Alfred Bester’s ‘The Stars My Destination’: A Critical Companion by D. Harlan Wilson

(Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)

Reviewed by L.J. Hurst

How important is Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination in the history of sf? A couple of months ago I had the chance to find out when I thought that my hardback copy was lost and went online to buy another. That copy—fortunately found before I began reading D. Harlan Wilson’s Critical Companion—would have cost a fortune to replace. In money terms Stars (to abbreviate it) is very important. It is also not inappropriate a way to consider the book because one of the themes of the novel—and it has a number—is the persistence of finance capitalism. Money—or resources and what they can buy—is an engine of the story.

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Review from BSFA Review 19 - Download your copy here.