Book Review Alfred Bester THE Demolished MAN
One of science fiction’s greatest novels of all time.
BOOK REVIEW – ALFRED BESTER – THE DEMOLISHED MAN. 1953 Science Fiction Master works #14 Millennium –Gollancz Books.
A major classic of the science fiction genre and the first ever winner of the prestigious Hugo Award. The plot concerns a murderer, and the detective desperately trying to catch him. This seems an easy task given that a high portion of the human population is telepathic. Murder is usually easy to detect even before it can be committed, and the crime has become largely obsolete.
However, Ben Reich, eager to secure control of a vast financial empire, (and for more personal motives too), seeks the death of a leading and much respected business figure. To achieve it, he blackmails a leading powerful psychic to help block the other psychics from being able to read his mind, and once the murder has been committed the pet psychic has to pep into the minds of the investigators to allow Reich to stay one step ahead of pursuit.
The perfect crime goes wrong almost from the start. Reich is seen shooting the businessman by the man’s own daughter, who psychics begin to de-traumatize to uncover the truth.
Policeman Powell, frustrated by Reich, and a perfection demanding judgement computer called Old Man Mosey that needs a watertight case, plays a cat and mouse game with Reich, that takes them out into space, and into terrible dangers.
Though his actions seem straightforward there are many surprises and mysteries regarding Reich. His true motive is deeper than initially apparent. Exactly how he has shot a man with an old fashioned pistol, leaving a bullet entry wound, without an exit wound, but no apparent bullet in the victim is a how-dunnit worthy of Agatha Christie. Also, the mystery of Reich’s visions of a terrifying Man-With-No-Face has some bearing on his fate. All of this is superbly accounted for by the book’s deeply moving conclusion.
Despite his meglamanic and evil actions, Reich comes across as a tragic figure, though he is no anti-hero. That Bester makes us sympathize with him is what makes the story so brilliant.
That Reich is doomed to Demolition (the erasure of his psyche by the mind-readers) once caught is apparent throughout the fast paced and exhilarating story.
Bester’s story influenced the Psi-Core police state used in the TV series Babylon Five, (where Star Trek actor Walter (Checkov) Koening sometimes played a character called Alfred Bester). The book remains one of the greatest works SF has ever produced.
An interesting side touch is characters with names that echo the age of e-mail and SMS messaging we now enjoy nearly 60 years on from the book’s publication – @kins and Wyg8.
The book is full of fascinating word and mind game structures denoting how the telepaths operate, with rhyming songs designed to loop over on themselves to trap an Esper (telepath) by leaving them unable to get the song out of their heads for some time.
Wikipedia Links –
The novel – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demolished_Man
The Hugo Awards http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel
Arthur Chappell
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