“Dazzlement and enchantment are Bester’s methods. His stories never stand still a moment; they’re forever tilting into motion, veering, doubling back, firing off rockets to distract you. The repetition of the key phrase in “Fondly Fahrenheit,” the endless reappearances of Mr. Aquila in “The Star-comber” are offered mockingly: try to grab at them for stability, and you find they mean something new each time. Bester’s science is all wrong, his characters are not characters but funny hats; but you never notice: he fires off a smoke-bomb, climbs a ladder, leaps from a trapeze, plays three bars of “God Save the King,” swallows a sword and dives into three inches of water. Good heavens, what more do you want?”
― Virtual Unrealities, The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester
― Virtual Unrealities, The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester
Idle Book Club
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— last activity May 18, 2024 08:36PM
This month's book: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Next up is Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng! ...more
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