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Virtual Unrealities: Short Fiction by Bester, Alfred (1998) Paperback
Alfred Bester (1913-1987) was the author of two of science fiction's seminal works, The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination. He also wrote some fast-moving, sizzling short stories that were very highly regarded; many of them are included in the 17 stories showcased in Virtual Realities; two were never before published. Highlights include "Disappearing Act," in which shell-shocked soldiers vanish from their hospital ward; "Hobson's Choice," in which a statistician uncovers a disturbing population trend in post-nuclear Kansas; "Time Is the Traitor," wherein powerful business people manipulate their most valuable consultant; and "The Devil Without Glasses," a conspiracy tale with an X-Files feel. The science fiction and literary classic "Fondly Fahrenheit" stars wealthy Vandaleur and his mad android who has an unfortunate habit of turning murderous when the temperature gets too hot... All reet! Bester's use of the word girl and the occasional female as manipulating schemer are not in line with current sensibilities and may give readers pause, especially those accustomed to feminist improvements in modern SF. Nevertheless, these stories are a frenetic and delightful confection of SF from the mid-20th century. --Bonnie Bouman
Paperback
First published November 11, 1997
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About the author
Alfred Bester
351 books933 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 89 reviews
September 11, 2014
My first experience reading Bester was 'The Stars My Destination'. I still think it is the definitive example of how Bester best managed all of his gifts. It's a lean book, yet it contains a great revenge-adventure story, with sci-fi concepts to impress the intellectually curious, and every word is vital.
Most of the short stories in this collection felt as if they were padded with dialogue or provided verbiage that didn't necessarily move the stories along. Reveals didn't always justify the pages of lead-up. I ultimately enjoyed the cleverness and thought experiments, but some of these stories would've had sharper impact with an editor.
While these stories reveal Bester's characterizations and talent, 'The Stars My Destination' is Bester's masterpiece. Might be time for me to jaunt for a re-reading.
Most of the short stories in this collection felt as if they were padded with dialogue or provided verbiage that didn't necessarily move the stories along. Reveals didn't always justify the pages of lead-up. I ultimately enjoyed the cleverness and thought experiments, but some of these stories would've had sharper impact with an editor.
While these stories reveal Bester's characterizations and talent, 'The Stars My Destination' is Bester's masterpiece. Might be time for me to jaunt for a re-reading.
March 11, 2016
I’ve always gotten a great deal of enjoyment out of Bester’s work, and this book has most of my favorites of his; I was pleased to see that I still enjoyed almost all the stories as much as I did the first time I read them (though the ones I didn’t like, I still don’t), starting with
“Disappearing Act” – This story grabs me almost immediately from “There are fighting generals (vital to an army), political generals (vital to an administration), and public relations generals (vital to an administration)... Forthright and Four-Square, he had ideals has as high and as understandable as the mottos on money” and keeps me going right to the end which reveals the double meaning to the title, while keeping me entertained with tidbits like Yale’s newly introduced courses in telekinesis.
“Oddy and Id” published in 1950, offhandedly refers to how a war for oil in the twentieth century destroyed the UN. This story also reflects Bester’s interest in Freud, who was very in vogue in the post-war era, though as this reminiscence reveals (http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2...) Bester had trouble selling this story to Campbell, who felt that Freud was obsolete, now that L. Ron Hubbard had published Dianetics. The byplay between the professors, and how they were selected to charm Oddy is also quite amusing, particularly how Bester uses the lisp of one of the professors to slip in the King James’ usage “hath.” Unfortunately, the sexism that shows up in The Demolished Man starts to show in this story (it gets much worse later in this book).
“Star Light, Star Bright” is another Twilight Zone type story like the first two, but the introduction of the criminals through their misapprehension of what the “doomed man” had in mind for the Buchanans he was pursuing keeps the story moving for me.
“5,271,009” (aka “The Starcomber” aka “That story with the number title, what was it?”) was written in response to a request to write a story to match cover art already purchased – a picture of a man on an asteroid in prison garb with that number on his chest (here’s the picture http://www.bewilderingstories.com/iss...). In response Bester wrote this romp, which critiques the power and security fantasies of pulp science fiction (coming close to parodying some of Bester’s own work, particularly his later Stars, My Destination (aka Tyger, Tyger!)). The names are tricky, too – our hero is Halyson (i.e. halcyon), while his friend is Derelict. I get a pleasant sense of catharsis out of the end of the story when Halyson makes a mature choice.
“Fondly Fahrenheit” is another story that always grabs me, and insists on my attention as its voice switches from first-person to third person to a different first-person often in one sentence while the tag-lines of adverb-Fahrenheit recur and vary until we get to the final variation. Bester tells the story of how he came up with the pieces of this story here http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2..., and there’s a brief commentary on the story here http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/i_wi... .
“Hobson’s Choice” repeats the moral of “Starcomber” (I’m never going to type that big number again) so it loses some effectiveness in a collection with it, but I still find it memorable. I’d pick the future, by the way – better the troubles I don’t know, then the troubles I know I wouldn’t like or survive. I also enjoyed “How are your teeth and eyes? In good shape? They’d better be… How are your ethics? In bad shape? They’d better be.” (William Tenn touches on similar issues in his story “Sanctuary”).
“Of Time and Fifth Avenue” is a fairly slight piece, but pleasant. I suppose the difference between having the almanac, and merely having the hundred dollar bill is that all the hundred dollar bill gives is a goal that Knight can chose to reach, exceed, or avoid, while the almanac gives the illusion of omniscience. There’s a nice reference to how language use might be expected to change in the future, when one of the characters says that her linguistics are “fouled” up, then tries another word to see if that better fits the current usage (which it doesn’t).
“Time is the Traitor” is a difficult story to evaluate – it moves right along, and I want to like it, but parts of it just turn me off. Strapp is a tragic figure, but some of his behavior is appalling even when he’s not in the throes of murderous rage. I’d like to think of it as really the story of Frankie Alceste, who is a much nicer guy, and whose compulsion to help other people be happy is much more commendable – except that in this case, he recreates Sima Morgan as an object to help make Strapp happy, without much consideration for her as a person.
“The Men Who Murdered Mohammed” is fun – I like the mad scientist hero, and the computer he consults, and how the author uses what seem like metaphoric language like “his feet seemed to melt into the floor” to give clues as to what is really happening in the story. In “Alternate Worldcons,” a series of alternate history stories about Worldcon, one of the stories is a pastiche of this one, called “The Men Who Corflued Mohammed” (“corflu” is slang for “correction fluid” which you’ll remember from typewriter days, perhaps).
I don’t have much to say about “The Pi Man.”
Now we get into the stories that I really start to dislike – I suppose I get the point of “They Don’t Make Life Like They Used To” – the last man and woman on Earth would have to be crazy from loneliness and despair, and might very well pick up very peculiar habits and ways of thought (like carefully filling out IOUs while taking clothes from a long-abandoned shop), but the story goes on so long with these childish characters that I get very tired of them. The ending of this story reminds me of Niven’s “Inconstant Moon” in which the main characters take a vacation from responsibility when they think the world is about to end, but must start taking effort again when they realize that they might survive after all, but I like the Niven much better.
That story and “Will You Wait?” both allude to BBDO, a large and influential advertising agency of the day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBDO) – ad agencies were big in popular culture of the 50s and the 60’s so it’s not surprising to see them mentioned here.
“The Flowered Thundermug” is another story that doesn’t work for me – it’s an amusing enough idea that the far future ends up emulating their misunderstandings of our time period based on Hollywood depictions (see Star Trek’s “A Piece of the Action” for a similar notion), but it goes on way too long for me. Something about Hollywood makes SF writers who work there for too long write satires about it later – John Varley’s “Demon” is another example. I was amused by the statement that “it has been clearly demonstrated that the typewriting machine was not developed until the onset of the Computer Age at the end of the 20th century” – in 1964 this was probably a joke, but in fact, the number of keyboards created in personal computer era so far outnumbers the number of typewriters created in the 60s that it’s reasonable that someone might be confused (you might be amused by this article about converting manual typewriters into computer keyboards http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/ha...) . The sexism in this story may be taken as a reflection of that which existed in the movies of the 30s, 40s and 50s, I suppose
“Adam and No Eve” may be the most conventional story in the book – aside from visions of the dead, there’s almost nothing weird here – just the end of a previous world.
It’d be interesting to see the end of “And Three and a Half to Go.”
I really didn’t like “Galatea Galante” – I recognize that it’s an over-the-top retelling of Pygmalion/My Fair Lady, but I can’t get past the fact that it’s about a person who makes and sells slaves – and no matter how quirky and wacky the slave-seller is, I don’t want to hear about his trials and tribulations in creating a person who will be sold to someone else (and the objectification of Galatea makes the story very hard to read).
“The Devil Without Glasses,” though, I do like – I’m a sucker for the “every hand against him” universal paranoid fantasy story (Heinlein’s “They” is another example).
“Disappearing Act” – This story grabs me almost immediately from “There are fighting generals (vital to an army), political generals (vital to an administration), and public relations generals (vital to an administration)... Forthright and Four-Square, he had ideals has as high and as understandable as the mottos on money” and keeps me going right to the end which reveals the double meaning to the title, while keeping me entertained with tidbits like Yale’s newly introduced courses in telekinesis.
“Oddy and Id” published in 1950, offhandedly refers to how a war for oil in the twentieth century destroyed the UN. This story also reflects Bester’s interest in Freud, who was very in vogue in the post-war era, though as this reminiscence reveals (http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2...) Bester had trouble selling this story to Campbell, who felt that Freud was obsolete, now that L. Ron Hubbard had published Dianetics. The byplay between the professors, and how they were selected to charm Oddy is also quite amusing, particularly how Bester uses the lisp of one of the professors to slip in the King James’ usage “hath.” Unfortunately, the sexism that shows up in The Demolished Man starts to show in this story (it gets much worse later in this book).
“Star Light, Star Bright” is another Twilight Zone type story like the first two, but the introduction of the criminals through their misapprehension of what the “doomed man” had in mind for the Buchanans he was pursuing keeps the story moving for me.
“5,271,009” (aka “The Starcomber” aka “That story with the number title, what was it?”) was written in response to a request to write a story to match cover art already purchased – a picture of a man on an asteroid in prison garb with that number on his chest (here’s the picture http://www.bewilderingstories.com/iss...). In response Bester wrote this romp, which critiques the power and security fantasies of pulp science fiction (coming close to parodying some of Bester’s own work, particularly his later Stars, My Destination (aka Tyger, Tyger!)). The names are tricky, too – our hero is Halyson (i.e. halcyon), while his friend is Derelict. I get a pleasant sense of catharsis out of the end of the story when Halyson makes a mature choice.
“Fondly Fahrenheit” is another story that always grabs me, and insists on my attention as its voice switches from first-person to third person to a different first-person often in one sentence while the tag-lines of adverb-Fahrenheit recur and vary until we get to the final variation. Bester tells the story of how he came up with the pieces of this story here http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2..., and there’s a brief commentary on the story here http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/i_wi... .
“Hobson’s Choice” repeats the moral of “Starcomber” (I’m never going to type that big number again) so it loses some effectiveness in a collection with it, but I still find it memorable. I’d pick the future, by the way – better the troubles I don’t know, then the troubles I know I wouldn’t like or survive. I also enjoyed “How are your teeth and eyes? In good shape? They’d better be… How are your ethics? In bad shape? They’d better be.” (William Tenn touches on similar issues in his story “Sanctuary”).
“Of Time and Fifth Avenue” is a fairly slight piece, but pleasant. I suppose the difference between having the almanac, and merely having the hundred dollar bill is that all the hundred dollar bill gives is a goal that Knight can chose to reach, exceed, or avoid, while the almanac gives the illusion of omniscience. There’s a nice reference to how language use might be expected to change in the future, when one of the characters says that her linguistics are “fouled” up, then tries another word to see if that better fits the current usage (which it doesn’t).
“Time is the Traitor” is a difficult story to evaluate – it moves right along, and I want to like it, but parts of it just turn me off. Strapp is a tragic figure, but some of his behavior is appalling even when he’s not in the throes of murderous rage. I’d like to think of it as really the story of Frankie Alceste, who is a much nicer guy, and whose compulsion to help other people be happy is much more commendable – except that in this case, he recreates Sima Morgan as an object to help make Strapp happy, without much consideration for her as a person.
“The Men Who Murdered Mohammed” is fun – I like the mad scientist hero, and the computer he consults, and how the author uses what seem like metaphoric language like “his feet seemed to melt into the floor” to give clues as to what is really happening in the story. In “Alternate Worldcons,” a series of alternate history stories about Worldcon, one of the stories is a pastiche of this one, called “The Men Who Corflued Mohammed” (“corflu” is slang for “correction fluid” which you’ll remember from typewriter days, perhaps).
I don’t have much to say about “The Pi Man.”
Now we get into the stories that I really start to dislike – I suppose I get the point of “They Don’t Make Life Like They Used To” – the last man and woman on Earth would have to be crazy from loneliness and despair, and might very well pick up very peculiar habits and ways of thought (like carefully filling out IOUs while taking clothes from a long-abandoned shop), but the story goes on so long with these childish characters that I get very tired of them. The ending of this story reminds me of Niven’s “Inconstant Moon” in which the main characters take a vacation from responsibility when they think the world is about to end, but must start taking effort again when they realize that they might survive after all, but I like the Niven much better.
That story and “Will You Wait?” both allude to BBDO, a large and influential advertising agency of the day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBDO) – ad agencies were big in popular culture of the 50s and the 60’s so it’s not surprising to see them mentioned here.
“The Flowered Thundermug” is another story that doesn’t work for me – it’s an amusing enough idea that the far future ends up emulating their misunderstandings of our time period based on Hollywood depictions (see Star Trek’s “A Piece of the Action” for a similar notion), but it goes on way too long for me. Something about Hollywood makes SF writers who work there for too long write satires about it later – John Varley’s “Demon” is another example. I was amused by the statement that “it has been clearly demonstrated that the typewriting machine was not developed until the onset of the Computer Age at the end of the 20th century” – in 1964 this was probably a joke, but in fact, the number of keyboards created in personal computer era so far outnumbers the number of typewriters created in the 60s that it’s reasonable that someone might be confused (you might be amused by this article about converting manual typewriters into computer keyboards http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/ha...) . The sexism in this story may be taken as a reflection of that which existed in the movies of the 30s, 40s and 50s, I suppose
“Adam and No Eve” may be the most conventional story in the book – aside from visions of the dead, there’s almost nothing weird here – just the end of a previous world.
It’d be interesting to see the end of “And Three and a Half to Go.”
I really didn’t like “Galatea Galante” – I recognize that it’s an over-the-top retelling of Pygmalion/My Fair Lady, but I can’t get past the fact that it’s about a person who makes and sells slaves – and no matter how quirky and wacky the slave-seller is, I don’t want to hear about his trials and tribulations in creating a person who will be sold to someone else (and the objectification of Galatea makes the story very hard to read).
“The Devil Without Glasses,” though, I do like – I’m a sucker for the “every hand against him” universal paranoid fantasy story (Heinlein’s “They” is another example).
May 23, 2022
I don't know, I hate to give a bad review to a "classic" work. There is so much that changes in what is socially acceptable over the years. A few of these stories were OK. You could see how ideas in the stories were influential for future writers (The last story reads like the main character was going to wake up and find himself in the Matrix). The time travel idea was kind of cool, but if true no one would be willingly travel through time on "vacation".
But after a few stories the sexist and frankly horrifying hatred dislike of women was just overwhelming. It made finishing the book a slog where I would have to put the book down for days after certain sections before I could keep going. It was all of the worst of how women have been depicted in writing. ugh there should have been a warning label. But I'm done.
But after a few stories the sexist and frankly horrifying hatred dislike of women was just overwhelming. It made finishing the book a slog where I would have to put the book down for days after certain sections before I could keep going. It was all of the worst of how women have been depicted in writing. ugh there should have been a warning label. But I'm done.
September 16, 2010
One of the great amateur savants of science fiction. A collection of short stories fizzing with wild imagination yet presenting the same old tropes over and over again. Very confusing and quite unlike anything else you've ever read: pulp fiction written by a polymath.
Bester's sardonic humour sparkles throughout. People in the advertising business will spot a whole bunch of in-jokes the rest of you won't.
Bester's sardonic humour sparkles throughout. People in the advertising business will spot a whole bunch of in-jokes the rest of you won't.
July 1, 2024
Read some time ago. Rereading. Review to follow
The main reason to like Alfred Bester comes down to two books; The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination also known as Tiger! Tiger!. He was a prolific writer and 'Virtual Unrealities' is a collection of the short stories he wrote for various sci-fi magazines in the States between 1950 and 1987. Not many of these come up to the depth and quality of the two novels and you should only really approach this volume after reading both of the novels. The stories all contain familiar sci-fi tropes and only a few go beyond to what might be considered 'fiction' as opposed to science fiction. Not the least of these is the last of the collection 'The Devil without Glasses' which reads like a first mock up for 'The Matrix'.
The main reason to like Alfred Bester comes down to two books; The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination also known as Tiger! Tiger!. He was a prolific writer and 'Virtual Unrealities' is a collection of the short stories he wrote for various sci-fi magazines in the States between 1950 and 1987. Not many of these come up to the depth and quality of the two novels and you should only really approach this volume after reading both of the novels. The stories all contain familiar sci-fi tropes and only a few go beyond to what might be considered 'fiction' as opposed to science fiction. Not the least of these is the last of the collection 'The Devil without Glasses' which reads like a first mock up for 'The Matrix'.
January 2, 2020
Review based on the following stories, which I believe are among Bester's better known short works. I found them to be a mixed bag and was not inclined to tackle the others in the collection.
Star Light, Star Bright (3.0) - A Twilight Zone type story of a search for a boy with mysterious powers who's suddenly gone missing, with all traces of him nearly vanished.
5,271,009 (4.0) - A bit of a head scratcher that doesn't really start to take shape until the end, but then, wow!
Fondly Fahrenheit (4.0) - Oddly compelling story of an android with a flair for murder and an unhealthy relationship with his owner. Told in abruptly shifting third and first person narration from the POV of both the android and the owner. I've never seen anything quite like that, and I found it quite compelling.
The Men Who Murdered Mohammed (2.0)
The Pi Man (3.0) - The trials and tribulations of a man who's extra sensitive to galactic patterns and responds more violently. Very cool concept, but the execution is disjointed and difficult to follow.
Star Light, Star Bright (3.0) - A Twilight Zone type story of a search for a boy with mysterious powers who's suddenly gone missing, with all traces of him nearly vanished.
5,271,009 (4.0) - A bit of a head scratcher that doesn't really start to take shape until the end, but then, wow!
Fondly Fahrenheit (4.0) - Oddly compelling story of an android with a flair for murder and an unhealthy relationship with his owner. Told in abruptly shifting third and first person narration from the POV of both the android and the owner. I've never seen anything quite like that, and I found it quite compelling.
The Men Who Murdered Mohammed (2.0)
The Pi Man (3.0) - The trials and tribulations of a man who's extra sensitive to galactic patterns and responds more violently. Very cool concept, but the execution is disjointed and difficult to follow.
Want to read
October 5, 2023Contains the stories:
Disappearing Act
Oddy and Id
Star Light, Star Bright
5,271,009
Fondly Fahrenheit - 4/5 - a murderous android and its owner
Hobson's Choice
Of Time and Third Avenue
Time is the Traitor
The Men Who Murdered Mohammed
The Pi Man
They Don't Make Life Like They Used To
Will You Wait?
The Flowered Thundermug
Adam And No Eve
And 3 1/2 to Go (fragment - previously unpublished)
Galatea Galante
The Devil Without Glasses (previously unpublished)
Disappearing Act
Oddy and Id
Star Light, Star Bright
5,271,009
Fondly Fahrenheit - 4/5 - a murderous android and its owner
Hobson's Choice
Of Time and Third Avenue
Time is the Traitor
The Men Who Murdered Mohammed
The Pi Man
They Don't Make Life Like They Used To
Will You Wait?
The Flowered Thundermug
Adam And No Eve
And 3 1/2 to Go (fragment - previously unpublished)
Galatea Galante
The Devil Without Glasses (previously unpublished)
October 20, 2010
Virtual Unrealities is a collection of Alfred Bester's short stories published over the course of his career. The last story in the set, "The Devil without Glasses" was previously unpublished. It was on my wishlist after a book blogger was raving about his works and I had only read one of his books.
Bester's stories remind me of Twilight Zone episodes, the originals, not the remakes. They start simply and then something becomes into focus as being off. One small detail will set everything off kilter and that's where the stories come to life.
For instance, "Disappearing Act" starts with a teacher trying to return a paper to a boy who has gone missing with his family. He recognizes brilliance in the boy's writing and expects the rest of the. When he fails to find the boy and his life is put in danger in the process he suspects the government. The solution to the situation ends up being much simpler and delightfully hair raising at the same time.
The book contains the following stories:
* Disappearing act
* Oddy and Id
* Star light, star bright
* 5,271,009
* Fondly Fahrenheit
* Hobson's choice
* Of time and Third Avenue
* Time is the traitor
* The men who murdered Mohammed
* The pi man
* They don't make life like they used to
* Will you wait?
* The flowered thundermug
* Adam and no Eve
* And 3 1/2 to go (fragment)
* Galatea Galante
* The devil without glasses (previously unpublished)
Bester's stories remind me of Twilight Zone episodes, the originals, not the remakes. They start simply and then something becomes into focus as being off. One small detail will set everything off kilter and that's where the stories come to life.
For instance, "Disappearing Act" starts with a teacher trying to return a paper to a boy who has gone missing with his family. He recognizes brilliance in the boy's writing and expects the rest of the. When he fails to find the boy and his life is put in danger in the process he suspects the government. The solution to the situation ends up being much simpler and delightfully hair raising at the same time.
The book contains the following stories:
* Disappearing act
* Oddy and Id
* Star light, star bright
* 5,271,009
* Fondly Fahrenheit
* Hobson's choice
* Of time and Third Avenue
* Time is the traitor
* The men who murdered Mohammed
* The pi man
* They don't make life like they used to
* Will you wait?
* The flowered thundermug
* Adam and no Eve
* And 3 1/2 to go (fragment)
* Galatea Galante
* The devil without glasses (previously unpublished)
September 20, 2016
Qualitywise the stories are not even close to his novels. I think that Bester's style is more suited for longer stories. Also the content of the stories were less polished, they dwelt on contemporary stuff too much. Which made them forgettable when you read them some 60 odd years later :)
This is one of the reason I generally don't read books again, after reading these stories I suspect that I have read Bester's book at a very impressionable time of my life and I wouldn't enjoy them as much now. My favorite story in the collection is the unfinished one, it felt like the first chapter of a great book. I also hate Silverberg's intros in general, so that was not a good start either
Maybe the biggest problem with the book is that these stories ar enot meant to be collected; because they are different facades of the same 2-3 stories; even some jokes and phrases move between them. they were for fast and easy consumption. But still, all in all, it is worth reading but don't expect too much.
This is one of the reason I generally don't read books again, after reading these stories I suspect that I have read Bester's book at a very impressionable time of my life and I wouldn't enjoy them as much now. My favorite story in the collection is the unfinished one, it felt like the first chapter of a great book. I also hate Silverberg's intros in general, so that was not a good start either
Maybe the biggest problem with the book is that these stories ar enot meant to be collected; because they are different facades of the same 2-3 stories; even some jokes and phrases move between them. they were for fast and easy consumption. But still, all in all, it is worth reading but don't expect too much.
June 1, 2008
This is an excellent and strong short story collection by Alfred Bester. It's particularly worth noting (for me, anyway) because it has one of my favorite short stories, "The Pi Man," a bizarre and delightful story about a man who feels compelled to respond to the greater patterns of the universe.
Also included in this collection are other excellent reads such as "The Flowered Thundermug", a story where America has rediscovered it's culture after everything was destroyed in the war (a Cold war era story) from the only thing left- Hollywood. (No one felt it was worth bombing!)
"Time is the Traitor", a story about a man who can make Big Decisions, is rich beyond all imagining. But what drives him, and what does it have to do with killing anyone named Kruger?
And many other excellent stories!
Also included in this collection are other excellent reads such as "The Flowered Thundermug", a story where America has rediscovered it's culture after everything was destroyed in the war (a Cold war era story) from the only thing left- Hollywood. (No one felt it was worth bombing!)
"Time is the Traitor", a story about a man who can make Big Decisions, is rich beyond all imagining. But what drives him, and what does it have to do with killing anyone named Kruger?
And many other excellent stories!
April 3, 2019
To be fair, I must confess I don't like short stories, but that is not why this book disappointed me.
When I was barely a teenager in the 1950s,. This was a time when SF/F was difficult to come by in the UK anyway, but Bester was one of the names I looked out for. It turns out, however, that the prose I thought was witty and clever was really a sham of words thrown carelessly together, often interspersed with phrases in French, German, Latin, Spanish, etc. - mostly having no connection with the surrounding text. The German that was not out of a dictionary of quotes particularly annoyed me - I never know why authors attempt to write in languages they don't know, but why they can't ask a native speaker to check smacks of laziness.
There were a couple of stories in this collection that appealed to me, but with so many of them, my reaction was "What was this guy on?".
When I was barely a teenager in the 1950s,. This was a time when SF/F was difficult to come by in the UK anyway, but Bester was one of the names I looked out for. It turns out, however, that the prose I thought was witty and clever was really a sham of words thrown carelessly together, often interspersed with phrases in French, German, Latin, Spanish, etc. - mostly having no connection with the surrounding text. The German that was not out of a dictionary of quotes particularly annoyed me - I never know why authors attempt to write in languages they don't know, but why they can't ask a native speaker to check smacks of laziness.
There were a couple of stories in this collection that appealed to me, but with so many of them, my reaction was "What was this guy on?".
August 7, 2018
VIRTUAL UNREALITIES, THE SHORT FICTION OF ALFRED BESTER. I admit to being unfamiliar with Bester. He displays a clever method of writing and his ideas are not the same-old same-old. Robert Silverberg in his introduction says "When Bester was at the top of his form, he was utterly inimitable; when he missed the mark, he usually missed it by five or six parsecs." What we get here are a lot of those misses. Too many of them feel like he started out with a vague idea in mind but either lost track of it or didn't know what to do and simply ended it. "They Don't Make Life Like They Used To" perfectly illustrates this. The last man and woman left alive after an atomic war meet and his concern is for finding a TV repairman while hers are for decorating her apartment. The idea of intimacy and companionship never enter the picture. Then on the last page a menace pops up, never defined but having something to do with statues with mantis heads, and the two hole up in her apartment waiting for coming death. WTF? Another, a fragment, "And 3 1/2 To Go" starts off interesting then stops. Apparently Bester started writing off the top of his head and stopped, leaving behind no notes or outline of where he intended it to go. There are some goodies such as "Time Is The Traitor", "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed", and "Will You Wait", but "The Flowered Thundermug" is just an exercise in name dropping. Bester published several award winning novels, but based on this I'm not going out of my way to find them.
Read
July 23, 2024I’ve long regarded Alfred Bester’s first novels, “The Demolished Man” and “The Stars My Destination,” as two of science fiction’s greatest achievements, but another of his novels left me cold, and I’ve never gotten into much of his other writing. Now I’ve read “Virtual Realities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester,” and I regret to report that most of it is fairly unimpressive. A couple of famous stories, “Fondly Fahrenheit” and “The Men Who Murdered Mohammed,” have clever premises and twisty, entertaining narratives, “The Pi Man” is conceptually intriguing, and the previously unpublished “The Devil Without Glasses” is a darkly engaging fantasy. But items like “The Flowered Thundermug” and “They Don’t Make Life Like They Used To” have little going for them, and most of the others are so-so. And the prose is at the level of the pulp magazines I read decades ago, almost completely lacking the sort of ingenious, propulsive writing that powers the aforementioned novels. My advice is to stick with those marvelous works. They are genuinely excellent.
November 8, 2022
Alfred Bester is one of the greatest sff authors the world has seen, and this is a collection of his shorter works.
The book begins with a very valuable Introduction from Robert Silverberg. Then come the stories.
Like every such collection, not everything worked. There were several seriously boring and/or 'Meh' types. But they were outnumbered by jewels.
My favourites were~
1. Disappearing Act;
2. Oddy and Id;
3. Star Light, Star Bright;
4. Of Time and Third Avenue;
5. Time Is The Traitor;
6. The Men Who Murdered Mohammed;
7. Will You Wait?
8. Galatea Galante
These are sharp as well as sympathetic stories, powered by a dark humour as well as some genuine faith in humanity.
Recommended.
The book begins with a very valuable Introduction from Robert Silverberg. Then come the stories.
Like every such collection, not everything worked. There were several seriously boring and/or 'Meh' types. But they were outnumbered by jewels.
My favourites were~
1. Disappearing Act;
2. Oddy and Id;
3. Star Light, Star Bright;
4. Of Time and Third Avenue;
5. Time Is The Traitor;
6. The Men Who Murdered Mohammed;
7. Will You Wait?
8. Galatea Galante
These are sharp as well as sympathetic stories, powered by a dark humour as well as some genuine faith in humanity.
Recommended.
March 1, 2016
Bester is a name I knew, and I'm sure I'd read some of his stories in multi-author collections, but I didn't have a clear mental picture of what his writing was like. I'm glad I picked up this collection, since it has some excellent stories in it.
The first few ring the changes on the idea that a lot of the stereotyped plots of the pulp magazines were adolescent wish-fulfilment, and real people would encounter a very different experience if time travel, or several other common tropes, actually came to pass. This depth, wit and vividness continues throughout the collection.
One of the supposed "rules" of strong writing is that the verb "to be" is weak and should be replaced wherever possible. But consider this:
"The man in the car was thirty-eight years old. He was tall, slender, and not strong. His cropped hair was prematurely grey. He was afflicted with an education and a sense of humor. He was inspired by a purpose. He was armed with a phone book. He was doomed."
"Weak" verbs. Tell instead of show. But it grabs you and sweeps you into the story anyway, because Bester knows how to pick the details that say, at the same time, "this is Everyman" and "this is a particular man who will be interesting to read about", and those two things together make for a great main character.
Indeed, it's the characters - simultaneously easy for the reader to relate to, and eccentric and particular - who make these stories memorable. Bester characterises them briskly, but vividly, like a caricaturist producing portraits with just a few strokes of the pen. Then he sweeps them into drastic situations and watches them dance and struggle and weep.
The first few ring the changes on the idea that a lot of the stereotyped plots of the pulp magazines were adolescent wish-fulfilment, and real people would encounter a very different experience if time travel, or several other common tropes, actually came to pass. This depth, wit and vividness continues throughout the collection.
One of the supposed "rules" of strong writing is that the verb "to be" is weak and should be replaced wherever possible. But consider this:
"The man in the car was thirty-eight years old. He was tall, slender, and not strong. His cropped hair was prematurely grey. He was afflicted with an education and a sense of humor. He was inspired by a purpose. He was armed with a phone book. He was doomed."
"Weak" verbs. Tell instead of show. But it grabs you and sweeps you into the story anyway, because Bester knows how to pick the details that say, at the same time, "this is Everyman" and "this is a particular man who will be interesting to read about", and those two things together make for a great main character.
Indeed, it's the characters - simultaneously easy for the reader to relate to, and eccentric and particular - who make these stories memorable. Bester characterises them briskly, but vividly, like a caricaturist producing portraits with just a few strokes of the pen. Then he sweeps them into drastic situations and watches them dance and struggle and weep.
July 4, 2022
There are several collections of Alfred Bester's short science fiction around, but they all seem to share an awfully large common core, and then add on a few extras. Virtual Unrealities may be the best known of those - or at least the one that comes up easiest in Google searches. It is a very diverse collection - in publication date (from 1941 to 1979 - or even to "unpublished at the date of Bester's death" in 1987), in length (from less than 8 to over 40 pages), and also in topics and style. And it is an absolutely rewarding read.
It's hard to pick favourites, but I really enjoyed Disappearing Act - the irony (or may be sarcasm) is spot-on in this story about the "War for the American Dream". I got the collection for The Men that Murdered Mohammed and that alone is worth the price of admission. Another highlight is the oldest of the stories, Adam and no Eve. A surprising number of the stories are set in a post-apocalyptic world, and that one comes with a twist.
I found most of the stories to have aged very well. But the social system and gender roles in Galatea Galante (otherwise quite interesting) and The Devil without Glasses are a bit too old-fashioned to swallow easily.
Anyways, recommended to everyone who is interested in some very varied and sometimes experimental short science fiction, and is not too picky about the time it was written in.
It's hard to pick favourites, but I really enjoyed Disappearing Act - the irony (or may be sarcasm) is spot-on in this story about the "War for the American Dream". I got the collection for The Men that Murdered Mohammed and that alone is worth the price of admission. Another highlight is the oldest of the stories, Adam and no Eve. A surprising number of the stories are set in a post-apocalyptic world, and that one comes with a twist.
I found most of the stories to have aged very well. But the social system and gender roles in Galatea Galante (otherwise quite interesting) and The Devil without Glasses are a bit too old-fashioned to swallow easily.
Anyways, recommended to everyone who is interested in some very varied and sometimes experimental short science fiction, and is not too picky about the time it was written in.
June 4, 2016
"The Stars My Destination" was always one of my favorite classic sci-fi novels and when I saw the chance to dig into some of Bester's short fiction works, I jumped at it.
The stories in the collection, were for me, a bit hit and miss. The ones I enjoyed were very good, but there were more than a few which did not appeal to me. I'm sure some of that comes from the fact that the stories are "products of their time" - and just don't translate well to me in the 21st century. Those stories which I liked, I REALLY liked. He had a unique voice and tone in every story.
The stories in the collection, were for me, a bit hit and miss. The ones I enjoyed were very good, but there were more than a few which did not appeal to me. I'm sure some of that comes from the fact that the stories are "products of their time" - and just don't translate well to me in the 21st century. Those stories which I liked, I REALLY liked. He had a unique voice and tone in every story.
August 16, 2007
I suppose most of these stories come under the umbrella "dated" which doesn't mean they're bad - Beethoven's Fifth is pretty dated - but that they are a certain sort of story, the kind I associate with Ray Bradbury and Asimov and that's not bad company. But on top of that they're well-written stories, not literary masterpieces but more than just decent yarns. I'm not sure I know of any science fiction work that is a literary masterpiece but, if it exists, I'd love to read it.
December 29, 2014
The book just arrived and I'm in Bester Heaven. He's like watching the old Twilight Zone at 3 A.M. There's also some great old New York lore in here, like if you know what a "Third Avenue character" is. I feel like I know Bester. My favorites were (in order): The Devil Without Glasses, Time is the Traitor, They Don't Make Life Like They Used To, Fondly Fahrenheit, The Flowered Thundermug, Will You Wait?, Oddy and Id, Star Light, Star Bright and Disappearing Act.
April 7, 2008
this collection of short stories really showcases Bester's humorous writing style and his revolutionary (for his time) ideas. it was like reading a bunch of episodes of the twilight zone. i didn't give it 5 stars because some of the stories were weird and i really couldn't get in to them, although even those ones were still interesting, given his style.
August 20, 2008
Picked this up b/c I liked the cover...ok? Maybe you can tell a book by its cover. Hadn't read scifi in a looong time. This was so refreshing and brilliant and, best of all, it wasn't what all the geeks are/were reading, so I could one-up them. A lotta ppl. don't even know his work. outstanding....
December 18, 2011
The best sci-fi short stories ever. Each of these little darlings is a work of art, they come alive on the page and reading them some forty years later, are astonishingly on the mark. Bester is a craftsman, a philosopher, a visionary. All the things that can make science fiction great.
February 28, 2009
Frickin awesome
March 22, 2010
His short fiction is not as good as his two best novels, but Alfred Bester's work always ranks among the best in mid-20th century SF pour moi.
February 9, 2011
Bester's short fiction is good, but in my opinion it doesn't match his novels. I did enjoy Bester's interaction with psychological fantasies and their inherent emptiness.
February 21, 2015
Decades old science fiction shouldn't feel so ahead of its time.
December 2, 2017
Alfred Bester is mostly known for two of his science fiction novels, The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination. These are two of the most respected science fiction novels ever written.
Some of Bester's short fiction is excellent as well. The title of this book, Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester, seems to me to imply that all of Bester's short fiction is in this collection. However, according to the science fiction and fantasy website ISFDb, more of Bester's stories have been left out of this book than have been included.
There are sixteen stories in this book as well as a fragment of one other story left unfinished when Bester died; that makes a sizeable amount of good fiction.
There are some stories here that I don't think are at the level of Bester's absolutely best work. "Adam and No Eve," from very early in Bester's career in science fiction, seems to me not particularly good, either as a story or as prose writing.
"The Flowered Thundermug" is the only story here that I think is really poor. This is a would-be comic tale of a distant future in which everyone is named after Twentieth Century movie actors. They also speak and act in Twentieth Century movie clichés. For example, the following is part of a conversation between Professor Paul Muni and his secretary, Ann Sothern. Sothern is speaking first:
"Why, that's odd. I could have sworn I left the lights on." She felt for the light switch.
"Stop," Professor Muni snapped. There's more here than meets the eye, Miss Sothern."
"You mean...?"
"Who does one traditionally encounter on a surprise visit in a darkened room? I mean, whom."
"Th...the Bad Guys? "
"Precisely."
And Muni is right, the Bad Guys are there. And this takes up forty pages.
"Time Is the Traitor" is much better. My problem with this story is that the central character murders a number of people but he is rich and has a special gift so nobody even mentions it to him. If this were supposed to be irony, it might be acceptable, but there is no criticism of his behavior in the story.
The problem I have with "Oddy and Id" is simpler. I just don't find it particularly interesting.
"Fondly Fahrenheit," on the other hand, is quite interesting. I have never been able to tell who is doing what throughout the story. I believe that's part of the point of the story but I find it annoying. (If everyone else can follow this easily, I would find that even more annoying.) This is probably Bester's most acclaimed story, so mine is definitely a minority opinion.
The unfinished story, "And 3½ to Go" really is too small a sample to judge.
And now, after all that complaining, there are stories here that I do really like:
I should have an issue with "The Pi Man" similar to the one I have with "Time Is the Traitor," but I don't. The protagonist here has also done terrible things but he sincerely regrets that and would like to change. Beside that, this story is extremely clever and hinges on a gimmick that I've never seen anything even remotely like.
"Galatea Galante" (which was originally published as "Galatea Galante, the Perfect Popsy") is also very clever although there is a major problem. This is quite openly a variation on Shaw's play Pygmalion. The character Henry Higgins in Pygmalion (and in the musical based on Pygmalion, My Fair Lady) is somewhat obnoxious, disregarding the feelings of other people. The corresponding character here is Regis Mainwright who manufactures and sells intelligent living beings, including made-to-order humans. That is considerably worse than just being obnoxious. However, there is so much here that is funny and entertaining that I like it anyway.
"They Don't Make Life Like They Used To" (a title I like a lot) has a last man and last woman on Earth plot. I think the way both these characters act throughout almost all of the story is extraordinarily unlikely but it is funny. And then the story stops being funny.
"Will You Wait" is about an unemployed (and mostly unemployable) man trying to sell his soul to...well, to the Devil...or Beelzebub...or Satan. Basically, to anyone in the soul-buying industry. This is purely humorous.
"Hobson's Choice" is about a peril of time travel that is obvious but seldom considered in stories on that theme.
"Of Time and Third Avenue" also involves time travel, but that isn't really the theme.
If you could have knowledge of some aspects of the future, what would you do with it? And then consider, what should you do with it?
And if you're seeking yet another time travel story, just read "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed." This tells about another (and completely different) peril of time travel. It's a very funny and original story.
"Star Light, Star Bright" is a story with a message. When dealing with gifted children, it is important to find out just what their gifts are.
"The Devil Without Glasses" is original to this book. It is a very good horror story.
What did you fantasize about as a kid? What do you fantasize about now? And what if those fantasies could come true? There are about "5,271,009" things you need to consider.
The first story in the book is "Disappearing Act." The United States is in a terrible war, fighting in defense of The American Dream. But what becomes of The American Dream during such a war?
Robert Silverberg wrote a fine, informative Introduction to Virtual Unrealities. (He writes that "the most spectacular" story here is " 'Fondly Fahrenheit,' a bravura demonstration of literary technique about which an entire textbook could be written." OK, that's his opinion, but what does Robert Silverberg know about science fiction?*)
There are other stories that might well have been included in the book. "Hell Is Forever," "The Roller Coaster," "The Four-Hour Fugue," "Something Up There Likes Me," and (especially) "The Animal Fair" are all worth seeking out.
*Yes, that is a joke.
Some of Bester's short fiction is excellent as well. The title of this book, Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester, seems to me to imply that all of Bester's short fiction is in this collection. However, according to the science fiction and fantasy website ISFDb, more of Bester's stories have been left out of this book than have been included.
There are sixteen stories in this book as well as a fragment of one other story left unfinished when Bester died; that makes a sizeable amount of good fiction.
There are some stories here that I don't think are at the level of Bester's absolutely best work. "Adam and No Eve," from very early in Bester's career in science fiction, seems to me not particularly good, either as a story or as prose writing.
"The Flowered Thundermug" is the only story here that I think is really poor. This is a would-be comic tale of a distant future in which everyone is named after Twentieth Century movie actors. They also speak and act in Twentieth Century movie clichés. For example, the following is part of a conversation between Professor Paul Muni and his secretary, Ann Sothern. Sothern is speaking first:
"Why, that's odd. I could have sworn I left the lights on." She felt for the light switch.
"Stop," Professor Muni snapped. There's more here than meets the eye, Miss Sothern."
"You mean...?"
"Who does one traditionally encounter on a surprise visit in a darkened room? I mean, whom."
"Th...the Bad Guys? "
"Precisely."
And Muni is right, the Bad Guys are there. And this takes up forty pages.
"Time Is the Traitor" is much better. My problem with this story is that the central character murders a number of people but he is rich and has a special gift so nobody even mentions it to him. If this were supposed to be irony, it might be acceptable, but there is no criticism of his behavior in the story.
The problem I have with "Oddy and Id" is simpler. I just don't find it particularly interesting.
"Fondly Fahrenheit," on the other hand, is quite interesting. I have never been able to tell who is doing what throughout the story. I believe that's part of the point of the story but I find it annoying. (If everyone else can follow this easily, I would find that even more annoying.) This is probably Bester's most acclaimed story, so mine is definitely a minority opinion.
The unfinished story, "And 3½ to Go" really is too small a sample to judge.
And now, after all that complaining, there are stories here that I do really like:
I should have an issue with "The Pi Man" similar to the one I have with "Time Is the Traitor," but I don't. The protagonist here has also done terrible things but he sincerely regrets that and would like to change. Beside that, this story is extremely clever and hinges on a gimmick that I've never seen anything even remotely like.
"Galatea Galante" (which was originally published as "Galatea Galante, the Perfect Popsy") is also very clever although there is a major problem. This is quite openly a variation on Shaw's play Pygmalion. The character Henry Higgins in Pygmalion (and in the musical based on Pygmalion, My Fair Lady) is somewhat obnoxious, disregarding the feelings of other people. The corresponding character here is Regis Mainwright who manufactures and sells intelligent living beings, including made-to-order humans. That is considerably worse than just being obnoxious. However, there is so much here that is funny and entertaining that I like it anyway.
"They Don't Make Life Like They Used To" (a title I like a lot) has a last man and last woman on Earth plot. I think the way both these characters act throughout almost all of the story is extraordinarily unlikely but it is funny. And then the story stops being funny.
"Will You Wait" is about an unemployed (and mostly unemployable) man trying to sell his soul to...well, to the Devil...or Beelzebub...or Satan. Basically, to anyone in the soul-buying industry. This is purely humorous.
"Hobson's Choice" is about a peril of time travel that is obvious but seldom considered in stories on that theme.
"Of Time and Third Avenue" also involves time travel, but that isn't really the theme.
If you could have knowledge of some aspects of the future, what would you do with it? And then consider, what should you do with it?
And if you're seeking yet another time travel story, just read "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed." This tells about another (and completely different) peril of time travel. It's a very funny and original story.
"Star Light, Star Bright" is a story with a message. When dealing with gifted children, it is important to find out just what their gifts are.
"The Devil Without Glasses" is original to this book. It is a very good horror story.
What did you fantasize about as a kid? What do you fantasize about now? And what if those fantasies could come true? There are about "5,271,009" things you need to consider.
The first story in the book is "Disappearing Act." The United States is in a terrible war, fighting in defense of The American Dream. But what becomes of The American Dream during such a war?
Robert Silverberg wrote a fine, informative Introduction to Virtual Unrealities. (He writes that "the most spectacular" story here is " 'Fondly Fahrenheit,' a bravura demonstration of literary technique about which an entire textbook could be written." OK, that's his opinion, but what does Robert Silverberg know about science fiction?*)
There are other stories that might well have been included in the book. "Hell Is Forever," "The Roller Coaster," "The Four-Hour Fugue," "Something Up There Likes Me," and (especially) "The Animal Fair" are all worth seeking out.
*Yes, that is a joke.
Read
July 5, 2021i think all these stories aged fairly well! in many ways i liked more than stars my destination. this is my first re-read of this collection since highschool.
the context of Bester being a tv writer also felt a little relevant to how these stories stood as a whole collection; in general they have a focus on human psychology with science as sort of just maguffins/the genre to get there. this isn't a criticism, it just to me felt more understandable as a 'tv human interest story' approach to creating 'enjoyable content'. there is a Sort of formulaity here; but i think unlike feeling like weak writing sometimes like with asimov or other 'science'-side writers, it just felt like a skillful understanding of genre/plot/pacing.
the stories are funny, always a delight with older science fiction. bester has style, something i really appreciated, a lot of these stories undergirded with a fervency and dizzying speed careening from one scene to the next. the characterization was also just quality; just truly interesting characters, a little unreal in again this sort of tv character way, but consistent and with depth.
few things came up repeatedly -- the end of the world and humans contending with the post-apoc; the dangerous appeal of shortcutting into wealth and fame, and relatedly the idea of instant-magical wish fulfillment; people spontaneously developing super powers as the novum. i don't really know what to make of these; i this readthrough felt the instinct to interpret these themes as being an articulation of a cultural moment instead of a bester-specific interest. he did write an ep or two for the twilight zone, and adapted 1-2 short fictions into television in the 50s; the post-apoc stuff definitely felt like a cold war thing, and yeah! man-makes-faulty-deal-with-the-devil just feels super twilight zoney, or maybe also just a post-nuclear-bomb thing, or maybe a 'newly-emergent-suburban-peace-isn't-as-nice-as-you-think' thing.
the shorts i enjoyed most were obviously fondly fahrenheit, and also galatea gallant (really enjoyable campy moments; like a mad scientist who builds sapients for paying customers, and thus lives with a literal lisping hunchback Igor servant that was a 'returned product'). there's something about the portrayal of women that seemed better than i expected, also; the women in these short stories just seem more competent and to have more agency across the board. all my favorite stories were the more lighthearted ones; there were a few pickings that were truly sad that were a lil more meh.
all in all delightful. didn't make me think anything too new about science or history, but did make me enjoy some v well rendered characters in some fun scifi settings. read this book.
the context of Bester being a tv writer also felt a little relevant to how these stories stood as a whole collection; in general they have a focus on human psychology with science as sort of just maguffins/the genre to get there. this isn't a criticism, it just to me felt more understandable as a 'tv human interest story' approach to creating 'enjoyable content'. there is a Sort of formulaity here; but i think unlike feeling like weak writing sometimes like with asimov or other 'science'-side writers, it just felt like a skillful understanding of genre/plot/pacing.
the stories are funny, always a delight with older science fiction. bester has style, something i really appreciated, a lot of these stories undergirded with a fervency and dizzying speed careening from one scene to the next. the characterization was also just quality; just truly interesting characters, a little unreal in again this sort of tv character way, but consistent and with depth.
few things came up repeatedly -- the end of the world and humans contending with the post-apoc; the dangerous appeal of shortcutting into wealth and fame, and relatedly the idea of instant-magical wish fulfillment; people spontaneously developing super powers as the novum. i don't really know what to make of these; i this readthrough felt the instinct to interpret these themes as being an articulation of a cultural moment instead of a bester-specific interest. he did write an ep or two for the twilight zone, and adapted 1-2 short fictions into television in the 50s; the post-apoc stuff definitely felt like a cold war thing, and yeah! man-makes-faulty-deal-with-the-devil just feels super twilight zoney, or maybe also just a post-nuclear-bomb thing, or maybe a 'newly-emergent-suburban-peace-isn't-as-nice-as-you-think' thing.
the shorts i enjoyed most were obviously fondly fahrenheit, and also galatea gallant (really enjoyable campy moments; like a mad scientist who builds sapients for paying customers, and thus lives with a literal lisping hunchback Igor servant that was a 'returned product'). there's something about the portrayal of women that seemed better than i expected, also; the women in these short stories just seem more competent and to have more agency across the board. all my favorite stories were the more lighthearted ones; there were a few pickings that were truly sad that were a lil more meh.
all in all delightful. didn't make me think anything too new about science or history, but did make me enjoy some v well rendered characters in some fun scifi settings. read this book.
November 23, 2017
Disappointing. Bester's imagination is on display here as much as it is in The Demolished Man and The Stars my Destination, but without a tight story to channel it he seems too prone to self-indulgence. Some of the stories seem to be wackiness for its own sake and at other times when Bester tries to make a philosophical point he forgets to write a compelling story and all but locks two characters in a room together to let them talk it out.
There are some good stories in this collection (Fondly Farenheit is a standout), but for the most part the collection functions better as a look into what made Bester so influential. Bester was an unabashed Freudian, and he based entire characters and plot twists off that school of thought. I can imagine young sci-fi writers picking up his stories and being inspired by the weirdness and literary sprit of it all.
This collection is unmistakably Bester's, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to make it good, and the message I took away from it was that however idiomatic your style, however unusual your ideas, however confident and dedicated you are to experimentation, you need to find some way to channel it all. Otherwise your story will consist of author surrogates trading words with each other until something happens offscreen to prove the favored one correct.
There are some good stories in this collection (Fondly Farenheit is a standout), but for the most part the collection functions better as a look into what made Bester so influential. Bester was an unabashed Freudian, and he based entire characters and plot twists off that school of thought. I can imagine young sci-fi writers picking up his stories and being inspired by the weirdness and literary sprit of it all.
This collection is unmistakably Bester's, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to make it good, and the message I took away from it was that however idiomatic your style, however unusual your ideas, however confident and dedicated you are to experimentation, you need to find some way to channel it all. Otherwise your story will consist of author surrogates trading words with each other until something happens offscreen to prove the favored one correct.
August 14, 2025
I tend to enjoy novels more than short story collections--and like many here have pointed out, Bester's "The Demolished Man" and "The Stars My Destination" are the better books--but I really appreciated this set of stories. They are well-sequenced, mostly chronological, which highlights the main themes and tropes that Bester appears obsessed with: wish-fulfillment (often neurotic), desire for second chances, regret, time-travel, trying to edit the past. I tend to favor science fiction with a psychological or social emphasis rather than hard science, and Bester appears to have been a pioneer in this respect (though of course his insights and fixations have aged). Favorite stories here where the very weird and disturbing "The Pi Man," "Oddy and Id," "5,271,009," "Fondly Fahrenheit," and the previously unpublished, "The Devil Without Glasses." The throwaway stories included "Will You Wait?," "Adam and No Eve," "The Flowered Thundermug," and "Galatea Galante." Those last two strike me as similar to Bester's elements in the unfinished novel, "Psychoshop," with which they share a kind of cloying cartoon ("Merry Melodies"-style) humor that just becomes grating after a while given the characterization is next to nil and the plots are super-simple.
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