Define Books Concering The Demolished Man
| Original Title: | The Demolished Man |
| ISBN: | 1857988221 (ISBN13: 9781857988222) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Ben Reich, Lincoln Powell |
| Literary Awards: | Hugo Award for Best Novel (1953), International Fantasy Award Nominee for Fiction (1954) |
Alfred Bester
Paperback | Pages: 250 pages Rating: 3.99 | 26890 Users | 1254 Reviews
Be Specific About About Books The Demolished Man
| Title | : | The Demolished Man |
| Author | : | Alfred Bester |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | SF Masterworks #14 |
| Pages | : | Pages: 250 pages |
| Published | : | July 8th 1999 by Millennium (first published March 1953) |
| Categories | : | Science Fiction. Fiction. Classics. Mystery. Hugo Awards. Science Fiction Fantasy. Crime |
Commentary Supposing Books The Demolished Man
I have a bee in my bonnet that I would like to deal with first. I tend to feel annoyed (even though I shouldn’t) when people ask for sci-fi recommendations with the caveat that the book being recommended must not be more than 10 years old. The reason given for this clause is usually because the science is “wrong”, there is no internet or history did not turn out the way the author depicted in the book. WUT? I would like to reiterate that it is not a sci-fi author’s job to predict the future, the whole point is to speculate. Anybody who want to get into reading sci-fi but steadfastly refuse to read the classics from the 50s, 60s etc. is really doing themselves a disfavor and missing out on some of the greatest sf stories and ideas ever written in the history of mankind.Which brings us to Alfred’s Bester’s The Demolished Man, first published in 1953. Read this or his other classic The Stars My Destination and you will understand why I insist sci-fi readers should never neglect older science fiction. These are two terrific stories that stand the test of time.
1953 cover
In The Stars My Destination Bester posits a strange future society where everybody can teleport using the power of their mind. In The Demolished Man not everybody is a telepath but they are quite commonplace and can be found in all kinds of profession. Boy, did he get the future “wrong”! In lesser hands, this conceit would never work but Alfred’s Bester was able to spin a great yarn from this fairly simple premise.
The Demolished Man is an “inverted detective story” in that the reader is immediately told who the murderer is, but the difficulty for our hero is how to catch the devious bastard. The murderer Ben Reich is a “normal”, non-telepathic person, but he is extremely smart and is able to foil even mind reading policemen. For example to avoid his mind being read by telepathic police he goes to a commercial jingle writer to play him a jingle that lodges in his brain after just one listening and bounces around it in an incessant looping playback. The hero policeman Lincoln Powell can barely keep up with him even with all the telepathic power (and manpower) at his disposal. The climax of the book is wonderfully surreal and reminds me of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven and PKD’s Flow My Tears the Policeman Said. A friend recently told me that I sometimes inadvertently put spoilers in my reviews so I’d better not elaborate any more on this point.
The awesome edition I had (lost it now!)
Bester’s writing style reminds me of noir detective fiction by the likes of Raymond Chandler, with the clipped dialogue and witty banter. The book is quite short so there is not a lot of room for character development, but the protagonist and antagonist are quite complex and believable characters.
All in all a gripping, entertaining and very readable sci-fi classic that should please all sci-fi fans.
Rating About Books The Demolished Man
Ratings: 3.99 From 26890 Users | 1254 ReviewsWeigh Up About Books The Demolished Man
The very first Hugo winner of all time, The Demolished Man is more like a crime novel that happens to be in a science fiction universe, an earth where nobody has committed a murder in 70 years because so many people are trained to be telepathic. The people who have telepathy are referred to as Espers, and go through training, and fall into three categories depending on their abilities. This is a good read because of the action (fast-paced) but also because I love all the little details of theThis is a 2.5 for me and I'm hovering on which way to round it. What will I decide??See, this book has rubbed off on me! At many turns, this book sounds overwhelmingly cheesy. I can see why these roots of sci-fi are so interesting to people, because they're such a product of their period as well as reaching for something forward -- thus, it's weirdly bold and corny at the same time. This book is focused on its characters, which is a very good way to write. (This was a present from Evan, who
A classic SF murder thriller yarn featuring PSI powers in future society not too distant. Trips to various planets & stations don't seem to take very long, a little too convenient. The future society had a lot of interesting elements such as pneumatic enhancement for the ladies. Quite a few names used symbols such as @kins for Atkins or $$son for Jackson (I had to be told about that one. Apparently a 'jack' was slang for money back then. I'd been calling the guy Buckson.) Considering texting
The Demolished Man: A SF classic about murder in a telepathic society(Posted at Fantasy Literature)If I had read this book back in 1952 when it was first published, I would have given it 5 stars, no question. But in 2014, with 60 years of refinements in the genre, it suffers from some very dated dialogue and characterization, and some really condescending portrayals of women, so I'm afraid the present value of the book is 4 stars. Having said that, The Demolished Man remains an
I read this as a little lad.Fun, its notions of telepaths, on reflection, may well have gone on to influence Philip K Dick.It's central idea that criminals should be rehabilitated and returned to function in society remains science-fiction however, indeed one has to wonder where writers get these crazy ideas from.
In a world dominated by telepaths known as Espers or Peepers crime is very difficult to get away with. When thoughts and memories are up for grabs a man like Ben Reich, who is premeditating a murder, must employ unorthodox methods to protect his inner most thoughts. He decides to go to a jingle songwriter for protection. He asks for the most mundane song to be played, a song that simple will not escape your brain, the type of jingles from commercials (usually beer) my brother and I used to sing
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