The Stars My Destination (S.F. MASTERWORKS): Alfred Bester

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Notably, it doesn't give him Super-Toughness, so he has to avoid accidentally bumping into anything while super speed is engaged— especially other people who also possess this ability. And the people who did him wrong didn't care about his woman (he didn't have one) or his position (he had nothing).

A low, brainless brute barely able to act as a Mechanic’s Mate 3rd class on the spaceship ‘Nomad’, oiling and wiping the machines and acknowledged by his superiors to be a human dead end. Both quatrains are based on a poetic form that was popular in England and the United States during the 18th-to-mid-20th centuries, in which a person stated their name, country, city or town, and a religious homily (often, "Heaven's my destination") within the rhyming four-line structure (see book rhyme).named after William Blake's 1794 poem " The Tyger", the first verse of which is printed as the first page of the novel.

Its ending is ambitious and outrageous, exalting The Hero, Democracy and Freedom, and yet acknowledging the ignorance, darkness and oppression from which these gifts inevitably spring. The Stars My Destination is not available as an eBook to borrow, so I was very happy to learn about the National Emergency Library. Tech Marches On: Modern tattoo removal techniques are far more sophisticated and effective than what's presented in the book. Despite all of his unpleasantness, Foyle becomes a character the reader roots for, his actions the vengeance of the common man upon the wealthy elite.When Gully has to take on an alias to remain in disguise, as his pseudonym of “Fourmyle of Ceres” he is witty, literate, well-spoken, a character light-years away from the near-monosyllabic survivor seen at the beginning of the book.

At times it is almost pulpy, it is grubby, it doesn’t hold punches – there’s a hint at a rape scene, for example! Twenty-fourth century spaceman, Gully Foyle, discovers the ability to 'jaunt' (Teleport) and seeks revenge on the owner of the spacecraft which left him to die in the void.With its bleak future, cybernetic body modification, and evil megacorporations, The Stars My Destination set up a number of themes that became central to later cyberpunk works. She escapes with Foyle and takes him to a criminal doctor who is able to bleach out his facial tattoos by applying a chemical with a tattoo needle. After six months of his waiting for rescue, a passing spaceship, the Vorga, also owned by the powerful Presteign industrial clan, ignores his signal and abandons him. While the novel has long been considered an "unfilmable" work, [26] the screen rights were acquired by Universal Pictures in 2006 [27] and by Paramount Pictures in 2015. Most impressive is the way that the main character, Gully Foyle – a murderer and a rapist – becomes a symbol of vengeance in this book.