Every few years I’m drawn back to rereading one or more of the great
scifi novels by Alfred Bester. If you don’t know Bester, you should –
he wrote pyrotechnic, passionate prose that channelled huge narrative
drive.

He credits some of what he calls the “attack” of his narratives to his
work as a comic-book writer. Bester certainly made a mark in his comic-book
writing, notably producing the famous “Green Lantern Oath” that various
incarnations of the emerald-ray-wielding superhero still utter to this day.

THE DEMOLISHED MAN was Bester’s first scifi novel, and it’s very good, but
to my mind his greatest achievement was THE STARS MY DESTINATION. That book
is lying face-down and open on my bed right now, waiting for me to get back
home and dive back in. There is nothing in modern science fiction that really matches the bravura of these two books, now about half a century old.

His non-scifi works, such as TENDER LOVING RAGE and THE RAT RACE are also
worth reading too, although each is a product of its time to a greater
degree than the early scifi novels were. But you may find that once you’ve
read a little Bester you’ll want to read all you can get your hands on.
(Bester wrote some other scifi novels later in life — pleasurable to read,
but not quite in the same league as the first two.)

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