Alfred Bester's Masterpiece: The Stars My Destination, Pt. 2

Alfred Bester
The Stars My Destination

Some random disconnected passing thoughts:


I have read that the original title was Tiger! Tiger! but was changed for some reason.  The title possibly may have come from the first line of Blake's poem, "The Tiger."

TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

I know many who prefer the original title, but I, of course, have the opposite view.  The only title I knew for decades was The Stars My Destination, so it's become part of it for me.   On the other hand,  Tiger! Tiger! does fit Gully Foyle, for it is much more closely related to Gully and to the story line,  because, if Gully is  nothing else, he is a predator.  And, then there's that tattoo. 




I read and enjoyed the Prologue to TSMD for several reasons. One is that it provided information helpful to the story, and the second reason is its opening paragraph, which struck me as being somewhat familiar.  I have reformatted it.  Does anyone else think this is remotely familiar to something else?



"This was a golden age,
                       a time of high adventure,
                       rich living, and hard dying.  .  .
but nobody thought so. 


This was a future
                      of fortune and theft,
                      pillage and rapine,
                      culture and vice.  .  .
but nobody admitted it.


This was an age
                      of extremes,
                      a fascinating century of freaks.  .  .
but nobody loved it."



This, however, is how it appeared in the book:


"This was a golden age, a time of high adventure, rich living, and hard dying.  .  . but nobody thought so.  This was a future of fortune and theft, pillage and rapine, culture and vice.  .  . but nobody admitted it.  This was an age of extremes, . . . a fascinating century of freaks.  .  . but nobody loved it."


And there's even an interesting short story buried there--the discovery of jaunting.  


Pyre, a horrific weapon,  becomes an important issue in the story, as there is a solar system-wide war going on at this time.  Foyle knows the location of Pyre and therefore becomes a person of great interest to the Earth government.  A pyre is also a funeral ritual, a traditional way of honoring a leader or important person in some societies.  Is this weapon signifying the death of the present human civilization?

Another mythic element that seems relevant is the myth of the Phoenix, a long-lived bird that is the only one of its kind.  Every thousand or more years the Phoenix in its nest bursts into flames and arises reborn out of the ashes.  Foyle is trapped at the end when the Pyre is set off and as he attempts to escape, makes a discovery that transforms him into being able to jaunte at a new level.  And humanity will be transformed from a species limited to the solar system to ultimately a galactic civilization. Both Gully and humanity, in one sense, are reborn.  

It's a great story, one that rewards rereading, which I do every couple of years regularly.  It's permanently in my TBR bookcase.  

Alfred Bester's Masterpiece: The Stars My Destination, Pt. 1

Alfred Bester
The Stars My Destination

 It's been often said that character development is rather weak in SF, as science and technology and problem-solving tend to be the central focus.  One very early exception to this is Gully Foyle, the  main character in The Stars My Destination (TSMD).  When I first read TSMD, I was amazed to find someone who emerged  from the crowd.  He is now my No. 1 Most Unforgettable SF Character.  As an early discarded title suggests, he can best be described as a predator.  There are also several other characters who could carry a novel of their own.  Some of which are mentioned later.  

 It's a classic whose literary roots now go back almost two centuries:  the revenge tale of Edmund Dantes, The Count of Monte Cristo.   Both Dantes and Foyle were trapped, and both manage to escape with considerable wealth which they use to remake themselves--from a fishing boat captain to a Count and from a lowly merchant seaman to one of the elite,  Foyle of Foyle.  And, both have the same goal, revenge on those who trapped them and, ironically, enriched them.

But, before Gully became a revenge-driven predator, he was a cypher, mostly just existing.  The following is a picture of his character as reflected "in the official Merchant Marine records.

---------------------------------------------------------

"FOYLE, GULLIVER------AS-128/127:006

EDUCATION:                      NONE
SKILLS                                 NONE
MERITS                                NONE
RECOMMENDATIONS       NONE

(PERSONNEL COMMENTS)

A man of physical strength and intellectual potential stunted by lack of ambition.  Energies at minimum.  The stereotype Common Man.  Some unexpected shock might possibly awaken him, but Psych cannot find the key.  Not recommended for promotion.  Has reached a dead end."

------------------------------------------------------------
In the beginning Foyle was a non-entity, barely conscious of himself as a human being.  The psychological profile said it would take a shock to awaken Foyle to be able to function at somewhere near his potential.  The shock appeared--being abandoned to die by the sister-ship Vorga.  Whatever else was missing in Foyle's personality, self preservation was obviously functioning.   Once he manages to escape,  he changes from a non-entity to a brutal but intelligent individual driven solely by revenge.  



Significant characters in the novel;

Peter Yang-Yeovil (Yin-Yang?): the  Spy master who is a direct ancestor of Mencius (a real historical person who was the most famous follower of Confucius--confusion about dates, but could be as early as 385 BC and lived as late as 289 BC).

Saul Dagenham: the radioactive security chief

Robin: the jaunte and social graces teacher, who refuses to become his Romance Instructor

Jiz: frustrated by the restrictions placed on women and turns to crime to gain her freedom, a precursor of numerous female thieves, assassins,  and bodyguards found in later cyberpunk novels.

Olivia: the Ice Princess, bored by her luxurious but restricted life who engages in various illegal business ventures. 

I found it frustrating to encounter these people so seldom.

I think the creation of Gully Foyle is TSMD's greatest strength. Encountering him back in the 50s was a shock in comparison to the relatively bland and cardboard characters usually found in most SF stories, and in spite of the past 60 years of development of characterization in SF, I consider Gully to still be one of the strongest characters in SF. 

Probably the weakest aspect of the novel would be the culture created by jaunting--I think it's a bit thin--it reminds me of many rock-and-roll performances--lots of bright lights, smoke, noise, but a bit thin on substance or quality. While his world isn't as fully developed as Dune, for example, it still comes alive as an hectic, neon-lit, flashing world.   My copy is around 250 pages and it would take a lot larger work to really develop the culture to some depth.  However, it is fun to read and Bester's satiric eye has nailed the future aristocracy quite well. 

Bester has included a number of mythic elements in this work.  Gully can be seen as a dying and resurrecting god in one sense, for he does come back after being marooned in space and left to die by another ship, even though it belonged to the same company.  He then engages on a quest, not for a Holy Grail but for a far more human reason--revenge.

To be continued

Favorite SF novels read in 2015

The following is a list of those SF/F works that I read in 2015 and that stood out among the many other works that I had read.  These will be read again, sometime in the future. 

SCIENCE FICTION

First time readings

Robert Silverberg           Downward to the Earth

Liu Cixin                        The Three-Body Problem

Emily St. John Mandel   Station Eleven

Andy Weir                       The Martian

China Mieville                 Railsea
 
Ben Winters                     The Last Policeman

Re-reads

Hal Clement                Mission of Gravity

Alfred Bester               The Stars My Destination

Arthur C. Clarke          Rendezvous with Rama

Gene Wolfe                 Nightside the Long Sun 

David Brin                  The Uplift War




FANTASY

First Readings

Sofia Samatar                 A Stranger in Olondria

Russell Hoban                Linger Awhile, Angelica Lost and Found, Soonchild

     


It's been a good year for SF/F as there are five new authors on the list.
                                 

Some Great Reads from 2010

It seems to be traditional that summing up the year takes place now. So, here's a list of what I thought were memorable reads for 2010. This is not a list of the best books or whatever--just a list of books that I most fondly remember reading, some of which I have posted comments about during the year. They're in alphabetical order by author, so there's no attempt to rank them. The chances are that the ranking would be different tomorrow, and possibly even the list might be slightly different.


Greg Benford: The Furious Gulf and the rest of the "Galactic Center Series"

Walter van Tilburg Clark: The Ox-Bow Incident

Ivy Compton-Burnett: The House and Its Head

Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

Loren Eiseley: Another Kind of Autumn (poetry) & The Immense Journey

Michael Gregorio: Critique of Criminal Reason & Days of Atonement

Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House

Bernard Knight: The Tinner's Corpse

Ursula LeGuin: The Left Hand of Darkness

N. Scott Momaday: The Way to Rainy Mountain

Eliot Pattison: Prayer of the Dragon

Albert Sanchez Pinol: Cold Skin

Barbara Pym: Excellent Women

Kim Stanley Robinson: Vinland the Dream

Michael Shea: Nifft the Lean

Charles Todd: The Red Door

Jessie L. Weston: Quest of the Holy Grail & From Ritual to Romance


If you decide to read some of these, please let me know what you think of them.

Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker, 30th Anniversary

Russell Hoban is one of my favorite authors, and Riddley Walker, his post holocaust novel, is one of my favorite works. I've read it several times and will read it again. This is the 30th anniversary of its creation.

Part of its attraction is the story and part comes from his language. It's based on the idea that after the catastrophe, no one is quite sure now what happened, England would revert to being, once again, an oral culture. Only a few would be able to read and write. During the following five hundred years, the language, without the benefit of English teachers, would change. The novel is Hoban's guess as to what English might look like five centuries after the catastrophe.

This is not a book for readers who like transparency in their reading material; one must work a bit to figure out what is written. Reading it aloud helps.


Opening lines for Chapter One. It's a first person narrative and Riddley is speaking:

"On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen. He dint make the groun shake nor nothing like that when he come on to my spear he weren't all that big plus he lookit poorily. He done the reqwyrt he ternt and stood and clattert his teef and make his rush and there we wer then. Him on 1 end of the spear kicking his life out and me on the other end watching him dy. I said, 'Your tern now my tern later. . ."


Opening lines for Chapter Two: Riddley introduces himself:

"Walker is my name and I am the same. Riddley Walker. Walking my riddels where ever theyve took me and walking them now on this paper the same."

or

Walker is my name
and I am the same.
Riddley Walker.
Walking my riddels
where ever theyve took me
and walking them now
on this paper the same.


Since England is now an oral society, poetry has become extremely important for rhyme and meter aid the memory. Here's a working song, one used to coordinate the efforts of a work crew:

Gone ter morrer here to day
Pick it up and walk a way
Dont you know greaf and woe
Pick it up its time to go
Greaf and woe dont you know
Pick it up its time to go


London Town is drownt this day
Hear me say walk a way
Sling your bundel tern and go
Parments in the mud you know
Greaf and woe dont you know
Pick it up its time to go



Traveling shows provide entertainment, and they also convey what might be the history of these people. One of these entertainments is called "The Eusa Story." It's long, so I'll only give the first two paragraphs. In the book, they are in given in paragraph form, but I find them easier to read if I see them in a rough verse form:

"1. When Mr Clevver wuz Big Man uv Inland
they had evere thing clevver.
Thay had boats in the ayr &
picters on the win &
evere thing lyk that.
Eusa wuz a noing man vere qwik
he cud tern his han to enne thing.
He wuz werkin for Mr Clevver
wen thayr cum enemes aul roun
& maykin Warr. Eusa sed to Mr Clevver,
Now wewl nead masheans uv Warr.
Wewl nead boats that go on the water &
boats that go in the ayr &
wewl nead Berstin Fyr.



2. Mr Clevver sed tu Eusa,
Thayr ar tu menne agenst us this tym
we mus du betteren that.
We keap fytin aul thees Warrs
wy doan we jus du 1 Big 1.
Eusa sed, Wayr du I fyn that No.?
Wayr du I fyn that 1 Big 1? Mr Clevver sed,
Yu mus fyn the Littl Shynin Man
the Addom he runs in the wud."


As you may guessed, the quotations are giving my spell checker fits.


There is now an expanded edition, published by Indiana University Press, that includes an Afterword, Notes, and Glossary.

Combination Plate 16

Warning: I will discuss significant plot elements and endings


Fred Saberhagen: Octagon, an SF novel

A Walk in the Sun, film

Albert Sanchez Pinol: Cold Skin, a novel

Robert Silverberg: A Time of Changes, an SF novel

Breakfast at Tiffany's, a film

=========================


Fred Saberhagen: Octagon, an SF novel

Octagon was first published in 1981, and it shows its age when the plot concentrates on computers. References to such "super" computers as the Cray 4 and desktop versions such as the TRS-80 bring back long forgotten memories. The plot involves a war game in which a computer is used to handle the bookkeeping. Participants in the game mail postcards or letters with their latest moves to the game headquarters and await responses from their opponents, also by mail. This is pre-email, of course, and shortly before the growth of the BBS network (electronic bulletin board system), which died shortly after the Internet emerged. The name of the company that runs the war game is Berserker Inc., an obvious reference to Saberhagen's own well-known series about the organic life-hating killing machines.

Prior to the beginning of the novel, two friends, Bob Gregory and Henry Brahmaguptra, had worked together in developing a computer network system by which computers in many different locations could communicate and interact. Fearing that this system might someday fall under the control of either a hostile country or a future dictatorial government, they built in a "back door" which would allow them or someone they designated to regain complete control of the network or even shut it down if that seemed necessary.

Opening the "back door" required two passwords, one for each of them, and since neither knew the other's password, they had to agree that the situation was serious enough to need their intervention. Unfortunately, political differences between Henry, the "bleeding heart" liberal, and Bob, the "reactionary redneck," resulted in their eventual estrangement. Now, it seems that someone has gained control of the system, and each suspects the other of unwisely sharing the password with others (the far left or the far right), which would give partial control of the system. And, along with records mysteriously disappearing or false records appearing, someone or something is murdering participants in that war game.

Saberhagen's novel clearly is tied to the events and the atmosphere of the time in which it was written. The increasing use of computers in everyday life and the first appearance of the personal desktop computer in the late 70s and early 80s (I think I got my first Trash 80 clone in 1981) provide the background for the novel. In addition, fears regarding the control of our lives through computers was becoming stronger, with not only individuals or governments assuming control, but also the possibility of computer AIs developing and becoming a threat on their own. Kubrick and Asimov's 2001: A Space Odyssey came out in 1968 and popularized the idea of sentient but malfunctioning computers as a potential threat to humanity. Saberhagen's novel is another version of this theme for, in this story, an AI has been unknowingly created. Unfortunately, it has adopted the rules of the war game as its perspective on reality: enemies were to be eliminated.

Trivia: Henry Brahmaguptra's last name is almost the same as that of India's most famous astronomer and mathematician of the past, Brahmagupta, who lived from 598 to 665 AD. I doubt that this is a coincidence.

Overall Reaction: interesting tale from an historical perspective about the growth of fear of the new electro-mechanical Frankenstein's monster, along with trends concerning the growth of the personal computer into everyday life. In addition, there's an interesting climatic battle scene at the end featuring metal monsters on both sides.


=========================


A Walk in the Sun, a film

A Walk in the Sun is a WWII film that came out in 1945 and is adapted from a novel by Harry Brown. The novel was published as a serial in Liberty Magazine in 1944. The film follows the actions of the Lee platoon of the Texas Division on the first day of the Allied invasion of Italy at Salerno in 1943. Their mission is to capture a farmhouse about six miles inland and then destroy the nearby bridge.

This is not a typical wartime propaganda film starring a big name who engages in superhuman heroics in the defense of the freedom-loving peoples of the world against an enemy notable mainly for its stupidity, brutality, and cowardice. The film illustrates the common saying about war being moments of terror midst hours of boredom and tedium. Once the platoon gets off the beach and inland, most of the time is spent walking and talking and griping, as the men get to know each other and become a unit. However, there is a war going on and the platoon has several encounters with the enemy before they get to the farmhouse.

Once such encounter is with a German mechanized reconnaissance patrol. The US platoon defeats the patrol, but not because of any super heroics but because the Germans were unaware of the American unit in the area and so were taken by surprise. In addition, the Germans were outnumbered. Careful planning, the element of surprise, discipline, and superior numbers were the significant elements, and it was clear that if the situation had been reversed, the Germans would have come out ahead. The victory had its costs as several were wounded, and in spite of the platoon's mantra, "Nobody Dies,"some do die. In addition, they had to use up all of the shells for their bazooka. This plays a role in the upcoming battle for the farmhouse. This isn't a 'Hollywood" platoon with unlimited ammunition. It has only what the men can carry with them.

Eventually, the farmhouse is taken and the bridge is destroyed. It's not a major victory that will win the war, but just one small action that will hinder the German attempt to bring up reinforcements to this area. This, therefore, allows the Allies to safely land more troops and material so that they can engage the Germans with a greater chance of defeating them when a major battle does occur. It is the combined results of small engagements, such as this one, that set the tone for the coming battles.

It's an all male cast, with not even the usual obligatory flashbacks to scenes back home of wives and girl friends and parents. Part of the fun of the film was spotting familiar faces among the soldiers: Dana Andrews (probably the star, if one needs one), Lloyd Bridges, Richard Conte, John Ireland, Sterling Holloway, Huntz Hall, Steve Brodie, and Burgess Meredith as the narrator.

Overall Reaction: a more realistic war film about WWII than most of those that I have seen. Superheroes are fun, but in the real world it's the average person who is forced to get the job done--the clerks, the mail carriers, the junior executives, the teachers, the welders--none of whom have superhuman powers.

=========================


Albert Sanchez Pinol: Cold Skin, a novel
translated by Cheryl Leah Morgan

A young man (unnamed) has arrived on a small island near the Antarctic Circle to take on a job as a weatherman for a year. He is to record the intensity, the direction, and the frequency of the winds there. The captain of the ship that has brought him is in a hurry to leave. Consequently, when the weatherman who has just completed his yearlong tour is not there to greet them, they go to look for him. He is nowhere to be found. The lighthouse keeper, who is the other inhabitant of the island, knows nothing.

The captain is puzzled, but he must leave. The young man settles in. He has taken this job because of the isolation. He also sees it as an opportunity to educate himself, so he has brought along numerous books and writing materials.

This is what I had read about the book before I borrowed it from the library. It sounded like a mystery to me and the premise was intriguing. Where was the previous weatherman? Was the lighthouse keeper responsible for his disappearance? Was there someone else on the island? It wasn't long before I realized I had wandered into the universe of a different genre--the horror story. The first night, swarms of humanoid creatures swarm ashore and attack his house. Fortunately, his house is sturdy and he is armed.

This short novel, somewhat less than 200 pages, is one of the strangest novels that I've recently read. Who are the creatures? Why do they relentlessly attack, night after night, regardless of their losses? Did they kill the missing weatherman? What is the lighthouse keeper's role in all this? Why is the lighthouse keeper reluctant to join forces with him against the creatures? And, what is the lighthouse keeper's relationship with what appears to be one of the female creatures?

By day, the young man struggles to find the answers to these questions, while at night he struggles to defend himself against the persistent attacks of the creatures. When he eventually forces the lighthouse keeper to allow him to move into the lighthouse (a much sturdier and more easily defensible structure), his questions still go unanswered. He also finds himself strangely attracted to the humanoid female.

The ending is a shocker, or at least, it was for me. I didn't see it coming, although other, more perceptive readers might. At the end, he does get some of the answers, but not all.

Overall Reaction: not a pleasant story, but one that drew me in and I had to stay with it until the end. Would I reread it? I think so, for it would be a different story then, and I'm curious about what it would be like at a second reading.

=========================


Robert Silverberg: A Time of Changes
Winner of the Nebula Award for Best SF Novel of 1971
Hugo Nominee for 1972

The novel begins with a very traditional series of events. Centuries in the future, humankind has colonized a number of planets. On one of them, Borthan, the people have created a society where the self is despised. It is considered obscene to use the pronouns "I" or "me" or "my." Instead of saying "I would like to . . .," the people of Borthan say "One would like to. . ." Talking about oneself is forbidden and eventually would result in social ostracism. Extremists would go one step further and say "Doing . . . is pleasurable" which eliminates any reference to an individual.

There are two exceptions to this rule. Apparently the founders of Borthan recognized that complete self-containment would be unhealthy, so they created the drainers and the custom of bondkin. Drainers were those who would listen to anyone without judging and keep secret whatever they were told, similar to the seal of the confessional in the Roman Catholic Church. Shortly after a child was born, the parents would arrange with other families to develop a relationship with a male and a female child of the same age. These would then be the child's bondbrother and bondsister. Only with one's bondbrother and bondsister could one reveal oneself, could one be truly open with another person.


Kinnal Darival is the son of the ruler of Sala. Unfortunately he is a younger son. It is strange but true that, on Borthan, younger sons of rulers do quite well until the father dies and the oldest brother takes the throne. At this point, the life expectancy of younger brothers suddenly drops to something less than a year. However, another strange fact is that the life expectancy of younger brothers suddenly increases to that of the normal population once that younger brother has traveled to a foreign country. Taking account of these statistics, Kinnal Darival leaves Salla several months after his brother has assumed the throne.

Darival, after several adventures, arrives in the province of Manneran. With the help of a relative, he gains a government position and within a decade or so, he has managed to become highly respected and powerful. He has wealth, power, prestige, and an advantageous if not a happy marriage. He then meets and becomes friendly with an Earthman, Schweiz, a merchant.

Schweiz attempts to break through the cultural walls that isolate each inhabitant on Borthan. He finds a listener in Darival. Eventually Schweiz tells him of a drug that will break through the social isolation and actually allow those who have taken the drug to share each other's consciousness for a short time. They take the drug and Darival decides that this must be shared with others. He and Schweiz travel to Sumara, the source of the drug, and bring back a large quantity. Darival then begins to convert others and soon a significant number of people are taking the drug.

The ruling powers however see this as a threat, and Darival is forced to flee once again. He returns to his home province of Sala, where his brother agrees to let him live, as long as he does not attempt to introduce the drug. Darival eventually finds this impossible, and at the end of the story is captured by his brother's troops. Darival's consolation is that he has written his story down and gotten it out to friends, who will spread the good word to others.

As I mentioned earlier, this novel was published in 1971. I'm sure this is just a coincidence, but during the 60s and early 70s, psychologist Timothy Leary became very prominent through his research on LSD. Like Darival, he was highly regarded in his profession. Like Darival he preached the use of a mind/consciousness expanding drug which would provide emotional and spiritual benefits. Leary also had to travel to a foreign country, Mexico, at first to acquire the mind expanding drug. And, eventually Leary lost his position in academia and was harassed by the authorities. Leary at one point had various prison terms adding up to 90+ years and actually spent some time in prison. President Nixon once described Leary as "the most dangerous man in America."

Overall Reaction: As I mentioned earlier, the novel began as a traditional adventure tale but then became as much if not more of a novel of ideas than of an action-oriented story. It's the story of a highly successful, wealthy, and powerful man who eventually went to war with his culture. As with so many who have radical ideas, he won't be around to see the results of his actions.

Another issue here is the efficacy of the drug. While it does break down the barriers between the minds of those using the drugs, does it produce any lasting changes after the drug wears off. The same question was asked of LSD which reportedly produced the same consciousness expanding results in a few hours as did years of meditation or of a mystical experience of some inexplicable nature. In short, were there any long-lasting beneficial changes to those who took LSD?

========================


Breakfast at Tiffany's, a film, probably labeled a romantic comedy

The Plot: can a young girl from a small Texas town find happiness in New York City? I should probably define happiness as Holly Golightly, our heroine, sees it. Actually Jane Austen, many years ago, said it better than I ever could: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Holly is looking for that single man in possession of a good fortune who will want her as his wife. Holly isn't being totally mercenary here, for she has a brother, Fred, who is getting out of the army shortly. He's a bit slow, she tells one and all, so she has to be responsible for him.

Given this inane plot, one could only wonder why the film was so popular. What does it have going for it that would have viewers ignore the silliness?

Well . . . It has the following going for it:

Cat, who plays the cat in the film with to the utmost, Cat is the epitome of catness--self-centered, determined to get its own way, always being around when it's not wanted and seldom being around when it is.

The Theme Music: words and music by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini respectively. "Moon River" was extremely popular and one couldn't turn on the radio without hearing it at least once or twice a day. For days afterward I kept humming or hearing it.

George Peppard: a handsome, young male with lots of white teeth. What was needed for the role was a handsome, young male with lots of white teeth: he was available. He was there when necessary and not there when not needed.

Patricia Neal: her great but too seldom seen portrayal of Mrs. Failenson, the society matron whose boytoy, George Peppard, lived in the apartment above Holly's. Her acceptance of being dumped by George for a younger woman was a classic--rueful to some extent, but as she left, one knew that she was already thinking about his replacement, and that wouldn't be an impossible task, either--just call central casting.

But, most of all, what the film really has going for it is Audry Hepburn.

Overall Reaction: It stars Audrey Hepburn; what else needs be said?

Favorite SF Novels

The following is a list of my fifteen favorite SF novels . All are permanently on my must reread list, even after three or four reads. This is not a list of the fifteen best SF works, although I like to think some of them might be. Time is the ultimate judge, though; those that persist in being read should be at least favorites in any Best List. (Actually, there are sixteen in the list. I came up with another that I just couldn't leave out and I couldn't decide which one to drop. So the list of fifteen of my favorites really has sixteen.)

The list is in alphabetical order, by author, and is in no way an attempt on my part to rank them.


1. Isaac Asimov: The Caves of Steel

Asimov combines two genres here, the SF story and the police procedural. It's centuries in the future and humanity has become, for the most part, agoraphobic. The thought of going outside terrifies most humans. The cities have become huge conglomerates, completely walled over. Most people spend their lives indoors, seldom even glancing out one of the rare windows that still exist. The exceptions are the Spacers, those humans who have left earth and settled on a number of planets. While they come across as being almost god-like, they also have their flaws, as serious as and in some cases more serious than the earthman's agoraphobia.

This novel could be considered an SF police procedural as the main character, Lije Baley, is the New York police officer assigned to solve the murder of one of the Spacers. He is forced to take a partner, one R Daneel Olivaw. The problem is that the "R" stands for robot. The knowledge that a Spacer robot is loose in the corridors of the City would spark a riot. Baley now has two reasons for solving the crime quickly: his pride won't let him lose out to a robot and he needs to get the robot back to Spacetown before its identity is revealed.


====================

2. Gregory Benford: the "Galactic Center" series.

This is a set of six novels that range in time from the 1990s to some 35,000 years in the future, from Earth to the black hole, the Eater, at the center of our galaxy. It's a grand adventure tale, along with a strong dose of astrophysics. That Benford is an astrophysicist might have had some influence here. He begins with what's known and then lets his imagination roam the galaxy. I have already posted a commentary on each of the six novels in the series: In the Ocean of Night, Across the Sea of Suns, Great Sky River, Tides of Light, Furious Gulf, and Sailing Bright Eternity.


====================


3. Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination

Bester's novel contains one of the most interesting characters I've found in SF--Gully Foyle. At the beginning he's one of the lowest of the low on a spaceship crew--barely human--he can with extreme difficulty manage to speak somewhat coherently. At the end of the novel, he has educated himself to be able to move easily and freely in the highest social and cultural levels. However, inside he's still the brute he was at the beginning, and his one object in life is to revenge himself on those who left him to die in the cold dark reaches of the solar system. It appears to me that there's a slight flavor here of The Count of Monte Cristo here.

Bester postulates a future in which the aristocracy bases itself on its ancestry in various corporations. He has also created a world in which teleportation, moving oneself from place to place by the power of the mind, is commonplace. There are schools that will teach anyone to teleport, and only a few are unable to do this. Consider a world in which most people can transport themselves merely by thinking about it to anyplace they have once been and have studied closely. Knowing this, whom would you let into your home?


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4. Alfred Bester: The Demolished Man

Just as his previously mentioned novel explored the effects of teleportation on society, this work postulates telepathy as a real possibility. What happens to a society when some of its members are able to read the minds of others? How does a society deal with that? The focus in this novel is on the legal system. One of the main characters is a police officer and a powerful telepath. What happens to the concept of privacy when some members of society are able to read minds, especially when some of those members are in law enforcement?

The other significant character is a man who wants to commit a murder. How can he do this with mind-reading cops around? How does one even plan a murder under these circumstances?


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5. Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451

Books burn at that temperature. In a not too distant future, I fear, fireman will not be those whose job it is to put out fires but will be those who upon learning of a hidden stash of books will immediately rush over there and burn them. This short work was first published in 1951, when memories of pictures of book burning events in Germany were still fresh. Recently I have seen photos of similar events in this country, held at a Christian school. I wonder if this was one of the books so honored.

Guy Montag (if I'm not mistaken, that's German for Monday) is a fireman and perfectly happy burning books and saving society from various evils. It only when he impulsively saves a book from burning and begins to read it, that his attitude begins to change.

As one of the characters in the novel says, books are dangerous and unsettling, for they give people ideas. I think that may be a quotation from Frederick Douglas' autobiography of his life as a slave. It was considered dangerous to teach slaves to read and write, for it gave them unwholesome ideas.

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6. Arthur C. Clarke: Rendezvous with Rama

An alien space ship enters our solar system. In a short time, it will have passed through and be gone. A crew of scientists is sent to meet the ship and make contact with its crew. They rendezvous with the ship and are able to enter it, and find it empty, or so it seems anyway. The story follows the efforts of the crew to discover as much as possible about the ship and its mission and its builders.


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7. Jack Finney: Time and Again

The best time travel tale I've ever read. I would say the best ever written, but I haven't read all of them. This is one of those rare stories that, after finishing it, I sat there and wish it could be possible. The main character goes back to late 19th century New York City and solves a mystery and falls in love.

One of the strengths of the work, along with Finney's prose, is the liberal use of photographs from that period.


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8. Robert Heinlein: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

I suspect there may be many who think I should have selected Stranger in a Strange Land. But, while Stranger was an enjoyable read and reread, I find that given a choice between them I would choose The Moon more often.

Others have pointed out some similarities between The Moon and the US during the revolutionary period: a far distant and unsympathetic governing body, lack of representation on that body, and the use of both as penal colonies.

It's a great action oriented novel, but still filled with some of Heinlein's ideas on the nature of the evolution of the family, on politics in a superficially democratic (actually it's a republican form of government), and on the potential power of a self-aware AI that can tap into anything even remotely connected to a computer or phone line.


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9. Frank Herbert: Dune

Dune is felt by many critics and commentators to be one of the two novels that broke down the walls of the SF ghetto and put made SF legitimate reading material for the general public. The other was Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.

I think Dune was the first SF novel to have a fully developed, a fully realized planet with a culture that clearly was based on the environment. The planetary environment shaped the culture, attitudes, and religion of the Fremen tribes, the humans now indigenous to the planet.

In addition to the Fremen, Herbert has created a number of groups all struggling for control of Arrakis or Dune. As the Wikipedia entry on Dune puts it:

"The story explores the complex and multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, as the forces of the Empire confront each other for control of Arrakis and its "spice".


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1o. Russell Hoban: Riddley Walker

The most unique post-holocaust novel I've ever read. If you love playing with language, you'll love this one. It's a quest tale, and the quest is Riddley Walker's as he attempts to make sense of a riddle. The language is a character in this novel:

Opening lines for Chapter One. It's a first person narrative and Riddley is speaking:

"On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen. He dint make the groun shake nor nothing like that when he come on to my spear he weren't all that big plus he lookit poorily. He done the reqwyrt he ternt and stood and clattert his teef and make his rush and there we wer then. Him on 1 end of the spear kicking his life out and me on the other end watching him dy. I said, 'Your tern now my tern later. . ."

I think it's his matter-of-fact attitude that makes him a favorite character of mine--"Your tern now my tern later." It also suggests a realization and acceptance of the basic equality of all living creatures. It's not a bragging statement denoting his superiority over the boar, but a simple recognition that the boar's "tern" is now and his will come later.


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11. Ursula Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness

One I always recommend. I did a brief commentary on it here back in March 2010. Genly Ai, an ambassador from the Ekumen, arrives on Winter to arrange for diplomatic relations between the planet's inhabitants and the Ekumen. The inhabitants are completely human except for one significant difference. They are sexually neuter for about three weeks and then become either male or female for about 3-4 days. Le Guin's point here is to explore the gender behavior patterns to see which are inborn and which are learned. No lectures here, though, just an interesting plot and some good action sequences. See Ai and Estraven's journey over the glacier.


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12. Walter M. Miller, Jr.: A Canticle for Leibowitz

This is another of my favorite post-holocaust novels. It is really three novellas, which focus strongly on a religious order of monks who initially were followers of Leibowitz, a scientist. Most of the few survivors of the war turned hostile to intellectuals and scientists, executing them whenever found. Eventually, in some communities, literacy became grounds for execution. Leibowitz gave his followers the task of preserving whatever scientific knowledge they could find. Like the monks of the Middle Ages, they spent their lives copying out whatever written materials they could find. The three novellas take place several hundred years apart, going from a subsistence level of existence in the first part, to a society that is now rich enough to permit some of its members to do something other than bring in food in the second section, to a society that has developed science once again to the point that they now have nuclear weapons.


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13. Kim Stanley Robinson: "Three Californias" (aka The Orange County stories)

Imagine a particular place, a real place that is, and then project three different futures on this place. Kim Stanley Robinson does exactly that to a part of California, Orange County to be precise. These are not serials since they all take place at roughly the same time but in alternate universes.

The Wild Shore is a post-holocaust novel. The US has been eliminated as a world power, and isn't even a unified country. The enemy destroyed the communication and transportation systems and now uses satellites to detect and destroy any attempt to develop communities over a few thousand people and to destroy any attempt to rebuild the railway system. Robinson has created a coming-of-age story of a young man in what was once Orange County who finds himself trapped in a society that exists at a subsistence level while the rest of the world remains highly developed, for only the USA was attacked. The USA's allies were grateful they weren't attacked also and quietly accepted the situation.

The Gold Coast is also set in Orange County, but no war has taken place. It seems to be an extension of today, focusing on several young people who are trying to make their way in a world dominated by the military industrial complex, with an ever-expanding population, a California gone mad. The young people's lives seem pointless, in which cars, sex, drugs, and rock music are the main ingredients. Then, in an attempt to fight back, they get involved in industrial terrorism. Now they are going to attract the attention of society.

The Pacific Edge is probably the most unlikely of the three scenarios that Robinson has created. The world has become an ecotopia--or in today's language, it has gone green-green--green. Small is beautiful; the world has completely reversed itself. Now there are rules that prevent any organization from going beyond a certain size. Any construction deemed necessary by the ruling bodies has to be voted on by the population.

The conflict is not between those who favor this development and those opposed to it. Instead the conflict centers around the limits to growth. The conflict is between those accept the limits as reasonable and logical and those who think it's a bit too low. How would hiring one more person for a company be a threat to the world environment? Even though it is unnecessary, how could increasing the water supply to the town be a threat?

I've found three constants throughout the novels. One is that the main characters in all three are mostly young people in their late teens and early twenties. Secondly, the novels open with the young people digging up various items. Thirdly, there is an old man who remembers what it was like 50 years ago.



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14. George Stewart: Earth Abides

One of the best post-holocaust novels I've ever read. It's a quiet novel which focuses on the effects on those who survived a war in which over 90% of the human race died. The title comes from Ecclesiastes:

"Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities: all is vanity.

What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?

One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh;
but the earth abideth for ever. "


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15. A. E. van Vogt: The Voyage of the Space Beagle

It was by accident that I discovered that this novel was the middle link in a chain that begins with Charles Darwin and ends with Star Trek. Shortly after Charles Darwin returned home from his journey on a British exploratory vessel, he published a book about his journey. The title of the book is The Voyage of the Beagle, published in 1839. A little over a century later, van Vogt published his novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle. It is actually a fix-up novel, based on several shorter works, the first two actually published in SF magazines in 1939, one hundred years after Darwin. Like Darwin's Beagle, van Vogt's Beagle is an exploratory vessel, exploring the galaxy just as Darwin's Beagle explored the remote oceans and far off lands of earth.

In an interview, Gene Roddenberry said that van Vogt's novel was one of the primary sources for the development of the concept behind Star Trek and the five year mission of the Enterprise. The missions of the two Beagles and the Enterprise were essentially the same--to explore new worlds, etc. Perhaps, as a way of reminding viewers of the program's long and honorable ancestry, in one of the last Star Trek episodes, the Enterprise's mission involves locating a lost exploratory spaceship--the Beagle.


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16. Gene Wolfe: "The Book of the New Sun"

This series consists of four books. Sometime later a sequel appeared. And later, a small volume with commentary on the work by Gene Wolfe, as well as a dictionary for some of the more obscure terms also showed up on the shelves.

The work is set on Earth in the very far future and is one of the SF subcategories known as a "dying earth" work. Earth is tired and worn out, her vast mineral treasures have been reduced to rust and dust. It's so far in the future that even the sun is showing its age. It's a quest, of course, and perhaps a brief review of the quest for the Holy Grail might be informative.

The main character is Severian, and he is a member (apprentice at the beginning of the first novel) of the Order of the Seekers of Truth and Penitence, also known as the Guild of Torturers. He is a torturer and an executioner. He violates one of the rules (shows mercy to a prisoner) and is punished by being sent out to be a torturer and executioner in a land as far from the capital as can be found. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? It is at this point his quest begins, and as in the quest for the Holy Grail, his task is to heal the wounded king or autarch.

The four novels in the set are The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, and The Citadel of the Autarch.

Four years later, Wolfe published a sequel to the set The Urth of the New Sun. Wolfe also published a companion work The Castle of the Otter, the title of which comes from a news item about the fourth book in the series. Whoever wrote the article got the name wrong: The Citadel of the Autarch got transformed in the reporter's mind into The Castle of the Otter. Wolfe liked the title so much that he gave it to this little volume which contains background information to the series and a vocabulary, to help the despairing reader translate some of Wolfe's obscure terms.

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I have to stop here, or I will never finish. As I started to review and clean up this post, I remembered C. J. Cherryh whose action-oriented novels really do have me gasping for air at the end. How can any list exclude P. K. Dick's numerous novels, including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the basis for the film Blade Runner, which is one of the best SF films I have seen. And Larry Niven's Ringworld or . . .