The Stars My Destination Review

Welcome back to another book review! I just finished reading Alfred Bester’s novel The Stars My Destination, and I gotta say, I have a lot of thoughts. In the spirit of reading more classic science fiction and learning more about well-known authors during that time, I chose this novel to learn more about Bester’s writing style. Let’s get into the review, shall we?

Alfred Bester’s novel appeared in 1956, published in the United Kingdom under the title Tiger! Tiger! It also appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction, serialized in four parts. The original title comes from the William Blake poem “The Tyger.” Interestingly, Bester wouldn’t write another for almost another twenty years.

Also interestingly, critics were divided as to whether they enjoyed the work or not. Some praised it as a precursor to the cyberpunk genre, while others criticized its incredibly quick pace. The plot concerns Gully Foyle, a man who was trapped in a stranded spaceship and who was denied help from a passing craft, along with his quest for revenge on those who piloted it. In this world, teleportation, or “jaunting,” has completely changed how people get around, though traveling through space remains impossible. After the craft abandons him, Foyle goes to great lengths to hunt down the people in charge of the craft. Unbeknownst to him, his ship carried a material known as “PyrE,” which might be vital to a war currently going on.

I’ll be honest, by the time I finished reading this book, I only had a faint idea of what had happened in it. Mostly because so much happened that I didn’t have the chance to really get a feel for the world and the characters. In a way, the book reminded me of A. E. van Vogt’s The World of Null-A. This also moved at breakneck speed. Both works suffered from the same fate. They didn’t take the time to get involved with the characetrs or the important information. I honestly wanted to know more about what PyrE even is by the time I made it through 3/4 of the book.

Another thing about this book is that the main character is a terrible person. Please, I will be so thankful if I never meet someone like Gully Foyle. Thankfully, some of the crime he commits takes place off the page. However, his quest for revenge keeps intertwining with the lives of his victims. I felt for those characters more than anything.

“’There’s got to be more to life than just living,’ Foyle said to the robot.
‘Then find it yourself, sir. Don’t ask the world to stop moving because you have doubts.'”

While I didn’t click with this book, I enjoyed some of Alfred Bester’s short stories, including an early work, “The Broken Axoim.” Now that I mentioned van Vogt, I might take a crack at reviewing him again. See you all next week!

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