The Light Fantastic: The Great Short Fiction of Alfred Bester, Volume 1

by Alfred Bester

Whether strolling along a beach at sunset ruminating on the influence of Wells, or remembering nightmares from his college days or later nightmares of swindlers in New York's fashionable Sutton Place of the Thirties, Bester succeeds in making his reader aware that his stories have a reason for being, a foothold in reality—fantastic thought it may be. Bester's stories rise from a personal fantasy world which he eloquently shares with his many readers. These classic stories, which include some of his most famous works, are each prefaced with the author's own words on how he determined to write each particular piece.

Many of these intriguing gems, including the compulsively agnostic Hell Is Forever, have never appeared in book form. But more, this is the first of two volumes of "Bester's Best" which will undoubtedly become classics.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Collections

223 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1976

About the author

Alfred Bester was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books.

Though successful in all these fields, he is best remembered for his science fiction, including The Demolished Man, winner of the inaugural Hugo Award in 1953, a story about murder in a future society where the police are telepathic, and The Stars My Destination, a 1956 SF classic about a man bent on revenge in a world where people can teleport, that inspired numerous authors in the genre and is considered an early precursor to the cyberpunk movement in the 1980s.

AKA:
Άλφρεντ Μπέστερ (Greek)

Reviews

[Lancelot Schaubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so yes, this was solid. The worst parts were the Freudian obsessions, but there's a ton in this volume that modern science fiction writers can learn about.

Anyways, this volume is the first of his complete. If it’s any indication of the rest of the series, I’m content to read this volume and call it a day. It’s not like his work is bad. It’s just that I don’t read it and immediately think, “This is classic.” I think it’s obviously early, influential science fiction and fantasy. It’s good stuff in here, don’t get me wrong, but it feels like an older, slightly more influential pop culture anthology. And that’s fine, nothing wrong with that. Brief comments on the stories, but I will say that DISAPPEARING ACT is the finest in the lot.

Full review of Alfred Bester and The Light Fantastic

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Contains the stories:

5,271,009 (AKA The Starcomber) -
Ms. Found in a Champagne Bottle -
Fondly Fahrenheit - 4/5 - a murderous android and its owner
Comment on “Fondly Fahrenheit” -
The Four-Hour Fugue -
The Men Who Murdered Mohammed -
Disappearing Act -
Hell Is Forever -

[Anthony Buck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two absolutely exceptional stories (particularly Fortunately Fahrenheit) a few ok and some dross. A pretty decent ratio for a short story collection from this era.

[David H.]

Why I didn't finish this: I wanted to read some Bester short stories, but I was not in the mood for reading short fiction when I tried this.

[Kadin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opens with some duds, I don't care for that experimental stuff. Call this like a 3.5.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection and Bester's Star Light, Star Bright (also 1976) were bound up together by the SFBC, 'way back when, as Starlight: The Great Short Fiction of Alfred Bester, which is the form in which I've just read the two collections. I'd assumed my notes would be about just the single bumper volume; however, my take on the books was significantly different, so I decided to split up the two sets of blethering. I vaguely recall that when, some decades ago, Pan paperbacks first released these books and I read them both, I had a similar reaction.

The Light Fantastic starts like a rocket with a novelette that seems designed to show off all of Bester's strengths, "5,271,009" -- the wild humour, the near-obsessive multilingual wordplay, etc. We're told by Bester in the tale's intro that this is all a deliberate self-parody; true, but whoever said parodies aren't a high form of literature? Our hero is lured by someone not unlike the Devil into a series of dreams-come-true that prove each in turn to be hellish. Immediately after this, however, we hurtle downhill with a story that obviously meant a lot to Bester because of the classy venue to which he sold it but which otherwise doesn't have a huge amount to recommend it, "MS. Found in a Champagne Bottle". Following are "Fondly Fahrenheit", a very famous story which I've for some reason never much liked; "The Four-Hour Fugue", which I like a lot; "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed", which is pretty boring; "Disappearing Act", which is good; and the longish fantasy novella "Hell is Forever", which is astonishingly turgid: I had some difficulty forcing myself to finish it.

A great strength that Bester was always able to draw on was, as with John Collier, the ability to tell an involving tale whose protagonists weren't recognizably real people: in both The Light Fantastic and Star Light, Star Bright most of the stories are fantabulations rather than pretences to reality. ost often this effect is charming; The Light Fantastic's main failing is that most of Bester's early stories where this charm was most evident were held over for Star Light, Star Bright.

[José Luis Valenciano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alfred Bester (1953-1987) fue un escritor de ciencia ficción estadounidense que tiene el honor de haber sido el primer galardonado con un premio Hugo en 1953, por su obra "El hombre demolido", que sentaría además las bases del futuro género ciberpunk, junto con su segundo gran éxito "Las estrellas, mi destino" (o "¡Tigre. Tigre!", según la edición). Tras un inicio prometedor en los cincuenta, pasó casi dos décadas sin publicar ciencia ficción y su retorno fue lamentablemente un fracaso. Pese a lo corto de su carrera, es considerado un gran maestro de la ciencia ficción por méritos propios y cuenta además con recopilaciones de relatos como este "La Fantástica Luz", que nos muestra textos de extensiones dispares, siendo alguno de los más cortos verdaderamente ingeniosos y con hilarantes guiños de humor al lector. Viajes en el tiempo, teletransportación, androides asesinos según la temperatura, máquinas que se revelan contra los humanos y particulares infiernos personales, son los temas que aparecen recogidos en este libro y que dan lugar a interesantes reflexiones éticas y filosóficas.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the only really good story here was "Mohammed." The "5000000" basically read like a stunt (and I would've said that even without reading AB's intro, wherein we find that in fact it was a stunt). Too often Alfie tends to lean on the literary equivalent of special effects, which gives his writing a slambang quality, like a dog hanging its head out a car window on the freeway. As with Bradbury, the whole thing soon becomes tiresome if there's nothing underneath to support all that hoopla. I can see btw why this is his style, having read the afterword to "Fondly Fahrenheit" about his working methods (which may actually be the most interesting thing in this collection).

[Temucano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buenísima antología, la mejor condensación de relatos del autor en una edición hermosa.

Mis favoritos: "Afectuosos Fahrenheit", tour de force al más puro estilo besteriano; "Número de desaparición" simpático relato más sentimental y pausado; "La fuga de cuatro horas", donde nos presenta a Gretchen Nunn y la Patraña, futura protagonista y escenario del "Golem^100"; "Los hombres que asesinaron a Mahoma" clásico relato de viajes en el tiempo; y sobre todo "El infierno es eterno" novela corta más cercana al horror cósmico, con una diversidad de condenaciones eternas hasta una singular aparición del Maligno. (21.12.2006)

[Nick Tramdack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think Goodreads has proper bibliographic info on this one. The book's called "The Light Fantastic", and like any Alfred Bester book, it rocks. Not as much as the novels though.

"A genius is someone who travels to the truth by an unexpected path." - from "The Men who Murdered Mohammed"

[Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, it's his clear and terse prose mingled with his mostly subtle fucked-upness that has made me a big fan of this guy. He doesn't have a huge catalog of books, so I may have to dig up the DC comics he wrote for back in the 50 and 60s to see if his askew view makes it into them.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

7 stories:

5,271,009 (1954)
Ms. Found in a Champagne Bottle (1968)
Fondly Fahrenheit (1954)
The Four-Hour Fugue (1974)
The Men Who Murdered Mohammed (1958)
Disappearing Act (1953)
Hell Is Forever (1942)

[Robert Walrod · Rating 2 out of 5]

Highlights: "Fondly Fahrenheit," "Disappearing Act," parts of the other stories.