Review: Virtual unrealities
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsA major retrospective, comprising 15 tales from 1941--79 (mostly from the '50s and '60s), together with two previously unpublished pieces, though readers should note that the word ""selected"" has been omitted from the subtitle. Bester's (1913-87) reputation derives from two brilliant and influential novels, The Demolished Man (1953), the first Hugo Award--winner for Best Novel, and The Stars My Destination (1957), plus a handful of classic stories. Among the latter here: ""Fondly Fahrenheit,"" a black farce about an android that turns homicidal when the temperature exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit; ""The Men Who Murdered Mohammed,"" in which Bester invented quantum time, a notion recently taken up by John Kessel in Corrupting Dr. Nice; ""The Pi Man,"" a chilling masterpiece whose protagonist is compelled to respond to changes in surrounding patterns that only he can perceive, later expanded into a wretched novel; the last man in the world, ""Adam and No Eve""; and ""Will You Wait?,"" a witty deal with the devil. Others, like ""Disappearing Act,"" ""Star Light, Star Bright,"" and ""Time is the Traitor,"" are more style than substance. But then Bester was always a consummate showman. Noteworthy for his passionate delivery, pyrotechnic prose, and dazzling ideas, Bester wrote cyberpunk 30 years before William Gibson. But when reality finally caught up, he fizzled out.
