Sable Aradia
1/3/2016
Wow! What an intense book!
I started this book for the Science Fiction Masterworks book club I've organized, and I waited patiently until the very end of 2015 to start it, especially since I was also working on a reading challenge I wanted to finish by the end of 2015. But once I picked it up, I simply could not put it down. The writing is electric, even pyrotechnic. It starts out with awesome and it just keeps adding more awesome onto awesome.
The book starts with a prologue that explains that someone discovered that when threatened with imminent death people have the ability to "jaunte"; that is to say, to teleport over short distances. Eventually the trick of the ability becomes something that everyone can do and so culture and society must adapt.
Cue our opening scene, in which Gully Foyle, our protagonist, a common labourer, has survived in space for 170 days after his ship, the Nomad, has been blown to smithereens, existing in the one airtight space left -- a storage locker the size of a coffin -- which requires him to go out every few days to loot an oxygen tank, food and water; the catch being that he has only five minutes of air to breathe, since the attachments for air tanks on his duck-taped spacesuit are damaged.
Have I got your attention yet? Alfred Bester sure got mine! You can't imagine where this story goes or how it ends from this starting point. The action never stops and all the while the protagonist, and every other significant character be it friend or foe, is realized in such exquisite detail that you never once doubt their motivations and you sympathize with all of them, no matter how cruel they get; and believe me, they can get Game-of-Thrones-cruel!
Bonus points: while I have noted many times that you often have to read 1950s science fiction with a grain of salt in that women generally seem to be present to be sex toys or, at best, love interests for the protagonist, this book does not suffer from that one whit. Bester's female characters are complex and strong and vulnerable at turns. They are every bit as beautifully human as the men and I love them.
Extra bonus points: no jarring moments of obsolete technology to take you out of the illusion. Not a one.
Every science fiction fan needs to read this book, especially if you love space opera. I want to write like this when I grow up.