'The Stars My Destination' by Alfred Bester
'The Stars My Destination' by Alfred Bester

The good

  • Some cool concepts and premises: jaunting, or personal teleportation, that allows you to travel by thought alone; humans living across the solar system, with a war raging between the inner and outer planets; jaunt-proof locations, designed to prevent jaunting; PyrE, a mysterious substance that is activated by telepathy and is vastly more destructive than nuclear bombs; nervous system alternations to vastly increase reflexes, speed, and strength; nervous system alternations to disable all sensory input, so you live with no sight, sound, vision, hearing, touch, etc; and more. This book was written in the 50s, so it feels very much ahead of its time, and likely inspired lots of the sci fi that followed.

  • A highly unique protagonist named Gully Foyle. He’s primal and beast-like at the start of the story, and driven only by a mad quest for revenge, and does some heinous along his path (including, apparently, raping a woman; though I must admit I totally missed the reference to that on my first read and only picked up on it much later in the story). So he’s a fascinating antihero, with an intriguing character arc.

  • The book feels a bit, for lack of a better word, simplistic at the beginning, but the plot becomes more and more intricate as it goes along, and develops into an interesting tale, with a few good plot twists.

The not so good

  • The characters feel cartoony. Foyle is fun and unique, but doesn’t feel or act like a real human; neither does anyone around him. The “tiger stripes” on his face only add to the unreality and cartoon-like qualities.

Rating: 4 stars