The Demolished Man

A murder mystery with a telepathic sci-fi twist, Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man is a brisk, engaging read that feels more "modern" than its early 1950s copyright date. The future world that Bester sketches in around his mystery is believable and interesting, and there's a little bit of future slang that is fun and retroactively reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange. I particularly like the way Bester depicts telepathic conversations with typographical formatting that capers across the page much like an e.e. cummings poem. Some of the psychology seems a bit weird, there's a big talking-head info-dump conclusion in the last chapter (but this happens in a lot of murder mysteries), and a few other small detriments to the novel, but overall this is a compelling story worthy of its status as a sci-fi classic.