Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester"Dazzlement and enchantment are Bester's methods. His stories never stand still a moment." —Damon Knight, author of Why Do Birds Alfred Bester took science fiction into hyperdrive, endowing it with a wit, speed, and narrative inventiveness that have inspired two generations of writers. And nowhere is Bester funnier, speedier, or more audacious than in these seventeen short stories—two of them previously unpublished—that have now been brought together in a single volume for the first time. Read about the sweet-natured young man whose phenomenal good luck turns out to be disastrous for the rest of humanity. Find out why tourists are flocking to a hellish little town in a post-nuclear Kansas. Meet a warlock who practices on Park Avenue and whose potions comply with the Pure Food and Drug Act. Make a deal with the Devil—but not without calling your agent. Dazzling, effervescent, sexy, and sardonic, Virtual Unrealities is a historic collection from one of science fiction's true pathbreakers. "Alfred Bester was one of the handful of writers who invented modern science fiction. " —Harry Harrison |
From inside the book
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Page 24
... Gaul was a monster . With his choice of any eligible young woman , Oddy Gaul went stag to the Observatory Prom , wandered into a darkroom by mistake , and discovered a girl in a smock bending over trays in the hideous green safe - light ...
... Gaul was a monster . With his choice of any eligible young woman , Oddy Gaul went stag to the Observatory Prom , wandered into a darkroom by mistake , and discovered a girl in a smock bending over trays in the hideous green safe - light ...
Page 35
... Gaul was commissioned subaltern in a line regiment , but gazetted to Intelligence on May 3. On June 24 he was appointed A.D.C. to the Joint Forces Council meeting in the ru- ins of what had been Australia . On July 11 , he was brevetted ...
... Gaul was commissioned subaltern in a line regiment , but gazetted to Intelligence on May 3. On June 24 he was appointed A.D.C. to the Joint Forces Council meeting in the ru- ins of what had been Australia . On July 11 , he was brevetted ...
Page 37
... Gaul the Glorious , Gaul the Gauleiter , Gaul the God Eternal who has achieved the savage , selfish satisfaction for which all of us unconsciously yearn from birth , but which only Oddy Gaul has won . E STAR LIGHT , STAR BRIGHT he man ...
... Gaul the Glorious , Gaul the Gauleiter , Gaul the God Eternal who has achieved the savage , selfish satisfaction for which all of us unconsciously yearn from birth , but which only Oddy Gaul has won . E STAR LIGHT , STAR BRIGHT he man ...
Contents
Disappearing Act | 3 |
Oddy and Id | 22 |
Star Light Star Bright | 38 |
Copyright | |
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Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester Alfred Bester,Roger Zelazny Limited preview - 1997 |
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