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Novel Review: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester, 1953, 250pp
TLDR: Dick-like winner of the first Hugo, with lots of fun writer tricks.
I'm working through my Gollancz SF Masterworks collection, and (going chronologically at least for now) this is the next book up in terms of year published - 1953. It won the first ever Hugo, so that's quite something.
Initially, I was really wondering why. After a solid set up, things get really confusing for a time, and I had to keep back flipping to see if this new character had been introduced, yet. Eventually I got into the swing of things, and by the time we get to the end (250 pages in this edition) I found it was all tightly tied up in a bow. OK, now I can see it! It's really very much like a Phillip K Dick novel, an author I admire very much. It's a quirky murder mystery, sort of, except we know who did it (or do we?) and why (do we really?). The story is set in a vague future New York against a backdrop of social change, as Espies (you know, those people who have E.S.P.) aka Peepers are still relatively new and finding a niche in the world, while the world adapts to their presence.
Against this backdrop, rich industrialist Ben Reich decides he'd like to commit a murder. Only nobody commits murders anymore, because they'd be easily caught by the Peepers who work for the government. So he hires his own peeper to run interference against the peepers of the Man! And things get really strange, and a woman becomes a baby, and things explode, and for a time we can't decide who's winning this contest. And then it's all wrapped up, and a winner emerges - or does he?
Like any good PKD novel, we don't really know what's real and what isn't until the end. And maybe not even then! We also get quirky characters, like @kins, and on some pages the text is arranged to make a pattern you might puzzle out like Einstein. So yeah - I can see why it won the Hugo.
Terrible cover on this edition, though! I mean, really.
Comments
One I need to read. For some reason, I conflated this and The Stars my Destination (which is also a good book).