A ‘CLASSIC’, IN THE TRUE SENSE OF THE WORD.
Written: May 12 '05
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Original thematic floorboards, Engaging plot, lyrical language, Totally unexpected sting at the end.
Cons: Frankly, none that I can tell. Maybe that it has to end. Yes, seriously.
The Bottom Line: A Beautiful story, beautifully told, not just for fans of Sci-Fi.
|
|
|
| lammet's Full Review: Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination |
"He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead"... Thus Alfred Bester begun his gripping tale of Gully Foyle. That was 1956. Fifty years later Bester's book, THE STARS MY DESTINATION, is still voraciously read and widely acclaimed to be a classic in the annals of Science-Fiction.
Another "Classic"? Isn't that epithet overworked enough? And hey, what makes a 'Classic'? Is it staying power?
I first read THE STARS MY DESTINATION about 25 years ago. I couldn't believe it.
And I wouldn't part with the book. I told all my friends about it, Sci-Fi fans or not (probably converted a few in the offing). I used to talk about it, go to bed thinking about it and wake up right where I'd left. I dreamt about making a movie out of it - or at the least a 'Comix' book. I was totally, unashamedly, captivated.
OK, that was quarter of a century ago. Time took its toll. The fascination eventually faded and I finally even managed to lose the book... familiarity breeds contempt.
Oh, yeah? I re-read the book recently and was AWED afresh!
So what's so special about this story? Well, to begin with, the story itself. It's, er, FRESH. Yes, after a half-century. You rarely get to read such an original expression of a tired old idea. Which one? Revenge, surely.
"He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead"...
(Possibly the finest opening line in all of Sci-Fi, the way another great line opens up another tale of revenge, that of captain Ahab's).
Meet Gully Foyle, interstellar seaman, living from oxygen canister to oxygen canister. He is alone in the great loneliness of void, the only person left alive on 'Nomad', his liner. It is now a mass of twisted metal, drifting through space with cold starlight passing through its perforated walls. Gully, caked blood over him, doesn't know which great catastrophe befell the ship, or why he is the sole survivor. He doesn't care. He survives by instinct rather than through reason. But then, that's how he has lived his life.
He didn't have to; Gully has been gifted with not only great physical power but also enormous mental prowess. Still, he has chosen to do nothing with his charisma, opting instead for the existence of a nobody. His Merchant Marine records encapsulate him concisely: "Education- None, Skills- None, Merits- None, Recommendations- None. "A man of physical strength and intellectual potential stunted by lack of ambition... The stereotype Common Man... He has reached a dead end."
A dead end... For almost six months this 'common man' has survived scavenging food on the derelict spacecraft. He lives in an airtight tool locker (ominously shaped like a giant coffin). To comfort his mind he holds a wrench in his palm: in the locker's darkness it feels like the hand of another man... His need to replenish oxygen means a recurring waltz with death: the reader subconsciously holds his/her breath as Gully, in a tank-less suit, bursts out of the locker, propels himself (debris flying!) to the battered ship's oxygen supply, picks up as many canisters as he can and flies back to the locker; with his last shreds of energy he slams the door shut, rips off his helmet and turns on an oxygen canister before passing out from having inhaled too much carbon monoxide. Each time he doesn't know if he will come to... maybe the canister he chose is already empty... A dead end indeed.
But all that is about to change. A key has been inserted into the lock that imprisons this man's powers, and the key is about to turn. After 170 days of dying but still being alive, Gully suddenly realises he can be saved: while on one of his scavenging runs he sights a ship! He frantically sets off any flare he can find and goes mad with joy as the ship alters course towards his wreck. They have seen him - he WILL be saved!
It is not to be: The ship approaches, slows down, comes alongside; Gully can read its name: 'Vorga'. Then it inexplicably powers up. Vorga leaves. Gully is left to die.
The key turns. Gully - for the first time in his life - has ambition: he WILL survive to extract revenge from 'Vorga'. Mad with rage, he shouts out at the silent stars in his gutter-speak - the only language he has known:
"Vorga, I kill you filthy!"
(Powerful pictures, by the superb visualizer Alfred Bester).
Firstly he must escape his Nomad prison. Gully starts using brain and brawn; for the first time in his life he becomes resourceful. The transformation of the passive 'common man' into a 'driven' man has begun. It will take years before it's over, before Gully finds out he was all along a very special man. A trek during which, Gully will turn the solar system inside-out in his relentless fiery quest of revenge.
But that's the plot, and one shouldn't give it away. Suffice it to say that, astonishingly for a SF story, it unwinds in the best tradition of the finest detective or spy stories. Parallels with Le Carre come easily to mind; but TSMD can only be compared to THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD for sheer inventiveness. In both books, just as you think you have the story figured out, you get thrown through another conceptual trap-door!
There's more: TSMD is, amazingly, a Love Story. What? Oh yes, and a very good one too. Superbly penned as well. Mr. Bester's staccato prose reminds one of Hemingway, but if need be it borders on poetry with deceptive ease.
So what is this? An Oedipus tale, a murder mystery or Romeo and Juliet of the Stars? Surprisingly, all and none. It is a SF story from a Master who realises that humans will still be human even when they will have conquered the Stars. Whim, disappointment, wrath, cunning, greed, hate and -yes- love will always be the mark of a man.
Is this insight into Human nature then that makes this such a timeless read? Could be, but I rather think it's a Classic because it has succeeded in setting standards aspiring quality novels have to match.
------------------------------------------------------------
MY 2-CENTS ON A TSMD MOVIE
The amazing fact given its '50s-parentage is that the TSMD reads like a Mega-buck Hollywood thriller. So why hasn't it been turned into one? I add my voice to other reviewers' who express puzzlement as to why Dream Factory has passed up this script. It certainly can't be for want of usual suspects: Arnold would have been a perfect Gully Foyle - while Ridley Scott's direction would have ensured a Bester-esque feel. But maybe it's a blessing that Hollywood ignores this story: Given H's propensity to mess up a good thing (remember 'Dune'?), it's probably best that we continue to see the tale of Gully in our mind's eye.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
lammet
|
|
Member: Vasilis A.P. Metaxas
Location: Nicosia, Cyprus
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 35 members
About Me:
An outsider looking outside.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.