In Stephen King's introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2007, he has a throwaway line suggesting that anyone not reading books by Alfred Bester should do so. So I did, specifically a novel entitled The Stars My Destination. Now science fiction isn’t my favorite genre, but I did find a few things worth mentioning.
1) The book took me way out of the 1930s; it's set in the 25th century, where some things aren't all that different.
2) A woman complains, "After a thousand years of civilization … we're still property. (page 74) Sigh. Apparently there's so little hope for advancement.
3) Not surprisingly, there's an ongoing war. "It became evident that the last of the World Wars was done and the first of the Solar Wars had begun." (page 123) Sigh. Apparently there's so little etc.
4) "Thirty worshippers of assorted faiths were celebrating the New Year with a combined and highly illegal service. The twenty-fifth century had not yet abolished God, but it had abolished organized religion." (page 145) Guess some would consider that a step in the right direction.
All in all, the book was okay. Like I said, sci-fi isn't really my thing. I did however notice that Bester also wrote The Rat Race, which I remember as a book and movie in the late 1950s or early '60s. I might give it a try.
