‪In the midst of an ongoing war between the inner planets and the outer satellites, Gulliver Foyle is shipwrecked in space for 170 days. When at last another ship picks up his distress signal and approaches, it pauses but then leaves without rescuing him. Foyle, a common Everyman, is enflamed by a rage that inspires him to tremendous feats and abilities, to transcend his simple, common self in a quest for revenge. How he transforms himself and what he transforms himself into makes for an interesting tale with an unexpected but satisfying end.‬ ( )

Gosh, until I entered this, I thought I hadn't read this book in several decades, but it's been only 11 years. At any rate, it loses nothing from re-readings. I think this was at least the 4th time I've read it. It's an imaginative extravagance, with an unforgettable main character, built somewhat on the Count of Monte Cristo; it traverses the solar system of he 24th century with some great scenes. It's lost a bit since it was written: corporations are kind of family businesses, where the lead of the corp takes his name and title from the corporation. For instance, there's "Kodak of Kodak" and many others. It's notable that most of the corporations mentioned, such as Kodak, RCA Victor, and many others, barely lasted the 20th century, let alone the 24th. There's also some language that's unsettling -- people in books like this don't really call women "bitches" that much anymore. One other thing worth noting: there's more plot and action in this short (less than 300 pages) novel than in most of the huge things sold these days. I loved almost every minute reading this book, and I plan to read it again in less than 20 year. ( )

I'm uncertain about how to review this book. In many places it was brilliant. Bester, the author, is obviously looking back at the atomic attacks on Japan and is using atomic bombs in the book as the greatest enemy of the new and expanded dwelling places of mankind. His writing at times is excellent, fast-paced, and original. More than half a century later, a lot of the book is questionable. All the women are sirens, rape is a commonplace, and the racism throughout the book is terrible, both for the characters and the reader.

At the end of the book I was unsure what was going on. Foyle seems to have assumed Christ-like status. He is dying, possibly already dead, yet the viewers in the book are awaiting Foyle's awakening.

The book was very much ahead of its time. There is good reason that this book is still promoted as one of the great classics of science fiction. Yet it did not hold me. It was often lacklustre entertainment. I did not like it much but I found it powerful. ( )

This was a mixed bag for me.

First the good things. This is an action psychedelic story that I would (to be honest) expect from Philip K Dick. Story is set in far future where humans have evolved in a way they are capable of physically jaunting - jumping to remote location using mere thought. This transformed the entire world in a way that for example actual locations of buildings are no longer relevant so buildings just pop up wherever builders want it. With this you would think that society is also advanced, right? Well, it is not. World is pretty much the same. Corporations are de facto rulers of the world and those that do not fit are left wandering space in hippy-like communes, left alone until they find themselves on the path of corpo's. Rich and influential enjoy in the old technology (hipsters anyone?) because jaunting and entire moderna is soooo boring. Of course they use every means of protection available (personal armies and armed ships) but they like to enjoy in the sophisticated things of the past. This is also time where soldiers and mercenaries get sub-dermal enhancements, cybernetic implants and get hypno-therapy conditioning to act as sleeping agents. People are very deadly in this future and depending on the situation sleeping agents are all around just waiting for key words to get triggered (Treadstone anyone?). So as you can see this is very rich world, miles away from our own and yet so close and familiar. People still hunger for power and they are ready to do anything to rule over others.

Now the weird. Main character, Gully Foyle is a complete anachronism in his time. In all honesty he would be anachronism in any time outside the early Medieval times. He is so low in society that he is basically just barely alive. No initiative, no ambition, nothing but sheer physical strength but even this is powered down that for everyone else Gully is a person so bland and unremarkable that you would not give him any notice, shadow, grey man. Stuck doing a very arduous job he gets fired up by that ancient, ever present and potent force - thirst for revenge. This most base force will force him to change, to improve himself and bring his vengeance to people responsible. Foyle's very evolution from a drag of society to becoming "illuminated" human, maybe first of many to follow, trailblazer, is what the book is actually about. Foyle does some horrible things, leaves his friends behind, does not care what happens to others as long they are useful for him. But he evolves and becomes better, he transcends his limitations and finally manages to see the future, what in Dune would be called the Golden Path. Now some would find this offending (in this age of never forget and Foyle truly has a record) but last few pages of the novel are very interesting. Should majority be treated like kids and mindless mob by the selected few (kinds sounds contemporary, right?) or left to chose its own path, provided with enough knowledge and facts (now this sounds like utopia, right? imagine world without all the media houses serving the news :) toouuuggghh). Is the future of mankind actual merge of savage and knowledge, man that goes (in a similar way as his biological changes before and after birth) through entire cycle of his social development - from aggressive, barely speaking savage to illuminated human.

And now the not so good. I wont say bad because of the fact that this is 1950's book and majority of SF from that time is inspired by hallucinogenics and drugs and all works from that time in history have that trippy feeling. To say that story line is basically a collection of several story lines running in very weird relative directions is to say the least. Story holes become so obvious at time that characters are unrecognizable just going from one page to next. There is no transition, no interlude, nothing just wham, X is now completely different person. If you are persistent person this can be easily overcome but for others this will be a rather difficult book to read. Weirdly though story is rather fluid even with this structure. Author truly knows how to write.

All in all very interesting book, that raises some of the old (and eternal) questions on how should humanity move forward. Whether we like it or not we come across these even today (this year especially).

Recommended to all fans of SF and revenge stories. ( )

Not a very high brow book, but a good read nevertheless. The book is so strange and unnatural. All elements of the plot are ridiculous and a lot of the dialogue, especially the romance, is weak. Everything just sort of worked.
Will definitely consider reading Bester again. ( )