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jadelaporte's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexism, and Sexual assault
Minor: Racial slurs
mrsori's review against another edition
You hear ‘powerful/dangerous man’ and you can be sure there will be rape. Alas, there it is, just for the fun of it. (not even important for the story)
This book might be a classic, but for me it’s so cliche and crude that I can’t find any enjoyment in it.
This book might be a classic, but for me it’s so cliche and crude that I can’t find any enjoyment in it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault
Minor: Confinement, Gore, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, and War
jdnew18's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A tour de force of sci-fi concepts and ideas which leap out at the reader, often wholly unexpectedly, as they traverse through the story. This book is deceptive, starting off as a pulp novel, then rapidly progressing into a far higher form of art.
The gritty, vengeful, and unthinking main character undergoes a massive moral enlightenment via a dizzying yet balanced plethora of influences arising from both the cast and plot. The extremely fast pace and short length of this novel does not leave time for lengthy character monologues or introspections. Instead, the reader is simply strapped in for the ride - white knuckled, skin pulled back - their fate left to the seemingly indefatigable depths of the author's muse.
Enjoy!
The gritty, vengeful, and unthinking main character undergoes a massive moral enlightenment via a dizzying yet balanced plethora of influences arising from both the cast and plot. The extremely fast pace and short length of this novel does not leave time for lengthy character monologues or introspections. Instead, the reader is simply strapped in for the ride - white knuckled, skin pulled back - their fate left to the seemingly indefatigable depths of the author's muse.
Enjoy!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Sexism, Violence, and War
Minor: Rape and Suicide attempt
stabilesero's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Having read other reviews, but also personally wanting to read through the SF Masterworks series; I thought I was really going to struggle with this... I was pleasantly surprised.
As a female, yes, the tropes of a woman and how being a woman was a disadvantage throughout the book was a bit of a bore but it wasn't constantly shoved down my throat. It was mentioned to explain some of the characters. The use of girl rather than man when referring to female characters, I didn't feel could be looked into too much. It was the basic language of brutes.
This is the only book I have read so far with an anti-hero that I didn't immediately put down after 2 chapters.
It really is the sort of book that if you manage to detatch from the characters and think more about the themes and setting, it really is outstanding.
As a female, yes, the tropes of a woman and how being a woman was a disadvantage throughout the book was a bit of a bore but it wasn't constantly shoved down my throat. It was mentioned to explain some of the characters. The use of girl rather than man when referring to female characters, I didn't feel could be looked into too much. It was the basic language of brutes.
This is the only book I have read so far with an anti-hero that I didn't immediately put down after 2 chapters.
It really is the sort of book that if you manage to detatch from the characters and think more about the themes and setting, it really is outstanding.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and War
Moderate: Sexism and Xenophobia
Minor: Rape and Suicidal thoughts
funkbgr's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
mychekhov's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Gee whiz! Yet another vitriolic testament to how feral 1950s sci-fi turns me!
Propel yourself hundreds of years into the future (jaunt, if you will, Burning Man-style) to calendar year coordinates 2436 and you will find everything has changed (yay!) yet the worst of our social pretences remain the same (oh no!). ...Your sighs converse sympathy, so I must ask, Reader... why should you care? You might be Man, after all, which means from the minute of your birth until the hour of your death the theatre that is your life shall be staged within the margins of society's most important, stentorian texts, so to those loitering on the outside, to those who can only be seated in the orchestra or the balcony or the littered aisles betwixt every paragraph or page, what are they but the peanut gallery? Irrelevant, fodder, filler... an illusion, it must be! Conjured by the magician known as Writer penning these bountiful "classics"—the appellation bespeaks a quality of timelessness, yet still it remains a product of its time! Friend, Bester, Mr Writer, sir, what you are suggesting here in your fantastical fictional speculation (pullulated by bouts of evolutionary psychokinesis among other strange cosmogenic compounds both of the mystical and chemical properties), that is, what you have laid down the blueprints to; postulates the 25th century as no more than a futuristic Stonehenge, sociologically uninspired. And that, quite frankly, infuriates me. Like gutterboy Gully, I feel like swinging.
The most unseemly displays of Writer inaptitude are detailed as follows:
Propel yourself hundreds of years into the future (jaunt, if you will, Burning Man-style) to calendar year coordinates 2436 and you will find everything has changed (yay!) yet the worst of our social pretences remain the same (oh no!). ...Your sighs converse sympathy, so I must ask, Reader... why should you care? You might be Man, after all, which means from the minute of your birth until the hour of your death the theatre that is your life shall be staged within the margins of society's most important, stentorian texts, so to those loitering on the outside, to those who can only be seated in the orchestra or the balcony or the littered aisles betwixt every paragraph or page, what are they but the peanut gallery? Irrelevant, fodder, filler... an illusion, it must be! Conjured by the magician known as Writer penning these bountiful "classics"—the appellation bespeaks a quality of timelessness, yet still it remains a product of its time! Friend, Bester, Mr Writer, sir, what you are suggesting here in your fantastical fictional speculation (pullulated by bouts of evolutionary psychokinesis among other strange cosmogenic compounds both of the mystical and chemical properties), that is, what you have laid down the blueprints to; postulates the 25th century as no more than a futuristic Stonehenge, sociologically uninspired. And that, quite frankly, infuriates me. Like gutterboy Gully, I feel like swinging.
The most unseemly displays of Writer inaptitude are detailed as follows:
- Robin, subjected to Man-Writing-Woman syndrome, (Robin moreso, since she is Black, which must mean her only fortune in life is to be raped. Or something!)
- Olivia, a detestable daddy's princess, who equates being designated blind-at-birth to being a monster. (Admit to pitying an actual blind-since-birth person living in the real world, and friend, you will be stabbed, mind yourself.)
- Never matter the fact that organised religion has been abolished, outlawed, obsoleted, its remnant followers skirted and persecuted run underground like c.h.u.d.s et cetera, yet lesbians and 'catamites' are sneered at as floundering the boundaries of the respectable. Women still kept in 'purdah' as a common mores, the notion of undertaking the same positions of power her counterparts have monopolised for so long still unfathomable to the everyman in this groovy telekinetic future, I see! You'll be drawing in the constellations here, friend, because these dots are just not connecting.
But perhaps this is all just nitpicking! Nobody ever minds, see, especially not so much once you've separated the exciting space adventure out of the antiquated conjecturing stifling it. It simply cannot be helped. (Nobody can help the 1950s.) That title alone, "The Stars My Destination" manages to be one of the most romantic assemblages of words I've ever encountered, after all! imprinted on a revenge story that begs for anything but. And Gully's dysphoric lullaby, even in its original fatalistic phrasing, has a way of making one yearn hard for the future nostalgia.
Speaking of. I close off with my own little lullaby, the sentiment of which I attribute to Robin, a bird I believe would fly higher and far better were she wholly incapable of that silly thing called forgiveness.
I hate your whole four mile circus.
I hate your synthetic Commando suit.
I hate the stripes you hide.
I hate that fake noveau riche pride.
I hate Vorga and her sister Nomad.
I hate that blind white b*tch too.
And most of all, I hate you!!!
Jaunt off. That's what we'll be saying in the future, get it? Jaunt off.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Moderate: Ableism and Rape
fletchie's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
An absolute blast to read. The pace of this book is something to behold.
If you're interested in an old school sci-fi romp that feels like it could've been written yesterday, then here it is.
If you're interested in an old school sci-fi romp that feels like it could've been written yesterday, then here it is.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
itsnicholaslashay's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Trafficking, War, and Injury/Injury detail
capella's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Sexism
Minor: Racial slurs and Racism
lalu's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
read in 2020
It's the 24th century. Gully Foyle (who is less than average in every aspect) is the only survivor after the space ship where he works gets destroyed. When an other space ship turns a blind eye to his distress signals, a manic urge to get revenge rises within him.
What other writers would have told in 700+ pages, Bester condenses to 240. There is no time for doubts, no time for hesitation - I could feel how driven the protagonist is.
What bothered me a lot was that apparently gender norms didn't change one bit between 1950 and ~2350. There's even a woman who secretly works in a man's job.
Apart from that it was an interesting and well written book, it just didn't meet my personal taste.
It's the 24th century. Gully Foyle (who is less than average in every aspect) is the only survivor after the space ship where he works gets destroyed. When an other space ship turns a blind eye to his distress signals, a manic urge to get revenge rises within him.
What other writers would have told in 700+ pages, Bester condenses to 240. There is no time for doubts, no time for hesitation - I could feel how driven the protagonist is.
What bothered me a lot was that apparently gender norms didn't change one bit between 1950 and ~2350. There's even a woman who secretly works in a man's job.
Apart from that it was an interesting and well written book, it just didn't meet my personal taste.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Sexism, Violence, and Medical content
Minor: Rape