to great advantage.
There were more. Many weren't explored well enough, but created the impression of a real world, drawn with broad, exacting strokes that teased.

Many of the things I disliked about the novel were also strengths. For instance, Olivia, the pampered daughter of one of the richest, most amoral men on Earth, is 'blind', yet she's not. She simply sees in a different spectrum than the rest & her character makes absolutely no sense. In one scene she sees things no one else can & revels in her power, yet in another she uses this as a reason for hating humanity. The dated treatment of the female characters doesn't help, but her sight was really unique, interesting, & disappointing.

The elite families of the Earth were ludicrous & dated, but fun both for the way they were caricatured & for the names themselves. While most were recognizable today, I doubt many today would recognize Esso, once a household name, but immersed since the 70s in the Exxon brand. Anyway, it was kind of a blast from the past.

I think I read this way back when, but had forgotten most of it. I recently stumbled across a list in my documents "The Top 100 Audio Science Fiction Books". There are actually only 99 on the list & one of those is a duplicate, so it's not to be taken too seriously. Still, it was enough to spur me to listening to this & I'm glad I did. It's not a long book & one of the foundations of SF. It's worth reading, but don't go into it expecting modern SF. It has warts, but should be treasured for them. ...more

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Mar 01, 2010 James rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-and-reviewed, edition-verified, favorites, sff-1950s

Somehow missed this one over the years... until I was given a copy by my dear friend from Sweden, thus proving you can teach an old dog new tricks - or at least proving you can get an old guy to read an old book and be confident he'll enjoy every page... ...more

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Jun 27, 2010 Alex rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

A thoroughly enjoyable pulp adventure that works well as an update of Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo but also does enough to warrant its existence on its own terms. Wheras Dumas' novel is a slow burning psychological masterpiece, though, Gully Foyle's fall, rise, fall and redemption happens just a little bit too quickly for me to ever really care too much on a meaningful level and there's something about Foyle's character and Bester's world that ultimately left me not that bothered either way.

Stil ...more

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Jun 18, 2013 Hutch Morzaria rated it really liked it

Originally published in 1956 by Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination is a classic scifi retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo.

A fast paced almost frantic story, Gully Foyle’s transformation from a worthless nobody and only survivor on board the ship Nomad into a savior of humanity is a tragic story but at the same time one that enthralls almost from the first word on the page.

I have read The Stars My Destination many times over the years and each time I find something else to enjoy and learn ...more

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