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The Deceivers
IN A COSMIC CON GAME OF DEATH AND DECEPTION IT'S WINNER TAKE ALL....
Rogue Winter — king of the Maori commandos, Star stud and Cosmic Casanova — embarks on a fabulous journey across the Solar System in search of his kidnapped lover, Demi Jeroux. Cruising the seedy Solar Circuit—from the Paradise of Carnal Pleasures to the bloody torture chambers of asteroid Triton—Rogue uncovers a grisly pattern of evil... a snake pit of spies and skullduggery, blackmail and murder.
Kidnapped by the demonic Manchu Duke of Death, Demi is a pawn in his sadistic struggle for control of the Meta-crystals — a super-secret source of unlimited energy concealed deep beneath the surface of Triton. Rogue is one of the few men alive capable of following the Manchu's trail. On his interplanetary voyage in pursuit of the deadly Manchu, Rogue encounters the brutal Meta-Mafia henchmen, their treacherous golden skinned virgins, and a shadowy terrorist network determined to end the Maori king's reign.
But Rogue's ultimate confrontation will be with the Duke of Death. Their fiery battle of wits will decide not only his own fate and that of his lovely bedmate Demi Jeroux, but also the future of the Solar System and its freedom from the Manchu Empire.
Rogue Winter — king of the Maori commandos, Star stud and Cosmic Casanova — embarks on a fabulous journey across the Solar System in search of his kidnapped lover, Demi Jeroux. Cruising the seedy Solar Circuit—from the Paradise of Carnal Pleasures to the bloody torture chambers of asteroid Triton—Rogue uncovers a grisly pattern of evil... a snake pit of spies and skullduggery, blackmail and murder.
Kidnapped by the demonic Manchu Duke of Death, Demi is a pawn in his sadistic struggle for control of the Meta-crystals — a super-secret source of unlimited energy concealed deep beneath the surface of Triton. Rogue is one of the few men alive capable of following the Manchu's trail. On his interplanetary voyage in pursuit of the deadly Manchu, Rogue encounters the brutal Meta-Mafia henchmen, their treacherous golden skinned virgins, and a shadowy terrorist network determined to end the Maori king's reign.
But Rogue's ultimate confrontation will be with the Duke of Death. Their fiery battle of wits will decide not only his own fate and that of his lovely bedmate Demi Jeroux, but also the future of the Solar System and its freedom from the Manchu Empire.
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1981
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478 people want to read
About the author
Alfred Bester
365 books944 followersAlfred 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)
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)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
February 22, 2016
I don’t know what I just read. Really. Not for sure, anyway. I don’t know if it’s just gibberish or truly genius. But I do know that I liked it a lot, even though I know for certain it has more meanings than I got, because I’m not familiar with all those references to modern history/people from so many countries. This is the kind of story that you read with an encyclopedia in one hand and a slang dictionary in the other, which I didn’t, thus the partial lack of understanding some remarks…
I read in some articles that this story is so bad that it was not reviewed by critics out of respect for Alfred Bester (!?) Others were offended by the slang used (Chink, Blackamoor, etc – my guess is exactly the opposite; Bester did not want at all to offend people but to stress out the hypocrisy of the society). Others said that the partially invented slang/language was very hard to follow and unreadable (riiiight, I guess Finnegans Wake was just child's play for them or A Clockwork Orange). Others said that this was the most pathetic and improbable love story ever and the list continues…
What I saw in it is the most acid satire and the harshest attack on society I read so far, disguised as a sci-fi freak show, a total babble, a blend of the most improbable actions and characters that could have been imagined but also the most lyrical and poetical one:
”Now pigs are wonderful people”
Versus
”Let us roll all our strength and all our sweetness up into one ball, and tear our pleasure with rough strife through the iron gates of life. Thus, though we cannot make our Sun stand still, yet we will make him run”
Above all, what I liked the most was the humor which leaks from every aspect of the book: the mocking, the weird characters, their stupid actions not to mention the dialogues and the patterns which are the “specialty” of our main character.
No human race is left aside; we are all part of Bester’s universe, as we are, or disguised as Tritonians, Titanians or other-ans…
”A: Oh, the Titanians. What do they look like? Italian, English, French, Chinese, Black, Brown, your wife, your husband, three lovers, two dentists, and a partridge in a pear tree”
I also loved Bester’ small tribute to Asimov (if you’ll ever read the story, you’ll know what I mean).
I think it’s the kind of book that requires a certain mood to read. Lucky me, I was in the right one :)
Therefore, I don’t recommend it; read it on your own risk :P
You know, de gustibus….
I read in some articles that this story is so bad that it was not reviewed by critics out of respect for Alfred Bester (!?) Others were offended by the slang used (Chink, Blackamoor, etc – my guess is exactly the opposite; Bester did not want at all to offend people but to stress out the hypocrisy of the society). Others said that the partially invented slang/language was very hard to follow and unreadable (riiiight, I guess Finnegans Wake was just child's play for them or A Clockwork Orange). Others said that this was the most pathetic and improbable love story ever and the list continues…
What I saw in it is the most acid satire and the harshest attack on society I read so far, disguised as a sci-fi freak show, a total babble, a blend of the most improbable actions and characters that could have been imagined but also the most lyrical and poetical one:
”Now pigs are wonderful people”
Versus
”Let us roll all our strength and all our sweetness up into one ball, and tear our pleasure with rough strife through the iron gates of life. Thus, though we cannot make our Sun stand still, yet we will make him run”
Above all, what I liked the most was the humor which leaks from every aspect of the book: the mocking, the weird characters, their stupid actions not to mention the dialogues and the patterns which are the “specialty” of our main character.
No human race is left aside; we are all part of Bester’s universe, as we are, or disguised as Tritonians, Titanians or other-ans…
”A: Oh, the Titanians. What do they look like? Italian, English, French, Chinese, Black, Brown, your wife, your husband, three lovers, two dentists, and a partridge in a pear tree”
I also loved Bester’ small tribute to Asimov (if you’ll ever read the story, you’ll know what I mean).
I think it’s the kind of book that requires a certain mood to read. Lucky me, I was in the right one :)
Therefore, I don’t recommend it; read it on your own risk :P
You know, de gustibus….
February 8, 2019
6/10. Media de los 7 libros leídos del autor : 6/10.
Con algún libro de renombre (Tigre, tigre o El hombre demolido) y con temáticas atractivas en general (viajes en el tiempo, poderes paranormales) sin embargo no me llegó al alma. En la era de los clásicos era difícil competir con los grandes monstruos de la época.
Con algún libro de renombre (Tigre, tigre o El hombre demolido) y con temáticas atractivas en general (viajes en el tiempo, poderes paranormales) sin embargo no me llegó al alma. En la era de los clásicos era difícil competir con los grandes monstruos de la época.
April 3, 2011
what a comedown after reading the stars my destination. that was such a great book, and this is so ordinary, less than ordinary even.full of cliches, insipid characters, bits of undecipherable science, and boring so-called action. i'll have to read his other classic the demolished man to recover my respect for bester.
July 8, 2008
To read The Demolished Man and this book back-to-back is to witness a more-than-compelling argument against literary alcoholism.
September 15, 2012
A strange novel written by a strange writer. It is flawed in so many ways (the sporadic random 'lingo' is so dated and such) yet it is a fun SF romp written the way only Bester can.
By this time in Bester's career, he had just recently returned to writing SF after a twenty year hiatus. I just can't help but find that this one suffered the same issues as did his novel of five years before "The Computer Connection" (originally titled "Indian Giver" for god sakes). It is as if he was, perhaps, trying too hard to be clever, witty and hip. I would have thought he would have learned from that last one. I say this as it was his own opinion - based on his interview with Charles Platt - "That confounded book. There is something vitally wrong with that book, and I knew it when I finished it, and couldn't patch it then, and to this day (Sept. 1979) I think about it, because there's no point in making a mistake unless you understand the mistake so that you don't make it again. I don't understand it, so I can't profit by it. It's infuriating."
In this one, I found the odd "politically incorrect" references toward other cultures and attitude towards homosexuals in "The Deceivers" hard to take. I forced myself to look past this, understanding that these were different times (though even in 1981, I am quite certain that this would not have flown smoothly) but on can but sing with the voice he has.
Nonetheless, those brilliant moments and original plot and text devises which Bester is known for are all present in this novel. A story which features a Synergist One who can make unusual connections between various seemingly unrelated elements - sort of like PKD did - was interesting enough for me.
Alfred Bester was a deserving recipient of the Grand Master award and has earned his respect. He wrote some of the best SF stories of all time. I really did enjoy reading this novel (even though I had to cringe at times). It was fun creative and caution to the wind writing and worth checking out - though only after having read his famed "The Demolished Man" and "The Stars are my Destination" first.
By this time in Bester's career, he had just recently returned to writing SF after a twenty year hiatus. I just can't help but find that this one suffered the same issues as did his novel of five years before "The Computer Connection" (originally titled "Indian Giver" for god sakes). It is as if he was, perhaps, trying too hard to be clever, witty and hip. I would have thought he would have learned from that last one. I say this as it was his own opinion - based on his interview with Charles Platt - "That confounded book. There is something vitally wrong with that book, and I knew it when I finished it, and couldn't patch it then, and to this day (Sept. 1979) I think about it, because there's no point in making a mistake unless you understand the mistake so that you don't make it again. I don't understand it, so I can't profit by it. It's infuriating."
In this one, I found the odd "politically incorrect" references toward other cultures and attitude towards homosexuals in "The Deceivers" hard to take. I forced myself to look past this, understanding that these were different times (though even in 1981, I am quite certain that this would not have flown smoothly) but on can but sing with the voice he has.
Nonetheless, those brilliant moments and original plot and text devises which Bester is known for are all present in this novel. A story which features a Synergist One who can make unusual connections between various seemingly unrelated elements - sort of like PKD did - was interesting enough for me.
Alfred Bester was a deserving recipient of the Grand Master award and has earned his respect. He wrote some of the best SF stories of all time. I really did enjoy reading this novel (even though I had to cringe at times). It was fun creative and caution to the wind writing and worth checking out - though only after having read his famed "The Demolished Man" and "The Stars are my Destination" first.
January 15, 2016
No sé cómo se transcribe una pedorreta, así que hacedme el favor e imaginaos que comienzo esta reseña con una pedorreta.
Señor, qué duro es obligarte a leer un libro porque te lo han regalado y te sientes culpable de estar odiándolo profundamente desde la primera página... No suelo hacerlo y me reafirmo en que seguir leyendo un libro que tienes muy claro que no te gusta es un error.
Pues eso, que no me ha gustado nada, los personajes un rollo, la trama podría haber sido interesante si no me la sudaran tanto los personajes, la pseudociencia infumable sumado a todo esto...
En fin. Que un rollo. No lo leáis.
Señor, qué duro es obligarte a leer un libro porque te lo han regalado y te sientes culpable de estar odiándolo profundamente desde la primera página... No suelo hacerlo y me reafirmo en que seguir leyendo un libro que tienes muy claro que no te gusta es un error.
Pues eso, que no me ha gustado nada, los personajes un rollo, la trama podría haber sido interesante si no me la sudaran tanto los personajes, la pseudociencia infumable sumado a todo esto...
En fin. Que un rollo. No lo leáis.
July 3, 2016
Lewis, Joyce and Vaughan are having a brainstorm. Bester is taking notes. Grandma Moses is drinking a cup of GABA. I can guess the OCA2 and HERC2 of your eyes, they're tyrosining. The cat leaps over the table into the hourglass and the four whoresmen of apocalypse are playing poker. If I had some CCGATTTTTCATTTTTTGATGTTAGAATGATTGATAGGTTTGAGTTTGAAAGATTGGAATATAAGTATTTATCTGCTTTTATGCCTTAT to show you'd know that
Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub
Yo da dub dub
Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub
Yo da dub dub
Herschel is oddly interested in Uranus, bikinis and dentists. "you're always thinking' 'it's my only vice". Sometimes I sniff the dust between two moments, it gives me the jinkies. Bester is fighting a victorian judge over a circumcised dildo gavel, and I am fairly satisfied with this book.
L.E. I need to re-read this.
Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub
Yo da dub dub
Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub
Yo da dub dub
Herschel is oddly interested in Uranus, bikinis and dentists. "you're always thinking' 'it's my only vice". Sometimes I sniff the dust between two moments, it gives me the jinkies. Bester is fighting a victorian judge over a circumcised dildo gavel, and I am fairly satisfied with this book.
L.E. I need to re-read this.
July 17, 2025
Sporadically I dip into sci-fi and this was pretty interesting once you overlook the fact that Bester's characters engage in the kind of stereotyping and homophobia that wasn't really acceptable any more even when published in '81. To give him the benefit of the doubt I think it's worth saying his characters are pretty out there on the spectrum of self-regard, and the phrasing here is altogether less nasty than a lot of feted authors from more recent times (Houellebecq comes to mind). More importantly, Bester's assembled a kind of carnivalesque exploration of synesthesia and technology that most writers could only dream of imagining, and he does it with language, and I like that very much...
June 15, 2022
2.5/5
O la novela no ha envejecido muy bien o ya nació vieja. Ideas interesantes con una plasmación casposa. Un aprobado raspao, de esos en los que el profesor regala unas décimas para evitar al alumno el suspenso. ¿Seguro que se trata del mismo autor que el de "Las estrellas mi destino"?
O la novela no ha envejecido muy bien o ya nació vieja. Ideas interesantes con una plasmación casposa. Un aprobado raspao, de esos en los que el profesor regala unas décimas para evitar al alumno el suspenso. ¿Seguro que se trata del mismo autor que el de "Las estrellas mi destino"?
January 4, 2021
This was an odd book and it left me a bit disappointed upon finishing it. I am not sure what I expected, but what I read was not it. It is disjointed; the POV changes between the protagonist (Rogue Winter) and somebody else (one Odessa Partridge, who I got the impression was the head of some intelligence - security - government agency) about every chapter (with a third POV thrown into the mix, that of Rogue's lover Demi Jeroux). It bounces around quite a bit in terms of the locations where the story takes place. We get some poor info dumps about the "current historical situation" of the Solar System that are supposed to help the reader along; sometimes they worked and sometimes they did not. The character development was so-so (Demi Jeroux was probably the most interesting character, to be honest; Rogue Winter came in second). It does have some disturbing elements in it .
It also has some other "weird moments" in it that, while tolerated and/or accepted in 1981, would probably prevent the book from being written today (I assume so, anyway; I could be wrong about that).
It felt like the author tried to hard to make the "lingo" of the book "futuristic hip" or something; the verbiage used at times was a bit jarring. I realize he was trying to create a futuristic society and all, especially as to how various segments of the global population moved off the planet en masse as nations and populated various parts of the solar system. However, I am not sure how well it worked. Well, it did not work for me. Maybe it worked for other readers, but it felt pretty dated to me at times as I was reading it. Also, it felt like the author was trying to "channel" Robert Heinlein with some of the conversations and descriptions. Again, I am not sure how well that worked, either. It was actually pretty distracting to me, as it felt like I was reading a Heinlein novel at times and then the flow was disrupted as the author returned to his own "style" of storytelling.
It was not a long book, but it still took me "a lot longer" to read it than I thought it should have. I did not have any difficulties putting it down, either, so that does not bode well for me ever rereading it again. I liked small parts of it, but not enough of it to rate it higher than maybe 2.3 - 2.5 stars, rounded down to 2 stars. Perhaps some of that had to do with the challenge of trying to describe how Rogue Winter perceived and interpreted the universe around him and the author including distractions throughout that took away from the story. In any case, I am glad I took a chance on reading it.
It also has some other "weird moments" in it that, while tolerated and/or accepted in 1981, would probably prevent the book from being written today (I assume so, anyway; I could be wrong about that).
It felt like the author tried to hard to make the "lingo" of the book "futuristic hip" or something; the verbiage used at times was a bit jarring. I realize he was trying to create a futuristic society and all, especially as to how various segments of the global population moved off the planet en masse as nations and populated various parts of the solar system. However, I am not sure how well it worked. Well, it did not work for me. Maybe it worked for other readers, but it felt pretty dated to me at times as I was reading it. Also, it felt like the author was trying to "channel" Robert Heinlein with some of the conversations and descriptions. Again, I am not sure how well that worked, either. It was actually pretty distracting to me, as it felt like I was reading a Heinlein novel at times and then the flow was disrupted as the author returned to his own "style" of storytelling.
It was not a long book, but it still took me "a lot longer" to read it than I thought it should have. I did not have any difficulties putting it down, either, so that does not bode well for me ever rereading it again. I liked small parts of it, but not enough of it to rate it higher than maybe 2.3 - 2.5 stars, rounded down to 2 stars. Perhaps some of that had to do with the challenge of trying to describe how Rogue Winter perceived and interpreted the universe around him and the author including distractions throughout that took away from the story. In any case, I am glad I took a chance on reading it.
October 5, 2014
I'm adding a preface to my original review, because I re-read this book after seeing other reviews -- it had been many years since I read it when I first reviewed it. The price on the back was £2.95, which should tell you something.
I still love Bester, and I love his work, and I will be forever grateful to him for doing things with his prose that resonated so strongly with me as I tried to reconcile the things my synaesthetic senses told me about the world around me with the way other people described the world around them; worlds, that, by description alone, were not remotely the same.
But reading this book again, now, this far into the 21st century, it's painfully full of racist stereotypes, insensitivity, misappropriation and sexism. The jaunty lingo I remembered as being not dissimilar to that in the Charteris Saint books isn't quite so jocular and evocative. There are a lot of failings in this book, and it isn't Bester at his most innovative or creative. It reads more like it was written by someone who found himself stranded in a rapidly-evolving cultural and political landscape, and who was trying, unsuccessfully, to catch up.
I don't read the uncomfortable caricatures as malicious, or even an attempt to cling to the comfortable and familiar; more as an attempt to navigate a changed world with tools carried from the old one. It made me sad rather than angry, and I can understand why other people rate it so poorly.
This is my original review:
I think, if I were to be asked which book made me want to write, and I hadn't already been writing, this would be the one.
Bester's facility with using physical patterns of prose to convey sensory anomalies is an absolute delight in this, a book about a pattern matcher searching for his pregnant, shapeshifting alien partner across a galaxy of planets. I'm synaesthetic: the idea that one can depict atypical sensory impressions using the words themselves was a revelation to me. It turns up again in "The Stars My Destination", but is at its best and most creative in this book.
I love Bester's work, love the glorious mash-up of Sixties slang and genre-bending plots. This starts with the protagonist being led on a deliberate trail using the Twelve Days of Christmas and continues, preposterously, fabulously, from there. It's brilliant and, to my mind, sadly underrated.
I still love Bester, and I love his work, and I will be forever grateful to him for doing things with his prose that resonated so strongly with me as I tried to reconcile the things my synaesthetic senses told me about the world around me with the way other people described the world around them; worlds, that, by description alone, were not remotely the same.
But reading this book again, now, this far into the 21st century, it's painfully full of racist stereotypes, insensitivity, misappropriation and sexism. The jaunty lingo I remembered as being not dissimilar to that in the Charteris Saint books isn't quite so jocular and evocative. There are a lot of failings in this book, and it isn't Bester at his most innovative or creative. It reads more like it was written by someone who found himself stranded in a rapidly-evolving cultural and political landscape, and who was trying, unsuccessfully, to catch up.
I don't read the uncomfortable caricatures as malicious, or even an attempt to cling to the comfortable and familiar; more as an attempt to navigate a changed world with tools carried from the old one. It made me sad rather than angry, and I can understand why other people rate it so poorly.
This is my original review:
I think, if I were to be asked which book made me want to write, and I hadn't already been writing, this would be the one.
Bester's facility with using physical patterns of prose to convey sensory anomalies is an absolute delight in this, a book about a pattern matcher searching for his pregnant, shapeshifting alien partner across a galaxy of planets. I'm synaesthetic: the idea that one can depict atypical sensory impressions using the words themselves was a revelation to me. It turns up again in "The Stars My Destination", but is at its best and most creative in this book.
I love Bester's work, love the glorious mash-up of Sixties slang and genre-bending plots. This starts with the protagonist being led on a deliberate trail using the Twelve Days of Christmas and continues, preposterously, fabulously, from there. It's brilliant and, to my mind, sadly underrated.
February 26, 2021
There is nothing really wrong with The Deceivers assuming that you are accustomed to the foibles of golden era science fiction. It's a fun story but it's not anything overwhelming. It is a stylistic throwback to sci-fi stories of the 50s and early 60s. On the negative side of that There's several comments on cultural and racial groups that simply didn't age well. Pretty much every ethnic group apparently left Earth to create their own ethnic/cultural colony on the various planets and satellites around Sol. In discussing these, there is a lot of play on stereotypes which are inherently prejudiced. There's also a sort of casual misogyny (or really more of a toxic masculinity) and sexual commentary that was much more common to the pulp literature of the 50's through 70's. While not awesome, many readers of classic sci fi have slogged through much worse.
On the positive, it's a fast paced story with vibrant characters and conversational tone. There's a lot of invented jargon which is typical of Bester's other sci fi writing. The main character, Rogue Winter, is a sort of strange half brilliant half idiot character who sort of blusters through life as a kind of investigative reporter and heir apparent of the Maori colony on Ganymede. Most of the other major characters are a kid of rogues gallery of brilliant women who are a great deal more put together than Rogue Winter is.
I will say though, what made this sci-fi was really just an issue of setting. There were many elements that were reminiscent of Stevenson's nautical adventure stories mixed with The Godfather. If you are already a Bester fan, there is no reason to avoid this book but it won't measure up to The Demolished Man.
On the positive, it's a fast paced story with vibrant characters and conversational tone. There's a lot of invented jargon which is typical of Bester's other sci fi writing. The main character, Rogue Winter, is a sort of strange half brilliant half idiot character who sort of blusters through life as a kind of investigative reporter and heir apparent of the Maori colony on Ganymede. Most of the other major characters are a kid of rogues gallery of brilliant women who are a great deal more put together than Rogue Winter is.
I will say though, what made this sci-fi was really just an issue of setting. There were many elements that were reminiscent of Stevenson's nautical adventure stories mixed with The Godfather. If you are already a Bester fan, there is no reason to avoid this book but it won't measure up to The Demolished Man.
September 7, 2009
I've been having a really hard time working out all the ways I was disappointed in this novel. I hate it when I read something by an author I've enjoyed, and even recommended to other people, and have my opinion of them change dramatically after a new reading, and not for the better. Maybe Bester just got stuck in the 1950s - that's the most harmless interpretation. The exceedingly racist stereotypes, the blatant sexism – I can read over that in a book written in 1955 (though I really don't remember there being any to speak of in The Stars, My Destination), but this was written in 1981. There's no excuse for the linguistic and political attitudes of this novel in 1981.
I wanted to come up with at least one thing that I like about this story. Nothing. The main character is a pale shadow of Gully Foyle, a complete egotist with no real motivation for any of his outlandish (yet boring) escapades. The plot line is some vague ethnic Mafia power struggle that I lost track of about half-way through. The science fiction ideas are few and far between, and nothing new or at all interesting. The best part of the book is probably the Afterword by Julius Schwartz and Elliot Maggin about Bester's early career in the magazines.
Skip it. Read The Stars, My Destination instead and just forget this novel exists.
I wanted to come up with at least one thing that I like about this story. Nothing. The main character is a pale shadow of Gully Foyle, a complete egotist with no real motivation for any of his outlandish (yet boring) escapades. The plot line is some vague ethnic Mafia power struggle that I lost track of about half-way through. The science fiction ideas are few and far between, and nothing new or at all interesting. The best part of the book is probably the Afterword by Julius Schwartz and Elliot Maggin about Bester's early career in the magazines.
Skip it. Read The Stars, My Destination instead and just forget this novel exists.
December 12, 2023
You ever read a book that just totally knocks you out? And you fall in love with the author and you just want to consume everything they've written, like collecting a whole set of baseball cards? That was me with Alfred Bester after "The Stars My Destination". And then I read "The Demolished Man" and that was great too!
And then I read this.
And you know that thing where you read a really, really bad book by an author you thought was awesome and it was so bad it made you question your taste, your memory, and your life choices?
There's just so much casual racism and misogyny and homophobia and all of that almost masks the reality that it's also not a very good story. There are bits - the Syngergist is a cool idea, e.g. - but the bits are few and far between and not enough to save this very sad, very bad book.
And then I read this.
And you know that thing where you read a really, really bad book by an author you thought was awesome and it was so bad it made you question your taste, your memory, and your life choices?
There's just so much casual racism and misogyny and homophobia and all of that almost masks the reality that it's also not a very good story. There are bits - the Syngergist is a cool idea, e.g. - but the bits are few and far between and not enough to save this very sad, very bad book.
September 27, 2020
Le système solaire est colonisé. Une source d'énergie mystérieuse, les cristaux de Meta, permet tous les possibles. Pour Rogue Winter, un Maori avec un don pour relever des similitudes, tout va pour le mieux; il est tombé en amour avec Demi Jeroux, qui n'est, en fait, pas du tout ce qu'elle parait. Mais elle est kidnappée et Rogue met tout son pouvoir et ses dons pour la retrouver à travers tout le système solaire.
Moi, qui m'attendais à un roman similaire à ses chefs d'oeuvre (L'homme démoli et Terminus les étoiles), il s'agit plutôt d'un récit d'humour sur fond de science fantasy. Mais, finalement, je me suis amusé avec ce récit un peut décousu, une farce un peu à la Rabelais.
En conclusion, j'ai bien aimé, un récit pour se changer les idées pendant la pandémie.
Moi, qui m'attendais à un roman similaire à ses chefs d'oeuvre (L'homme démoli et Terminus les étoiles), il s'agit plutôt d'un récit d'humour sur fond de science fantasy. Mais, finalement, je me suis amusé avec ce récit un peut décousu, une farce un peu à la Rabelais.
En conclusion, j'ai bien aimé, un récit pour se changer les idées pendant la pandémie.
August 14, 2022
My enjoyment of this book was definitely impacted by the words/terminology that today would definitely be viewed as racist and misogynistic. I'm guessing that few readers of the book when originally published (1981) had that problem. For example a very commonly used word is "Jink" - which is a contraction of "Jap-Chink". For that reason some people might want to steer clear.
However the story is still pretty good. As any science fiction of a certain period will be, the science is dated and we know now that much of the planetology (etc.) doesn't hold up and neither does the easy space travel, etc. Again, if you can suspend your disbelief and just read the story itself it's entertaining.
However the story is still pretty good. As any science fiction of a certain period will be, the science is dated and we know now that much of the planetology (etc.) doesn't hold up and neither does the easy space travel, etc. Again, if you can suspend your disbelief and just read the story itself it's entertaining.
January 11, 2025
This book is entertaining enough to merit four stars, but the entertainment comes at the expense of making sense. I won't even try to summarize the plot; suffice it to say it involves a Maori from one planetoid falling in love with a shape-shifting sprite from another planetoid, whom he must rescue after kidnappers from another planetoid go after her. There are a lot of cool ideas -- from a seventh-sense for pattern recognition to "mammoths" evolved from boars -- but they come across more as a hodgepodge of ideas than a unified story.
August 2, 2025
I am a huge fan of Alfred Bester. The Demolished Man is one of my favorite books of all time. Stars My Destination is regarded as one of the master pieces of science fiction.
So it's very disappointing that this book is just BAD, like REALLY BAD.
Contrived, self-indulgent, fatuous attempts at post-modernism, pages and pages of meandering dialogue with pathos that at time seems to be the author's sex fantasies.
Just awful.
I had to finish it because I have to finish things, but I sped through it.
Shudder.
So it's very disappointing that this book is just BAD, like REALLY BAD.
Contrived, self-indulgent, fatuous attempts at post-modernism, pages and pages of meandering dialogue with pathos that at time seems to be the author's sex fantasies.
Just awful.
I had to finish it because I have to finish things, but I sped through it.
Shudder.
November 14, 2017
I bought this book as part of a bundle: science written from scientist. well I should've known what I was getting into, but still I expected more. the main reason why I'm there staring this book is the excessive explaining of the world. mostly because it was harming the action at hand, and when the explanation was done it took a while to figure where the story stopped. so there staring because of bad pacing.
April 10, 2023
Aunque tiene mucho menos substancia que otras de sus obras, y cambia en demasía al narrador principal, siempre se agradece el estilo desenfadado del autor, sus personajes extraños, sus diálogos violentos, ahora en un formato de aventura romántica por el sistema solar. Por el medio tiende a languidecer, más un final abierto arregla la modorra y termina sacando más de una sonrisa.
A destacar la titánida de Urano entre la lista de extraterrestres extravagantes
A destacar la titánida de Urano entre la lista de extraterrestres extravagantes
July 9, 2019
Bester puede ser caótico a veces pero ello está bien mientras la narración, al final, vaya a alguna parte. En Los impostores, sin embargo, el argumento no tiene sentido. O al menos yo fui incapaz de descubrirlo. Es un verdadero desastre aunque, debo admitirlo, resultó divertido en algunos momentos.
December 22, 2024
Ao longo de todo o romance, o autor parece muito empenhado em estabelecer uma pretensa cumplicidade com o leitor na base de um humor quase sempre brejeiro... Sem êxito, pois este está por demais ocupado em decifrar um enredo que é tão complicado quanto inverosímil.
August 16, 2017
a fun read, but kind of dated
February 21, 2019
Book is very dated, even dated by the date it was originally published. But the author was also old at the time of publication.
July 18, 2019
Alas.
May 14, 2020
Stop at The Stars My Destination. This is like the team that wrote Playboy's party jokes page in the 60s made a science fiction novel. Corny, dated, and ultimately a bit dull.
July 5, 2020
Sadly pointless and unreadable.
March 7, 2021
Embarrassingly contrived, and it's aged like milk.
November 14, 2022
Después de leer la obra maestra Tigre, Tigre, esperaba mucho más
June 24, 2023
I love everything Alfred Bester has ever written. A true SF great.
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