It's strange, buying a book mainly because a character in your favourite television show was named after the author, but that's probably the main reason I first picked up The Stars My Destination (also previously published under the title Tiger Tiger). This is another one of the books published in the Science Fiction masterworks series, though, so I suspected that I was in for a good ride, and I was right.
Gully Foyle is the sole survivor on his mostly burned-out ship. He is an uneducated nobody, surviving through sheer bloody-mindedness. He does not know how he came to be there. Eventually, he has a chance for rescue, but his would-be rescuer passes him by. At that moment, he vows revenge on those that passed him by, and in vowing and seeking his vengeance he becomes more than he was.
The central science-fiction premise around which the world is hung is the development (or rather discovery) of personal, instantaneous teleportation. With just the power of their minds, people can travel up to a thousand miles across the world. While the concept seems even more unlikely today than it did when the book was written, the society that Bester created around it rang very true, and I loved the way that he created the world where such a form of teleportation was possible.
Around this tenet, Bester also created a rich world where a number of other things were possible, and in this, Gully Foyle wanders and seeks his vengeance. He is helped and hindered along the way by a cast of characters with as much variety as I have come to expect from real life. There is a greedy, self-absorbed businessman who manages somehow to avoid many of the cliches that now hang around such a character; There is a woman who has grown so sick of the role that women are given in the world of instantaneous teleportation that she has turned to a life of petty crime; Then there is a poor teacher who has the negative qualities of telepathy (broadcasting her thoughts) without the benefits of being able to read minds.
And at the centre of it all is the determined Gully Foyle. He maintains his purpose throughout the story, even when it is difficult to believe that any real person would. But somehow, he forces himself to ambition when he is given a hook for his vengeance, and he channels all that energy towards getting what he wants. He doesn't care that it makes people along the path hate him for it, and he happily uses them to get what he wants. However, throughout the character grows from a down-and-out to an intelligent, well-educated human being, who has every possibility. It is strange watching how such a destructive force as revenge builds an incredibly intelligent and resourceful man out of a nobody, but in the pages of The Stars My Destination, it is pulled off with immense skill.
The story was brilliantly told, and I greatly enjoyed the simple (but not bare or too utilitarian) prose. The plot was rich, interesting and compelling, encouraging me with each step to read on. It was the kind of compulsion that I had missed in the Deptford Trilogy, in fact, though I will not state that the book stands as well as Great Literature. Importantly, the characters and story all rang true, once the central tenets had been accepted with a pinch poetic license and I can well see why this book has made it into the science fiction masterworks.
It almost seems bad form to comment upon the books flaws, but I probably should. Most of them stem from the fact that the book is quite dated; it was written some time ago and the views on society, women and science are a little out of date by now. This book has perhaps not stood the test of time as well as some science fiction books. Equally, though, in my opinion it has lasted better than some, and I can forgive a lot when I take into account that it was written a long time before the present day.
In the end, the story is made by the brilliance of the main character; and while I do not necessarily believe that anyone is capable of anything they set their mind to, Gully Foyle rings true as a character who does pull off that feat, and as such I found him inspirational, even though his motivation was questionable.
As you can probably tell, I enjoyed this book... and I think that most science fiction fans will. I do not think it has yet supplanted any of my top favourites... but perhaps that is only because my favourites haven't lasted through fifty years of time taking a completely different path to that which the writers expected.
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Review of 'The Deptford Trilogy' by Robertson Davies
Starting in the small Canadian village of Deptford, this trilogy of novels follow the lives of three men whose lives started, or were greatly affected by, that village. The first is Dunstan Ramsay, a relatively unremarkable history professor, looking back over his life to an event that occurred in his tenth year and shaped much that happened to him afterwards. The second is a rich, highly respected lawyer, David Staunton, the son of Ramsay's old friend Boy Staunton. The third is Magnus Eisengrim, the greatest magician in the world, who was also born in Deptford.
These novels aren't the usual sort of thing I would read, and I cannot say that I would have ever come across them if they hadn't been recommended to me. However, they are very good books, and are certainly very well written. The characters are all well-rounded, and interesting. Each has a good story to tell, and each is well told. Throughout each book, there are a number of interesting themes, such as friendship, loyalty, myth and vengeance. They are dealt with skilfully and as each story develops, you see how each character has been shaped by his past.
While I can honestly say that I enjoyed these stories, I have more to say on the negative side than usual, and this is perhaps because I have stepped outside my reading comfort zone. However, I also mainly noticed flaws that I have picked up on (or that others have mentioned) about my own writing.
Firstly, all of the main characters were all incredibly intelligent and self-aware. This in itself is not a flaw, but there were very few characters bought to the fore in the whole story who did not meet this general description, which I feel lost something of the tapestry of life.
Secondly, all of the characters seemed to speak in the same, or very similar, voices. The consistency of tone was very good for the first story, where it was all told in first-person perspective from Ramsay's point of view. However, when all three of the stories were told in the same tone, it became less interesting and lost the characters some of their variety, especially in the third story, where other characters have a lot more to say. This is not to say that the narrative voice was dull; just that the style was a little too consistent between characters.
Thirdly, although I wanted to read on, and was interested in the outcomes of all of the stories, this book was not what I would describe as a page-turner. Usually stories that interest also grab me, to a lesser or greater extent. For the Deptford Trilogy I wanted to read on, but I was not compelled in the same way as for many ripping yarn stories.
However, at no point did I consider stopping reading the book; throughout I wanted to find out what happened, it just took me a lot longer than some books. The first book introduced me to a cast of characters who had enough variety to intrigue (earlier comments notwithstanding). There was also a considerable amount of extraneous knowledge and information dotted around the plot. The second book, especially, taught me a few things that I didn't know, while exploring the life and character of the subject of that novel, David Staunton.
I've thus finished this omnibus with mixed feelings. The threads that pull all three stories together are intriguing and the characters and tales are very strong, and quite believable, even in their most fanciful moments. It was definitely strong literature, very cleverly and well written. However, while the book was entertaining enough, it just wasn't as gripping as I wanted it to be, so I found it took me a very long time to read.
If, like me, you prefer ripping-yarn stories that pull you through on tenter-hooks, and have a plot that grabs you, you may find, like me, that the Deptford trilogy is a surprisingly good read, but not precisely your cup of tea. If, however, you are very much into fictional life-stories and semi-historical fiction, I think that this is a fine example of its kind, and you will probably enjoy it greatly.
These novels aren't the usual sort of thing I would read, and I cannot say that I would have ever come across them if they hadn't been recommended to me. However, they are very good books, and are certainly very well written. The characters are all well-rounded, and interesting. Each has a good story to tell, and each is well told. Throughout each book, there are a number of interesting themes, such as friendship, loyalty, myth and vengeance. They are dealt with skilfully and as each story develops, you see how each character has been shaped by his past.
While I can honestly say that I enjoyed these stories, I have more to say on the negative side than usual, and this is perhaps because I have stepped outside my reading comfort zone. However, I also mainly noticed flaws that I have picked up on (or that others have mentioned) about my own writing.
Firstly, all of the main characters were all incredibly intelligent and self-aware. This in itself is not a flaw, but there were very few characters bought to the fore in the whole story who did not meet this general description, which I feel lost something of the tapestry of life.
Secondly, all of the characters seemed to speak in the same, or very similar, voices. The consistency of tone was very good for the first story, where it was all told in first-person perspective from Ramsay's point of view. However, when all three of the stories were told in the same tone, it became less interesting and lost the characters some of their variety, especially in the third story, where other characters have a lot more to say. This is not to say that the narrative voice was dull; just that the style was a little too consistent between characters.
Thirdly, although I wanted to read on, and was interested in the outcomes of all of the stories, this book was not what I would describe as a page-turner. Usually stories that interest also grab me, to a lesser or greater extent. For the Deptford Trilogy I wanted to read on, but I was not compelled in the same way as for many ripping yarn stories.
However, at no point did I consider stopping reading the book; throughout I wanted to find out what happened, it just took me a lot longer than some books. The first book introduced me to a cast of characters who had enough variety to intrigue (earlier comments notwithstanding). There was also a considerable amount of extraneous knowledge and information dotted around the plot. The second book, especially, taught me a few things that I didn't know, while exploring the life and character of the subject of that novel, David Staunton.
I've thus finished this omnibus with mixed feelings. The threads that pull all three stories together are intriguing and the characters and tales are very strong, and quite believable, even in their most fanciful moments. It was definitely strong literature, very cleverly and well written. However, while the book was entertaining enough, it just wasn't as gripping as I wanted it to be, so I found it took me a very long time to read.
If, like me, you prefer ripping-yarn stories that pull you through on tenter-hooks, and have a plot that grabs you, you may find, like me, that the Deptford trilogy is a surprisingly good read, but not precisely your cup of tea. If, however, you are very much into fictional life-stories and semi-historical fiction, I think that this is a fine example of its kind, and you will probably enjoy it greatly.
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