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The Stars My Destination
The Stars My Destination
The Stars My Destination
Audiobook8 hours

The Stars My Destination

Written by Alfred Bester

Narrated by Gerard Doyle

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

Marooned in outer space after an attack on his ship, Nomad, Gulliver Foyle lives to obsessively pursue the crew of a rescue vessel that had intended to leave him to die.

When it comes to pop culture, Alfred Bester (1913-1987) is something of an unsung hero. He wrote radio scripts, screenplays, and comic books (in which capacity he created the original Green Lantern Oath). But Bester is best known for his science fiction novels, and The Stars My Destination may be his finest creation. With its sly potshotting at corporate skullduggery, The Stars My Destination seems utterly contemporary, and has maintained its status as an underground classic for over fifty years.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 5, 2017
ISBN9781541484191
The Stars My Destination

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Rating: 3.998203204312115 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,948 ratings92 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Simply an amazing adventure.
    Great from beginning to end. The narrator here really leaned into the parts. Brought this masterpiece to life.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The character development takes place throughout the storyline in a brilliant and compelling fashion. The authors invoked both love and hate for the characters beautifully flipping from scene to thought.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is one of the best books that I have ever read. Bester, took the premiums of the Count of Monta Cristo and placed it in a scifi setting. And in so doing set an incredible standard for all other scifi writers after him. It is a shame that he wrote so few books. Most of his writings were for television.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book by Bester was first published in 1956 (and has been called one of the best sci-fi novels of the 1950's and seems perenially to be on everyone's top 100 lists ...) which I didn't realise until about halfway through the book. I was very surprised! This book seems to pre-empt, take into new directions and surpass some many of the themes and ideas in contemporary sci-fi that it is still remains as original today as it no doubt did in 1956. Set against the backdrop of war against 'inner' and 'outer' planets this book truly has something for every sci-fi fan; teleportation (something that Bester deals with, for me, very intelligently. He doesn't simply say it exists he also demonstrates how society has and has had to change to deal with this), rockets, inter-planetary wars and spies, telepathy, a mysterious (and world-shatteringly) chemical substance, races against both time and enemies, improsement and escape and shady doctors in 'back-alley' surgeries to help with unwanted tatoos (... you'll have to read the book, I don't want to spoil it ...). The hero (if you can call him that) Gully Foyle is abondoned in space, his ship nearly destroyed by an enemy attack, when he sees another spaceship called the Vorga coming he thinks he is saved but when it flies by ignoring his signals his rage transforms him and drives him on to not only survive but to track down the ship and crew of Vorga with only one thing on his mind ... vengeance!4 stars - a book I look forward to re-reading.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Short and sweet. I listened directly after going through the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo. It is basee around a similar plot but it is definelty not the same. it is older scifi but still relevant.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Gets a little goofy toward the end but still entertaining.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Probably more of a 3-star read for me but I will allow an extra half star for the era in which this was written. The narrative clearly shows that this was originally published in serialized form. Nevertheless, the story itself...There are a lot of ideas here to like. Unfortunately for me, this book hinges on some of my least favorite SF tropes. Chief among them is telepathy and traveling through time and space using nothing more than your mind, (jaunting). The other thing that made this a difficult book was the protagonist. For the bulk of the narrative, Gully Foyle has almost no redeeming qualities. He is arrogant, angry, glib, misogynistic, spiteful, deceitful, and downright mean-spirited. A remarkably difficult character to identify with!Bester does write a fast-paced, frenetic tale that shows a lot of potential and has clearly influenced many writers that have followed in his footsteps. To my way of thinking, many of those writers have surpassed him in execution of story while paying homage to his creativity.Overall, I'm glad to move another classic SF book from the TBR to the 'Read' shelf. This one is unlikely to get a re-read from me tho...
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Holy wow wow wow!!! What an amazing journey to reach across the stars!!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The book is astounding. Over the years I have myself read this at least a dozen times, each time getting something different out of it.

    I was excited to find this audiobook. I want to note the excellent job of the narrator who provides rich and recognizable characters through his voice acting. 10/10.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I've read other books by Bester, but for some reason it took me a long time to get around to this example of classic sci-fi. This book is a wonderful, inventive, fast trip into a future where much has changed, but, unfortunately, the human race has not. Gully Foyle is not a good candidate for hero. He is an uneducated, unthinking lug stranded in a wrecked space ship. When another spaceship, the Vorga, passes him by instead of rescuing him he turns into Ahab, single-mindedly seeking revenge against the Vorga. I can't imagine why this book has not been made into a movie, because it is full of exciting scenes and colorful characters. Gully is a completely selfish, driven predator for most of the book. It makes for a fascinating read, but maybe a tougher sell for a movie? In any event, I enjoyed the book very much.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Too many chapters cut-off mid sentence. Fix it, Scribd.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is so chock-full of SciFi concepts - each one alone would be another author's seed idea to make into a novel. Here Bester, writing in the 50s mind you, introduces us to dozens perhaps hundreds of sci-fi tropes, many of which could be explored easily in a series of books based on this work. Amazing!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I think I'm going to have to figure out what I think about this while writing the review. I've been reading both positive and negative reviews, and find myself terribly easily influenced on the subject. I mean, there's something to be said for the fact that the main character is completely unworthy of sympathy and horrible to try and identify with in any way, if that's one of your things (and it is one of mine). It certainly isn't hard SF, which isn't one of my things, but I can see why the lack of explanation of a lot of aspects could be annoying. And the treatment of gender... The less said about the female characters and their role, the better.On the other hand, there's some amazing writing here -- the whole synaesthesia sequence, for example. (Synaesthesia doesn't actually work that way usually: you don't get one input switched completely for another, you get your wires crossed so one input produces a response from multiple senses. E.g. when I say the word "torture", the feel of the word in my mouth, the sound of it, etc, all transmute into the taste of dark chocolate -- but I still hear the word, feel myself saying it. But I didn't mind because it all made sense inside the story.) The moral core of the story, the slow improvement of Gully's character, that was an interesting study, even if I disliked that the women he came across were just tools for imparting that bit more understanding to the main character.I can also see how influential the story has been. It has the seeds of cyberpunk, and a potential influence on a hell of a lot of other SF since that time, right up to the present.So I haven't actually managed to figure out what I think even through writing this review. I enjoyed reading the book, though, so I think I'm gonna go for three or four stars. There's stuff about it I didn't like -- but I did read it in a couple of hours, and there's definitely food for thought here.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Occasionally hilarious early sci-fi classic (both funny by design and because of 50 years of hindsight). The material and topics are ripe for re-mining by a modern author - anyone know if it has been done?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Was great depth of thought into this sci fi society
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Defining Space Opera and creating something more, too

    Gully Foyle is brute humanity on a Journey to Elevated Personhood. His story reads like a comic book or pulp novel. On the most shallow level, it IS Space Opera. The only problem is that Bester's work goes so much deeper and broader than that, giving us a tale of adventure, transformation and satire that is well crafted and engaging. Unlike many classic storytellers, Bester can do it in a novella length, and make it so thorough and satisfying that you do not hunger for a sequel, but instead cherish the story and character as a part of your inner narrative--as if you'd been there with Gully. I remember starting this novella and staying up very late on a school night because it's just that absorbing. I

    Alfred Bester is the author. If the name sounds familiar, many Babylon 5 fans will tell you it's the name of the sinister psi-cop played by Star Trek alumni Walter Koenig (Checkov) This was an homage to Alfred Bester's work all over comics, books, TV and movies. Bester is a hero to many past and current sci-fi/fantasy writers and readers The fact is, if you open a book to have a story, no expectations--this is one that delivers. But if you spend your time thinking you're a 'discerning reader' you'll miss out on something really, very special ( Hey I couldn't get past the accent spellings in "Catcher in the Rye" so I know how easily it happens.) Don't let it--the few hours spent engaged with this novella/novel are just delicious!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    What a very strange book. Not a single likeable character but that doesn't bother me. I was occasionally lost - there were a few HUH moments. Not sure what to make of it at all, tbh.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    fantastic, didn't feel like it was written in the 1950s at all.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I thought I was going to like this more then "The Demolished Man" and I was right. While often noted as a precursor to cyberpunk, something I agree with. Reading the story reminded more of the "Expanse" series then William Gibson's early work, most especially the "Scientific People" and J♂SEPH out in the asteroid belt. This is a short classic SF novel everyone who enjoys SF would probably enjoy.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Gully foyle is a Spaceman who is marooned on his wrecked spaceship. He's been 5 months dying.
    "...since he was already wearing the patched space suit he might just as well run the gauntlet vacuum again and replenish his supplies.
    he flooded his space suit with air from the tank, resealed his helmet and sailed out into the frost and light again. He squirmed down the main-deck corridor and ascended the remains of a stairway to control deck which was no more than a roofed corridor in space. most of the walls were destroyed.
    with the sun on his right and the stars on his left, foyle shot aft toward the galley storeroom. Halfway down the corridor he passed a door frame still standing four square between deck and roof. The leaf still hung on its hinges, half open, a door to nowhere. Behind it was all space and the steady stars.
    As foyle passed the door he had a quick view of himself reflected in the polished chrome of the leaf ... Gully foyle, a giant black creature, bearded, crusted with dried blood and filth, emaciated, with sick, patient eyes... And followed always by a stream of flowing debris, the raffle disturbed by his motion and following him through space like the tale of a festering comet."
    He can't believe his eyes when he sees this spaceship coming towards him. He rushes to the supply locker, taking out emergency flares, and lights one after another. The spaceship, obviously seeing his flares, slows as it comes near him. But with astonishment, foyle sees the spaceship take off again. The rest of the book is foyle's attempt to avenge this abandonment. He is so outraged, he is motivated to save himself in his desire to go after and destroy the spaceship.
    In the beginning, he's too stupid to realize that the spaceship itself is not at fault. He traces the spaceship to its home in a launching pad. Attempting to destroy the spaceship, he is caught and sent to a cavernous prison in france. Prisoners are kept in absolute darkness, and are not allowed to speak. Foyle becomes despondent and is considering a blue jaunte (where you jaunte into space, and are thus destroyed), when he discovers that he can hear someone whispering:
    "It whispered in his ear from nowhere, and suddenly, with the logic of desperation, it came to him that there was a way out of gouffre martel. He had been a fool not to see it before.
    'Yes,' he croaked. 'there's a way out.'
    There was a soft gasp, then a soft question: 'who's there?'
    'me, is all,' foyle said. 'you know me.'
    'where are you?'
    'here. where I always been, me.'
    'but there's no one. I'm alone.'
    'got to thank you for helping me.'
    'hearing voices is bad' the furious Angel murmured.'the first step off the deep end. I've got to stop.'
    'you showed me the way out. Blue jaunte.'
    'Blue jaunte! My god, this must be real. You're talking the gutter lingo. You must be real. Who are you?'
    'Gully foyle.'
    'but you're not in my cell. You're not even near. Men are in the north quadrant of gouffre Martel. women are in the South. I'm south-900. Where are you?'
    'north-111.'
    'you're a quarter-mile away. how can we -- of course! It's the whisper line. I always thought that was a legend, but it's true. it's working now.'
    'here I go, me,' foyle whispered. 'blue jaunte.'
    'foyle, listen to me. forget the blue jaunte. Don't throw this away. It's a miracle.'
    'what's a miracle?'
    'there's an acoustical freak in gouffre martel... They happen in underground caves... A freak of echoes, passages, and whispering galleries. Old timers call it the whisper line. I never believed them. no one ever did, but it's true. We're talking to each other over the whisper line. No one can hear us but us. We can talk, foyle. we can plan. Maybe we can escape.' "
    So foyle meets jisBella McQueen [!]. They plan their escape and after incredible mishaps and hardship, they are successful.

    Foyle was tattooed with a tiger's markings and the words "Nomad," the name of his wrecked spaceship, on his face, by a crazy chieftain of a people living on an asteroid that he crashed his spaceship into. jisBella pays a cosmetic surgeon to remove the tattoo, but the tattoo reappears when Foyle gets angry.
    " 'I don't think this can be fixed, gully.'
    'Skin graft...'
    'no. the scars are too deep for graft. You'll never get rid of the stigmata, gully. You'll have to learn to live with it.'
    'foyle flung the mirror from him in sudden rage, and again the blood-red mask flared up under his skin. He lunged out of the main cabin to the main hatch where he pulled his spacesuit down and began to squirm into it.
    'gully! Where are you going? What are you going to do?'
    'Get tools,' he shouted. 'tools for the safe.'
    'Where?'
    'in the asteroid. they've got dozens of warehouses stuffed with tools from wrecked ships. There have to be drills there, everything I need. Don't come with me. There may be trouble. how is my goddamn face now? Showing it? By christ, I hope there is trouble!' "
    As it turns out, the Nomad had on board a valuable material, called pyrE, which its holder controls the means of winning the war between the inhabitants of the inner planets (I.P.) and the outer planets (O.P.). The owner of the ship, Presteign, who throughout the book is always "coldly" replying to someone or other, is desperate to get this back from its concealment inside a disguised safe. Gully Foyle doesn't know what the substance is, but he knows that its possession will give him the means to find the person who gave the order for the rescue ship to abandon him, and destroy them.

    I don't want to spend anymore time on this review, because I didn't like the book. Some reviewers have said that this is a sci-fi takeoff on "the count of monte cristo." I have read that book and this doesn't rate. I despised the protagonist. I don't like the women characters, either. The book is sexist. I don't think I would've liked Alfred Bester.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    More Action Than 5 Novels Combined

    If by some oversight you have missed The Stars My Destination, then take this opportunity to read what some sci-fi writers and critics consider among the best, if not the best, sci-fi novel to date. You’ll find it jam-packed with action, wildly inventive, paced fast, insightful and prescient for its time, and too boot exceptionally well written. It’s a novel about a man driven to the ends of the solar system, and ultimately beyond, by his thirst for revenge, loosely patterned after Dumas’ The Count of Monte Christo.

    Our world in the 25th century has greatly expanded to include colonization on the inner planets Mars and Venus and the Outer Satellites, certain moons of Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. In this century, the Inner Planets are at war with the Outer Satellites and the O.S. appear to be winning. Giant hereditary cartels comprise the controlling powers of the I.P., the Morses, Peenemundes, Essos, Greyhounds, Colas, and others, but the most powerful and ruthless is Presteign. People jaunt, that is mentally teleport their physical bodies from one location to another memorized location by force of will (the maximum being a thousand miles). Giant ships traverse the solar system carrying passengers, goods, natural minerals exploited from the plants and moons, and human slave cargo.

    Gulliver (Gully) Foyle is not among the rich. He’s a toiler, big, strong, naturally intelligent but unmotivated and completely raw in action and manners. After a prologue that sets the scene in the 25th century and hints at the great civilization altering skill this man will eventually unleash, we meet Gully trapped on a wrecked freighter, the Nomad. He struggles to stay alive for months, until another ship passes within signaling range, the Vorga, a Presteign vessel. Though it sees his distress flares, it passes him by. In that moment, he gathers up all his energy, recruits all his raw intelligence and aims it toward survival and most particularly finding and taking vengeance on the crew and captain of the Vorga.

    After using his ingenuity to fix the Nomad enough to limp into the asteroid belt, the Scientific People pick him. They live on a rock enhanced with the hulls of scavenged ship parts and consider themselves, though primitive, ruled by science. They restore and accept him and, as their custom, tattoo his face (Maori style) and marry him to a girl named Moira. He finds a small ship among the those fastened into the asteroid, repairs it, and blasts off, ripping out a part of the little world, without regard to the destruction or death he may have caused.

    Next, he ends up in a hospital in New York undergoing jaunt therapy with others, guided by Robin Wednesbury. She’s a telesender but cannot receive, so in this world she is second class. She also harbors a deadly secret. Gully, for his part, can jaunt very well and uses his ability and time to gather information on the Vorga. He finds the ship and attempts to destroy it, only to be captured by Presteign. Presteign is trying to find the Nomad because it carries 20 million credits and 20 pounds of PyrE, a psychokenetically ignited thermonuclear explosive, that could both end the war and civilization, while making more of a fortune for Presteign. Without telepaths available to extract the ship’s whereabouts from Gully, they send him to Gouffre Martel, an underground prison hospital in France. There he meets hot tempered, tough Jizbella (Jiz) McQueen. Together, they escape, but not before Gully learns of Nomad’s cargo. With Jiz’s help, he has the tattoo removed (though in times of extreme emotion it reappears). After, they find the Nomad and collect the 20 million credits and the safe holding the PyrE, but Gully jilts her.

    Years pass with the war worsening. The bright spot in all this is the The Four Mile Circus, the wild, strange entourage of Geoffrey Fourmyle of Ceres. When he arrives in town, spirits brighten. Fourmyle is a new Gully, reconstituted, with the help of Robin Wednesbury (and the 20 million), as an intelligent wit. He also wears a special body suit under his clothing that when activated allows him to move five-times faster than others, useful in the various skirmishes he often finds himself.

    Eventually, he finds the various crew members, all of whom perish, until he discovers who he has moved heaven and earth to discover. This turns out to be the lovely but cold, blind albino daughter of Presteign, Olivia, with whom he has fallen in love. This, along with additional startling information, breaks him. When the united parties of the Inner Planets plead with him to release the PyrE to him, he decides that rather than one group own it, all humankind should and then decide for themselves their own fate. After this, Gully learns of his most profound skill, another startling revelation and after much self pity and personal torture, finds his way back to the Scientific People, who receive him well. He wraps into himself and we are left with the hope he will reemerge a transformed man.

    Though this description might strike you as long, it merely outlines some of the twists and turns Bester devised, enough for several whole novels. And all of this, if you can believe it, in under 250 pages. Really, this is not to be missed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    a lot of cool ideas here (especially for the time), some boring tropes
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was phenomenal.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Horrendous, zero quality drivel, from start to end. It showed how bad it was from the first few pages, but then I made the mistake of forcing myself to read it to the end, just to discover why many people gave it good reviews.There is absolutely no reason I can think of why anyone might find this book enjoyable. It's one of the worst I've ever read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    For 1955, when this book was first published, this must have been earthshakingly original.
    But today, sixty years later, the ideas have filtered and subsumed through modern culture as to almost be clichéd. I don't know if I agree with the morality espoused by the main character, or find his development from one phase to another plausible, but it certainly was a fascinating read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Count of Monte Cristo in space. A different ending, though.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Despite, in spite or because of its dated quality, this is still a breathtaking adventure story of a future; a future where “jaunting” allows teleportation between known locations. Our story is about an everyman, Gully Foyle, a mechanic’s mate 3rd class on a 25th century spaceship within the solar system; an everyman who becomes a “tiger” (or driven protagonist), consumed by vengeance, along the lines of The Count of Monte Cristo. Bester maintains an adrenaline rush of relentless pacing, jumping from one scenario to the next, piling up characters, technologies and world building historical background to create a cracking story.If you have not read much science fiction, I would imagine that this is an excellent introduction. I read a lot of science fiction, many years ago, and so for me it’s an enjoyable adventure story, fantastic in the old fashioned sense of the word, but for me, it doesn’t stand out from other equally memorable SF books.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The non-stop adventure classic that you won't want to end -- and you won't ever forget! Well, certainly I recognised The Stars My Destination as a classic title, even in the 1980s when I read the most in the genre, but it seemed the gravitational attraction never was enough to pull me out of whatever trajectory I was already on. That changed when a paperback copy literally landed in my lap. And then, reading the prologue, I immediately recognised Bester's concept of Jaunting, somehow an idea vaguely recollected as stemming from a Golden Age short story I'd once read. The rest of the book, I suppose I must have read -- but I didn't recall any of it. So while it's true an important aspect of the book did stay with me all these decades, contra the cover blurb this isn't a story I didn't ever forget.Yet in the end I found the novel much better than all this might suggest. The achievement isn't centered in the conflict or character, though, it's the world-building. Bester tends to throw in enough ideas to launch three or four novels, but not center the plot around any of them. Each is strong enough to carry the story, but he's not as creative with his plotting or characters. The combination makes for a distinct reading experience, reminiscent of PK Dick, the space left unexplored as impressive as the words spent on them.Like Sturgeon's More Than Human, Bester relies on an impressive economy of prose. Essentially he sketches a series of separate scenes, which somehow together build a world that is much more realised and provocative than the "boy's adventure" plot itself conveys. I noted at various points potential influences on Banks, or Gibson, whose work I find more memorable and seek out deliberately. The connection may well be more about my reading experience, though, than about any similarities between them. I have Bester's Demolished Man on my recon list. After this re-read of The Stars My Destination, I'm more likely to pick it up.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Gully Foyle is my nameTerra is my nationDeep space is my dwelling placeAnd Deaths my destinationGully Foyle is the hero of Alfred Bester's The Stars my Destination and we first meet him trapped in a small air-locked compartment of a wrecked spaceship; he is the only survivor. The nursery jingle from his child hood passes through his ravelling mind. Bester's science fiction classic published in 1956 was so well known that in 1968 the Liverpool Poet Adrian Henri was able to publish a poem based on a section from the novel. Starting with the Chapter where Gully Foyle is imprisoned in the caves of Gouffre Martel in South West France:Gouffre Martel. DarknessUnder the rock and earth a voiceLying your tigerface blazing in the darkListening to herYour mind still trapped in the broken spaceshipFlaming man appearing like your vengeance On the beach, in the 3-ring cosmic circus Your scarred body your tattooed faceLeaping between Aldebaran and CeresEternity at your feet. The stars your destination The blurb on the front page of my kindle edition says "Considered by many to be the greatest single SF novel" - Samuel R Delaney. While I might not agree with that, even for novels in the "golden age" of 1950's science fiction it does combine many of the aspects that made this genre so popular with younger readers. It is a rip roaring adventure story, the hero is placed in a number of seemingly impossible situations, there is intrigue and mystery and a denouement that many would not see coming. In addition to this it has a central idea that has that sense of wonder that permeates the story. The idea that humans in the 25 century can "jaunt" that is can teleport themselves if they can know and remember the exact co-ordinates of their destination and their jumping off point. This relatively new discovery that most people can master with a bit of practice has led to social problems with people anxious to keep teleporters or jaunters out of their property. The 25th century finds the human race masters of the inhabitable worlds of the solar system, but greed and corruption has led to a society where the fittest are able to enjoy the limited resources.Gully Foyle is a 3rd class mechanic on a spaceship, he is devoid of ambition, but an incident where he is denied a rescue attempt when he is in a desperate situation has galvanised him to seek revenge and unlocked parts of his mind that has lain dormant. He embarks on a series of adventures and pits his wits against some of the most powerful men on earth, not always remaining one step ahead. His brute force carries him through, but there is plenty of collateral damage along the way. It is 1950's science fiction and so revenge is a driving force for many of the characters: it is a fast paced but sexism and racism is for the most part not too obvious, but it is a thriller and so character development is not a prime consideration. There is much going on and Bester's fertile imagination and ability to move the action along and create some good situations make this an exciting read. 4.5 stars.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Chaotic way of presenting the plot, a banal storyline having too much in common with 'The Count of Monte Cristo'.