'The Demolished Man' by Alfred Bester
'The Demolished Man' by Alfred Bester

The good

  • Intriguing premise: a futuristic society where some people, known as “peepers” or “Espers,” are telepaths who can read your mind. All peepers can read the minds of normal people and more powerful peepers can read the minds of less powerful peepers, while blocking the reverse. This radical transparency has had a massive impact on society, including making premeditated murder impossible for more than 70 years.

  • The story initially follows an antihero who tries to find a way to commit murder anyway. This leads to some clever scheming.

  • The story then follows a detective trying to solve the murder. This leads to a few fun deductions and some plot twists.

The not so good

  • I found some parts of the book hard to follow, as if the author skipped something. It becomes clearer later, but spending long stretches of time confused was annoying.

  • Most of the characters don’t feel or act like real people. They aren’t flat or 2-dimensional tropes, but there is something uncanny about them, as if they are more actors on a stage rather than actual human beings.

Rating: 3.5 stars