FORGOTTEN BOOKS #370: THE DEMOLISHED MAN By Alfred Bester

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Alfred Bester’s first novel, The Demolished Man, won the first Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of the year in 1953. That’s a pretty good start for a novelist! The Demolished Man is an inverted detective story. In a society of telepaths, how can you commit a murder and get away with it? Alfred Bester shows you how in this clever first novel. Bester went on to write some great SF stories and another terrific science fiction novel, The Stars My Destination. But for an Award-winning First Novel, The Demolished Man is an a class of its own.

26 thoughts on “FORGOTTEN BOOKS #370: THE DEMOLISHED MAN By Alfred Bester

    1. george Post author

      Prashant, I have the GALAXY serial issues and a couple different paperback editions (because I like the covers!).

      Reply
  1. Jerry House

    I’m a great Bester fan, George. Anything that came out of Bester’s typewriter in the Fifties was an absolute gem.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jerry, Alfred Bester’s work in the 1950s had astonishing quality. I need to go back and reread Bester’s great stories from that period.

      Reply
    1. george Post author

      Bill, I remember reading THE DEMOLISHED MAN and THE STARS MY DESTINATION and being completely floored. Bester was at the top of his game back in the Fifties!

      Reply
  2. Walker Martin

    I’ve read and reread THE DEMOLISHED MAN and THE STARS MY DESTINATION several times. Both are great SF novels. Dan, check out Ed Hulse’s table at Pulpfest. He had both the Bester GALAXY serials at Windy City.

    Another great non-SF novel is THE RAT RACE, also known as WHO HE? A sort of mystery novel about the early days of TV and the advertising business. A subject that Bester knew well.

    Reply
    1. Todd Mason

      If anything, I like his best short fiction even better than his novels, though I’ve been meaning to read WHO HE? for decades now. STARLIGHT was a great retrospective of that short fiction and a few bits of nonfiction, including his memoir.

      One advantage to reading THE DEMOLISHED MAN in the GALAXY issues it first appeared in is that the typographical play that Bester was able to engage in in the magazine has yet to be reprinted in the book editions, iirc, and it definitely adds something….

      Reply
  3. Jeff Meyerson

    Excellent choice! I got a book of Bester’s collected stories from the library a while back too.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Rick, James White would have been a good choice. I just came across a couple of his Ballantine paperbacks at a Library Book Sale that I didn’t have.

      Reply
  4. Gingerich

    Does THIS Have ANYTHING To DO With Possible Government THOUGHT CONTROL By ANY Chance? And WHY Don’t The POWERS That BE, Want Us Little USA Citizens EVER Asking QUESTIONS About THINGS In THIS Society? WHY?

    Reply
  5. Cap'n Bob

    I read it for the first time last year and The Stars My Destination a couple of months ago! I didn’t care for the ending of Stars but both books are well worth reading!

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Bob, both THE STARS MY DESTINATION and THE DEMOLISHED MAN were ground-breaking novels when they were first published 50+ years ago.

      Reply

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