The Demolished Man

After hearing so many good things about this book, I decided to give it a try. From the very first paragraph, one should be able to see why this book got the first Hugo award. A comic-book style? In a novel? Sounds unlikely, but all those exclamation points and italicized type really add flavor to this work and draw you in. Also, one couldn't hope for a much better beginning to a novel. Let me put it this way: if you're ever stuck overnight in the airport, this is the type of book you want: fast moving (Jet! Rocketing!). And I particularly admire how Bester shows how the telepaths are transmitting all at the same time by scrambling their conversations all over the page, as if some kid had gotten hold of the book and cut the sentences out with scissors, then recklessly rearranged them.
Unfortunately, this book failed to exceed or meet my expectations, and this is mostly because some time ago I had read a Science Fiction Mystery that just blew me away: Philip K. Dicks's A Maze of Death. Bester was really going somewhere with the beginning of his book, but as I read further, I felt as though the book was losing momentum, perhaps nearing . . . Demolition. And in my mind, the END of a book is what really should be good, because that is the last thing the reader reads. The end of The Demolished Man, although good, can't possibly hold up against the ending that PKD revealed in A Maze of Death.

I first read this as a teenager, from a compilation of sci-fi novels given me for my birthday. I still remember being compelled to read it until the last possible moment before my eyes finally gave in to sleep, every night, for a week, until I finished it.
Sometime in the intervening years, I must have mislaid the book, but I still get flashes from it now and then - "Tenser, said the Tensor, Tenser, said the Tensor, Tension, Apprehension, and Dissention have begun!". Despite several hunts for the book, I could never find it - but an idle browse on the store.com, and four weeks later, I just received my copy. I can't wait.
There's very little I can add to what the other reviewers have said, except to say that I'm not someone who ever really 'raves' about anything, retaining instead a healthy scepticism; that is, unless I find something truly astonishing, truly a seminal work of art. The Demolished Man may have flaws - the characterisation isn't of the highest order - but the complete realisation of this future world, the utter imaginative force that brings ESPers to life, the incredible portrayal of psychic conversation (it really does do something to your head), all make this a novel with few equals, and a sci-fi novel unrivalled. Buy it, borrow it, steal it, just make sure you read it at least once in this lifetime.

Terrific sci-fi from the Golden Age -- a whole lot livelier, wittier, and more engrossing than most of the hard-edged output of the period. Moreover, it is a compelling excursion into detective fiction. Bester posits a society in which crime is almost non-existent, because mind-reading detectives can prevent most crimes from ever being committed. One man manages to commit murder none the less, and the lead detective sets out to prove he did it. Bester creates a fascinating future world, where a low crime rate co-existing with a lot of interesting criminals manque. Lovely book, I've reread it about once a decade for altogether too many decades. In this decade, however, it may have different echoes -- a state, that watches you, alllllll the time -----

Powerful corporate executive Ben Reich attempts to get away with murder. He's opposed by mind reading police detective Lincoln Powell.
This book was a pleasure to read. Bester has a wonderful, crisp writing style that lends itself well to his quick-moving plot. Plot is the real focus of this story. Bester explores both the characters of Reich and Powell, but he never does so at the expense of the story.
Mind reading is Bester's key conceit in "The Demolished Man". In Reich's world, Espers, as they're called, are ranked into one of three groups based on their mind reading ability. Much of the plot revolves around both of the main characters trying to use mind reading to their advantage. Powell relies chiefly on his innate mind-reading ability, while Reich obtains the help of other Esper characters. Bester does a fantastic job of integrating this main concept into his story.
I always derive some amusement from the technology imagined in older sci-fi novels. For instance, why do the humans who have developed the technology to take quick flights to the moons of Jupiter, still use computers that read and write via tape?
Too many modern sci fi/fantasy authors write slow-moving, bloated books. The Demolished Man is the exact opposite -- succinct, fast paced, and engaging. I highly recommend it.

"The Demolished Man" can certainly be called one of the most tide-turning sci-fi novels.
Written in 1953, it tells the story of a society with two kinds of people: normal humans and telepathic humans, and of the conflicts that kind of society would induce.
Surprisingly, the conflicts are unbeliavably minor, and the issue of somebody opening your mind and raping your privacy is ignored almost completely.
Furthermore, the plot is as conventional as you can imagine. It feels lake a TV-movie thriller set in the future.
But it is eventually made clear to the reader that the plot isn't the point of the book.
We have two characters: the hunter and the hunted. The hunter is a stereotypical main character, the hunted is anything but.
We get to peek at the landscape of an obnoctious mind, while following the story, and the all-too-familiar crime plot is maybe a necessary contrast to the overwhwlming richness of the more deeper aspects of the book.
The writing is exellent, and the book, though relatively old, isn't ruined by faulty science, because it's sosiological and psychological science-fiction, instead of aliens and robots etc.
There are a few comical science aspects, though, and the books has the ultimate "And they lived happily ever after..." ending, wich doesn't work even as a contrast to the intriquingly dark atmosphere of the book.
And after everything, as it ends, the book leaves the reader with a feeling that the book had had much more to offer than it did.
A classic, no doubt, but not as good as it might have been.

It begins simply enough. A detective specializing in mindreading investigates the first murder in many years, in a society where everyone can detect thoughts of others to varying degrees. The unknown suspect is therefore thought to be skilled in masking his/her thoughts. The victim is a wealthy business owner. The suspect who quickly develops is a rival business owner struggling to compete with the victim's company. The ensuing cat and mouse pursuit between the detective and the suspect is brilliant, and fills much of the story. The stakes are high, as any murderer faces the ultimate penalty--demolition(destruction of personality). The action and suspense build forcefully, as events escalate. The reader knows early on who the guilty person is. But when the detective discovers the truth, he finds much more than he ever suspected. I was completely amazed with the complex and brilliant revelations at the end of this book. With a handful of pages Bester manages to turn an already intriguing story into a fascinating exploration of human identity and the powers of the mind. This book is like no other, and succeeds both as a suspense story and an intelligent, thought provoking experience. Need a larger scale to rate this one.

In a futuristic society, gazillionaire industrialist Ben Reich plans to murder his hated competitor D'Courtney, in this classic, but very hip-sounding piece of fifties-era science fiction. Complicating Reich's plan is the danger of being detected by the so-called "peepers" - that tiny minority of persons who have developed the ability to read minds. So he hires an ambitious peeper to help him, and thus begins a fast-paced, intricately swirling cat and mouse game between Reich and Police Inspector (and peeper) Lincoln Powell. The stakes are high for all involved, and nobody plans to lose, least of all Reich, for whom conviction will surely mean Demolition. A superb sci-fi mystery thriller, with an edgy, cyber-punk feel that was far ahead of its time.

That said, potential readers should be warned of a couple minor weaknesses. As often happens in genre fiction, the characters fall somewhat short of full development. Reich's monomania is very convenient, but the less deranged characters are pretty unconvincing, mere pawns in the bigger game. And Bester's attempts to bring in some Freudian psychological insights are clumsy at best. After the thrill of the actual murder, and the extended chase that follows, the surprises at the end tend to fall a bit flat. At that, they fare better than the romantic subplot, which is handled so badly as to be plain irritating.

But this is top-notch science fiction, fans of which will quickly recognize this as a classic of the genre.

I have been reading science fiction for the last twenty years. How is it that I missed out on this treasure?
"Demolished Man" sports a full-throttle driving plot that never lets up. Murder is the game. From page one to the end the story is utterly focused on the execution of a murder and the capture of a murderer. Very well written and spiced with psychic "peepers", it is very clear how this book became a classic.
However, this is not "hard" science fiction. The author tells us that there are people living on the moon, Ganymede, and Venus, but does not go into any detail at all as to how it was done. Sometimes we are asked to suspend our disbelief to a greater extent than normal. That aspect is not necessarily a drawback, just a point to be noted.
Bester's vision of the future is fascinating and quite racy at times, at least a PG-13 if not R. While the reader is not pummeled with "here's how the future looks" he does get tidbits here and there gracefully inserted into the narrative and dialog.
As good as it is, there are not really any deeply probing points that prompt introspection or philosophical meandering. It's more like a roller coaster, just good fun.

A hugely entertaining classic of science fiction. The book's central characters -- a wily, outwardly-respectable murderer and the detective trying to prove his guilt -- play a fascinating cat-and-mouse game, and one is often left cheering for the resourceful mouse. Mixed into the story is the notion that the detective is telepathic -- as are hundreds of thousands of other people. This oddity is handled with such skill as to seem almost conventional: Bester's world of "Espers" (ESP-ers) is carefully thought out and quite believable.
Aside from a (very) few obsolete terms and some pop psychology reminiscent of the movie "Forbidden Planet," the novel wears its age well. No reader need fear its 1950s vintage. In addition, there is almost none of the tedious social commentary that so badly mars "The Stars My Destination," Bester's other well-known novel. For any fan of science fiction or detective stories, "The Demolished Man" is an intelligent treat.

This is simply a must read for any serious reader of science fiction. It changed the way SpecFic was written, and what it tended to deal with. The subject matter was decades ahead of the field of the time, and so to this day it stays current. It might not be as "slick" as some other cyber-punk novels, but Bester wrote this 30 years before cyber-punk was even named, and so this fast paced adventure full of twists, and surprises still fills the bill. Everyone should read this book, if they want to understand where any writer since Bester is coming from, since this book influenced everyone since, and set the mark for others to best. It took some time, but it has been achieved, but there is still place for this book. You can't predict what will happen next, and the ending will really leave you thinking. All in all this is very interesting book. So enjoy, because after you finish it you won't look at SF in the same way. (Especially when you realize when this was written.)

Alright, so this was not crime and punishment, but that is exactly why I picked it up. Every once in a while I get the itch to read something that is Science Fiction, but I find it hard to find sci-fi books that are my style. I prefer the sci-fi I read to be interpretations or depictions of our future (as in the future of "Earthlings." For example, I really liked 'Farenheit 451' (~Bradbury) and 'Brave New World' (~Huxley). This book was exactly what I like to read. Despite taking place in a future where ESP is a skill you'd have on your resume, this book contained well-developed, "real" characters. The psychological development of the characters was excellent. You get a good sense of Ben Reich's myriad of feelings as he tries to pull off a crime that is virtually impossible to pull off. The mistakes he makes, the effort he goes through to escape his antagonist, the emotions he feels as he's being pursued...all make for a fast-paced storyline (I read this book in one evening all in one sitting). There is so much I could say about this book, but if I had to pick one thing that I really enjoyed it was the sense of chase...you're on edge to see if Reich gets away with murder. In that sense it really made me think about Farenheit 451 (which could've been why I liked it so much). Overall, this book had solid characters and a good theme...I recommed it.

The Demolished Man is my first Alfred Bester novel. And I was very impressed with it. It has the delicious characteristics of being a mystery novel in a futuristic (24th century) science fiction setting. A great story that is also very competently written.
As for the story, we are in New York City a few hundred years in the future. Mankind has evolved to the extent where there is a substantial number of people with mind-reading (ESP) capabilities. These people are somewhat segregated from the main populace, unionized, and serve specific roles in society. Because of the difficulty of keeping secrets with such people around it seems that society benefits greatly from their presence.
Yet there is a power-hungry man who has rather forceful and nasty ambitions. He is not adverse to using anyone, including the ESP-enriched individuals, to his own self-interests. Then he gets involved with a murder, and a super mind-reading cop enters the fray. Mix this with some rather intriguing dream sequences and you have a wonderful reading experience.
Bottom line: a terrific early science fiction masterpiece. Strongly recommmended.

Crimes like murder have been eliminated because the world is rife with telepaths - it's impossible to hide one's guilt from mindreaders. There's even a ranking system for telepathic abilities and the more powerful one is, the more privacy she'll have. After all, who wants to live on the other side of an apartment wall from a telepath who uses you for entertainment when radio and television become boring.

In light of this world when a man decides to commit murder he must be determined, intelligent, and wealthy. That's what Ben Reich is. He knows who to bribe, whose help to obtain, and how to do the deed.

Great Science Fiction stands up to time and this is great Science Fiction. Written today few changes would be necessary and the plot and characters would remain unchanged. A very good read.

One of the most heart-wrenching moments in my life was when I gave my copy of "The Demolished Man" to a friend. But I loved it so much that I knew "letting it go to a good home" was the right thing to do.
Ben Reich is one of the most memorable characters in all of SF. He's attractive, charming... and very, very devious.
Lincoln Powell could be considered the hero of this novel. He's no Ben Reich -- but he's strong enough to hold his own. No mean feat.
When I reread this one recently, I was surprised by the style. How could I have forgotten that funky, urban style? Bester's typographic tricks are at the best in "The Demolished Man."
And you know an author is good when they name a major character after him on Babylon Five!
Anne M. Marble Reviewer, All About Romance

"The Demolished Man" by Alfred Bester won the first-ever Hugo Award, and it's obvious why it did. Extremely well written in a cyber-punk/comic book style, this book was revolutionary when it appeared in the 1950s, and remains fresh 50 years later. Fascinating idea, executed with style and panache, this book ranks up there among the best science fiction books ever, and a must read for anyone who likes that genre. Amazing. Still, having said that, I have to agree with another reviewer who points out that this is NOT Bester's best book, and that just about everything done so well in "The Demolished Man" is done even better in Bester's all-time classic, "The Stars My Destination."
As usual, Bester explores themes of power, the human mind, personal freedom and privacy (in a world where telepaths can read your thoughts and where crimes can be detected before they happen), politics, high and low society, money, the nature of truth and reality, sanity, and the grayness of morality. All this is even more impressive given that the book was written during the paranoid, good vs. evil, democracy vs. communism, Joe McCarthy red-baiting 1950s. In fact, "The Demolished Man" can be read on one level as a clever commentary on/"demolition" of that strange decade. As in "The Stars My Destination," Bester writes in a highly entertaining, creative, and unique way, with unexpected - and often subtle - humor, plays on words and language in general, and song lyrics which are guaranteed to drive any telepath far away from your thoughts ("Tenser, said the Tensor. Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun.").
This is not a perfect book, with obvious flaws in the plot and a somewhat contrived ending, but these are relatively minor problems. Overall, this is a work of soaring imagination and style, and I highly recommend it to everyone. So, go out and get this book, before the countdown ends - "Four, sir; three, sir; two sir; one!"

Written fifty years ago, Bester's story gives us another tactic for polishing man's morality-human Espers or peepers who can read the minds of would be liars, cheats and murderers. However there is always a method for circumventing the truth. In this case it was the constant recitation of a musical jingle (a similar device was used in Helperin's TRUTH MACHINE). The peepers are presented as the keepers or priests of man's morality in spite of fact that several of them broke their vows in search of money or power. It is strongly suggested that in the evolution of man, development of esp powers will become essential for peace.
Although there were satellite villages, space travel, high tech weaponry and artificial intelligence framing the story, I kept realizing that I was only reading a psychological, murder mystery. The futuristic setting wasn't really essential. The title may easily have been THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE, the murderer's recurring dream and hallucination. The ending flows into the realm of Freudian theory and repressed guilt. The title, THE DEMOLISHED MAN, refers to a total reprogramming of a man's brain, whereby criminal traits can be erased as the subject receives a second chance at life. The most I can muster is three stars.

Many reviewers tell of the plethora of new and interesting ideas in this novel, which was ground breaking for 1951. Yes, the ideas are still fresh but, as has been pointed out, there are many holes in the ideas concerning Espers (a new evolution of mindreading humans). Put that aside and you have a great early sci-fi novel that rivals that of Asimov or any other of their contemporaries and a pretty good mystery to boot.

A part of the book that impressed me was that the climax was strung out for such a long duration. For the last one-hundred pages I kept thinking that there could not possibly be more, but Bester surprised me again and again.

I highly recommended this for those looking for their Sci-fi roots.

Yeah, you read correctly: This book won the first Hugo award in 1953! If that's not enough already to make you want to read it, try this on for size: This book is about as unique as you can get. Bester talks about telepathy, and everyone's "pattern" mixing. The way Bester uses the page to give visual aid is really neat. He uses some of the same techniques in a few of his other books, like "The Stars My Destination." This was the first Bester book that I read, and since then have gone on to read pretty much everything else he's written. It's all really awesome, and is very original! It's easy to see where everyone else has jacked Bester's ideas. If you're into sci-fi (or not, doesn't matter!), you NEED to read Bester's works! Start with this one!

What my fellow reviewers seem not to realize (I didn't read them all but the first dozen didn't mention it) is that this is a remake of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. It essentially turns on the cat-and-mouse dynamics of the murderer who wrongly believes that he has the courage to stand outside the flow of human kind and the detective who is enigmatic in his capacity to represent the banal morality that turns out to be deeper than that which would transcend it.

Like C&P, this work is often heavy handed, as was typical of mid-20th c. high-class sci fi. But it is inventive and prescient, as we move to a world in which brain scans can detect the increased oxygen consumption of the lying brain. It doesn't have the incredible tightness of Bester's masterpiece, The Stars My Destination. But some parts are wonderful--I won't give it away, but the jingle is worth pondering--and it is a reasonable place to explore fundamental questions of motivation, hurt, crime and repentance.

The strange ending involves a deepening of the relation between cat and mouse and it might at first seem implausible. The one thing you should know if you are a lawbreaker, it would seem, is that the cop is not your friend. Bester's reply isn't so much to question "who is really your friend" but who are "you"? Is a motivation you don't understand and don't want really part of you in the first place? If it could be removed like a growth from your body, wouldn't that be good? Wouldn't the person who did that be your truest friend, even if the you-minus-motive wasn't you at all? [44]

Bester demonstrates what is missing from modern science fiction writing. He creates a glimpse to a future world where a minority of the population has telepathic powers. He introduces us to this world by writing in a style that shows us the incredible speed in which a thought conversation would occur. This novel is both fun and fast paced, but it is the "clipped" pace of the telepathic communication that drives this novel into the "must-read" category. The story is a classic one. A murder and then a cover up. The villain, the richest man in the solar system. The hero, a top level PSI detective. The investigation, is one of move and counter-move, on a chessboard that includes the entire solar system. The society that he portrays is a decadent society, where money buys influence. A world not so removed from ours. This novel, a tad dated in its treatment of women, is still relevant and enjoyable to audiences, fifty years later. Bester isn't just a forgotten founding father of science fiction, here is an artist.

Bester crafts a world without real characters or much in the way of drama as such. The plot is mundane and the interactions flat. The pointless verbosity detracts from an otherwise excellent style. It is an excellent example of why Sci-fi as a serious medium of literary purpose took so long (some might say taking so long) to mature. Lost in the literary muddle is the exceptional at the time concept, that if humans evolve to a state where psychic ability is real and useful, it will be an evolution, not a flip of a switch. To present an evolutionary perspective, in that space-time would have generated enormous discussion, or at least one hopes it did. Deistic optimism is an odd contrast to the expected defiance.

I love "The Demolished Man." Especially the first half, with its spectacular double-search and the way Bester lays in some careful misdirection that enables him to hide a major plot clue in plain sight (I won't reveal more).

It's an SF story that could be made into a pretty darn good non-SF crime/action movie. Yet in some ways SF and ESP are essential to TDM, because it's overtly about transformation into a society in which people finally can know each other in perfect brotherhood. TDM's society is nearing this goal but not there yet, so an alternative (if overstated and klutzy) title might be: The Last Murderer.

Also, doesn't Detective Lincoln Powell have a certain divinity about him as he strives for inclusion of everyone into this better world? (Well, he tries hard, and he also seems to be able to control animals...)

Finally, unlike 99% of crime novels, TDM is interested in the guilty party's fate and redemption (rather than just sending them to the Big House). That's where the "demolished" of the title comes in (what demolition is, is one of the story's secrets). Some readers may not find the ending as redemptive as Bester must have intended it, but I'd argue that it fits the universe of this crime/detective story, a story that is--surprise--humane.

Off-track note: Isn't the book's brief prologue about how events reoccur over and over, a nod to a Nietzsche concept?

Even 49 years after its initial publication, The Demolished Man still stands as a true science fiction novel. The story of Ben Reich living in a future world where mind reading is a commonality amongst a group known as 'Espers.' In a world without crime, for one can know when you will commit one, how is one to go about plotting a murder? Ben Reich has the perfect plan. This book captivated me from beginning to end when I read it 10 years ago and I continually reccomend it to those that enjoy science fiction. Author, Alfred Bester, won the first Hugo Award for Science Fiction for The Demolished Man. In my opinion this book is still the hallmark of science fiction novels, unfortunately, however, Bester himself is so unheard of in many literary circles and more so in the general public. I highly reccomnend this book for anyone who has a flare for science fiction.

The Demolished Man was the first novel to win the Hugo award. The book has everything: plot, strong characters. In the future, to committ a crime is an impossible task, due to all those telepaths running around. In case somebody do committ a crime, there is no prison ,what they do is just swipe your mind clean. However, Ben Reich decided that he will committ a crime anyway, He is even hired a telepath to help him to block his thougths. This is actually more the detective novel developing in Futuristic scenario. The Demolished Man is a novel of the future, where along with all new ways of life and powerful technology, only one thing remains unsolved: the mystery of human soul.
P.S. Also if you like this novel read The Stars, My Destination. I think, this is the best novel Alfred Bester written.

(First, just to make something clear: this book has no connection to the Snipes/Stallone stinker movie _Demolition Man_.)
Bester's first novel (after years of short stories, comics, and radio) also won the first Hugo Award, and deserved it. This is cyberpunk mayhem thirty years before anyone invented the term, a lightning ride through language, deception, and murder. The book I find it most closely resembles is Paul Cain's crime thriller _Fast One_, duplicating its speed and moral relativism.
In Bester's imagined future, Espers (telepaths) make murder impossible to commit, so mad industrialist Ben Reich just has to find a way to get away with it. The plot follows policeman Lincoln Powell, a powerful esper, in his quest to nail Reich, and Reich's delirious evasions. At stake may be the whole of society.
I have only one negative thing to say for this book: it still isn't as good as Bester's other great novel, _The Stars My Destination_. Buy both of them today and plunge into the best of science fiction.

Alfred Bestler has been credited for planting some of the seeds of cyberpunk, blossoming decades later with writers like Gibson and Sterling. The Demolished Man is the first of his two sci-fi novels, written during the fifties.

It is clear that this is his first novel - there are occasional clumsy passages in the book; Bester is not at all subtle when probing the thoughts of his characters. "Character X glared, angry over the way Character Y had ignored his question." and so on.

The plot surpasses the occasional clumsiness of the novel, however, and the further you read, the stronger the writing becomes. I have not had so much difficulty putting down a novel for years. Every chapter begged me to read the next. I found myself caring about the fate of the two protagonists, one an almost too squeaky-clean cop, the other an impassioned, violent murderer.

It is about life, death, survival, and where morality fits into these raw places in the heart.

If you enjoy reading sci-fi novels that explore the darker side of the human heart, and can forgive the author (as I could) the occasional lack of subtlety, you will greatly enjoy this novel. It is a fantastic story of telepathy, intrigue, murder, and the human condition.

Any writer that can tell a tale of two opposing forces without ever fully casting one as the "villian" and the other as the "hero" is doing a damn fine job.

I have just finished reading this book, and I must say that it was an excellent story - very well written. After reading several of the reviews presented here, all I should need to say is "It's a great story. If you like a good mystery, which happens to be in a sci-fi setting, read this book."

Okay, so why are you still reading this? Order it, borrow it, but get it and read it. That's all you need to know.

But for those who are not able to get it, it's two in the morning, the stores and libraries are closed, read on.

I decided to read this book based upon the hours on the internet trying to find a couple of really good sci-fi books, and this one kept popping up. So I got a used copy and began to wade through the first several chapters. It was a difficult read at first; Bester chucks the reader into his story without much to hang on to. I felt rather disoriented, he uses non-words which sound like something, and seem to fit, but you won't find them in any dictionary. Plus he, very quickly into the story, forces you to listen to several telepaths thinking to/with each other, at the same time - like being at a party with everyone speaking at once, and he pulls it off very well. And if you read the first several chapters carefully, slowly, maybe more than one time... it' almost like a boot camp for the rest of the book. I wanted to put it down a couple of times, but I'm glad I didn't.

The chapters are divided up into smaller sections so it's a good book if you can only read in short spirts, like I often have to. Although I found myself taking it with me because of the story's quick pace, and wanting to see what happens next. Like I stated, if you like to read/watch mysteries, then you will love this book. It was easy to "watch" the story unfold in my mind, allowing me to "participate" in the story. And as I read, it kept getting better and better, and especially to the very satisfying end. One of the best, complete, endings I have read or seen in a very long time. Satisfying. Not wimpy, or simply fading or pooping out.

One more thing...there are those who have difficulty with the technology mentioned in this book, and as with other well matured books. References to transistors, rockets or other tech which are the stuff childplay. One review I read, I don't remember if it was for this book, gave one star solely because of the old technology. What needs to be understood is, the items of technology are props. They are there as objects used to further the plot. Granted, if the plot is about the technology as a means to an end, then it gets a little sticky. But whether I'm watching Buck Rogers going from here to there in his space ship suspended by wires, or watching Han Solo going through hyperspace in the Millennium Falcon, it doesn't, or shouldn't, make any difference - they're props used as a convention, a means, to further the plot. It's more exciting to see all the current or futuristic technology, but the story is the kicker.

Finally, I would love to see this book adapted into a movie. It would be a perfect story to be made into a movie (ie. Blade Runner, and if you liked that movie you'll love this book). Unfortunately, many great scifi stories made into movies, have been trashed - "I, Robot" or "Battlefield Earth" for example. But put in the right hands it would be a blockbuster.

Not Bester's Best. Written in 1951, The Demolished Man is actually a murder, suspense novel set in the distant future. The fairly weak plot has the main character, (an industrialist) murder his corporate opponent, even though no one has gotten away with a murder in 70 years. The reason is simple, the police prefect and a small but important segment of the population have ESP. The police prefect "cheats" and reads our killer's mind, thus confirming he is guilty, but then must spend 75% of the story coming up with non-ESP proof, because apparently ESP is not admissible in court. Anyway, the whole story was rather preposterous with a number of flaws. I daresay Demolished would not even still be in print if not for Bester's other work The Stars My Destination which is nearly perfect.

Alfred Bester wrote two of the best sci-fi novels of all time--The Stars my Destination and this one. Here, Bester presents the difficulties of murduring the corporate competition in a world patrolled by and littered with telepaths. The action is intense and the fact that one ends up rooting for the murderer to escape is testament to Bester's style.

This is a short, fun read that has held up to the test of time, fitting right in with William Gibson and friends.

NOTE: Strazinski used this novel as a template for creating his telepath community in the series BABYLON-5 (not to mention making the evil sci-cop Alfred Bester), so fans of the series should take a look at the original.

Winner of the inaugural Hugo Award in 1953, this sci-fi/murder mystery is currently in development in Hollywood under the auspices of Australian director Andrew Dominik. A groundbreaking and hugely influential book in many ways, it's aged quite well, with only a few hints here and there showing its age. That said, the story's got enough flaws to make it disappointing to those expecting a masterpiece. The premise is that in the future, a small part of humanity has developed telepathic abilities. These "Espers" (after ESP) or "peepers" have self-organized into a Guild (highly unlikely in an of itself) which controls most aspects of their lives. One of the consequences of this is that premeditated crime has mostly vanished due to these telepaths being able to sniff out plans before they ever happen, or else are able to solve crimes after the fact using their abilities to probe the minds of anyone involved. The upshot is that while there is the occasional murder, no one has successfully evaded capture in over seventy years.

Set mainly in New York, the plot concerns mega-industrialist Ben Reich, who decides he must murder his arch-rival in business in order to not be swallowed by his competitor. He's a bit of a megalomaniac, but figures that if he can corrupt a peeper to help mask his thoughts, he can get away with it if he's audacious enough. It seems unlikely that it would have taken seventy years for someone to try this out, but the Esper Guild penalty for aiding and abetting lawbreakers is ostracization. Despite the supposedly unbearable psychological effects of this, it seems like a rather flimsy excuse for a deterrent. Basically, wouldn't the "criminal" peepers just band together and form their own outlaw Esper Mafia? Another aspect of the peepers that is entirely glossed over is the high levels of resentment that would likely exist among "normals" whose most intimate thoughts and dreams would be available to any peeper walking down the street.

Anyway, the story proceeds with the details of the murderówhich in the best pulp fashion is witnessed by a beautiful girl who goes missing (how she turns up where she does is a mystery not answered). From there on it's a clever cat and mouse game, as the top peeper cop does his best to unravel Reich's careful subterfuge and pin the murder on him. Then the book takes a bit of a wacky turn for the worse, as Reich is revealed to be not just a murderer, but "the type of man" who only comes every few centuries or so, who can "bend society to his own reality". This is a crucial twist that is never well-explained and this vagueness really hurts the book. Bester does heavily rely on Freudian concepts of id, ego, and superego that were in major vogue at the time, and seems intent on making the point that one man really can create a new reality for the world. My own interpretationóand I'm surprised not to have run across it elsewhereóis that Bester was making a very unsubtle comment on Nazism and Hitler (who was only a few years removed from power when Bester wrote this). One only has to look at the name of the nightmare plagued, obsessive man at the heart of the story who dreams of a galaxy-spanning empire, óReich.

In any event, the book is notable for its innovative use of typography, no doubt a result of Bester's career in comics. This is crucial in portraying the telepathic communication used by the peepers, and works very well. The characters themselves are not at all well drawn, and the book suffers as a result. In addition to the plot, the dialogue also rings of the pulps, with snappy repartee and some nice slang thrown in. All in all, it's a pretty readable piece of sci-fi history, although not the amazing wonder that some make it out to be.

One of the masterpieces of modern science fiction (and considered one of the foundations of that genre) Alfred Bester's "The Demolished Man" is a gritty and thoroughly enjoyable look at the future. Espers - humans who have developed the ability to read minds - are able to stop murders before they occur, to the effect that there has not been a murder in nearly 100 years. (Philip K. Dick's "Minority Report" has similar subject matter, though it's handled very differently.) The story follows Ben Reich, an incredibly wealthy owner of an enormous corporation, in his attempts to "beat the system" and murder his business competitor without being detected.

Bester tells the story in a creative and unexpected way, building towards a lengthy (but never dull) climax, expanding our vision of the world along the way. When the conclusion comes it explains and wraps up what has come before, but not in an entirely satisfying way.

Still it's a clever and humorous (in a dark and slightly morbid way) look at the world of the future, full of memorable characters, concepts, and quotes ("Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun.") Very much worth reading.

In a future where crime has been made impossible to what lengths will Ben Reich go to rid the world of his rival? This ISN'T a murder mystery; you know exactly how the deed is done. The suspense is in watching how Reich is going to get away with it, especially in a world of telepathic adepts who can scan the minds of anyone and everyone. Alfred Bester's first novel, The Demolished Man is certainly a masterpiece of science fiction. More than a book, this is an experience that won't let you go until you're finished.

Lacks the humor and inspiration of "Stars My Destination", but still has some neat ideas. There are some disappointments, for the Powell character has an internal subplot that's kind of left daggling, and the resolution seems a little out of place and (annoyingly) naive. Probably suffers from ultra-hype, if you go into it with exceedingly high expectations (ala "The Greatest Science Fiction novel ever!!!") you'll be disappointed.

Lacks the humor and inspiration of "Stars My Destination", but still has some neat ideas. There are some disappointments, for the Powell character has an internal subplot that's kind of left daggling, and the resolution seems a little out of place and (annoyingly) naive. Probably suffers from ultra-hype, if you go into it with exceedingly high expectations (ala "The Greatest Science Fiction novel ever!!!") you'll be disappointed.

I read this book recently and I was furious. Because I hadn't read it sooner!! Why aren't you reading it right now? Call yourself a sci-fi buff??

Seriously, I was blown away at how immersive Bester's (thanks JMS, for honoring the author with your Babylon 5 psi-cop) novel about telepath culture and aberrant murder could be. Clever use of word structuring to signify telepath thoughts, intriguing characters, and deep issues of morality and what the world might be like if telepaths emerged. Superb.

“The Demolished Man,” for my money, is NOT Hugo level material SF. My guess is that those voting were happy to see an original idea, and something different from “space opera,” which much in the field until that time had been. PLEASE NOTE MY ADDENDUM at the END!!

As it happens...I've lately been doing some "catch-up" in delving into some of these "old days" sci fi that I seemed to have missed...in the fifties and sixties. No problem grabbing up the Heinlein, Asimov, Laumer, Simak, Sheckley, Phillip K. Dick, Haldeman....Frank Herbert novels and short stories...but Albert Bester and John Brunner seemed to have eluded me (though I kept hearing praises of their names). So, the works of these two authors have been on my "must do list" over recent years, as I've visited some good used bookstores. The verdict?

I think that these two authors have been greatly overrated. Not much here to "write home about"...and The Demolished Man" is merely a BIT better than some of the sci-fi around in the early fifties...well, I see a pretty good concept, essentially one dimensional characters, a more or less amateur writing style. Some value in terms of "historical interest," let us say, but "No Cigar," alas.

And, dammit, there WAS some excellent work being done...by folks like those cited above (though, yes, some of this may have been a bit later than TDM, and other Bester product). Were I a sci-fi publisher confronting this piece of work, I'd likely say, "Hey, young man...you have some superb ideas here. Give yourself a couple more weeks for a re-write, then come back and talk to me!!"

I stand abashed. Perhaps I’d been confusing author Alfred Bester with John Brunner (and perhaps—it dawns on me at a later date) I had somehow merely perused the first forty-odd pages, essentially giving them short shrift, and missing the essential premise and impact of the story). I have just-today--begun a second “go” at “The Demolished Man.” This time around, I’d characterize this as a good tale, with a style that is, at times, a bit crude and quaint. Naturally some of this failing, considering its having been published in 1951 (!!), can be forgiven. Not, by any means, at the level of, say, "Stranger in a Strange Land " or "Dune," but worthwhile.

The psychological aspects of this story are probably the most impressive. We have a main character, Reich, who--as a leading corporate executive--has neverending nightmares, which clearly reflect his dramatically flawed character, problematic and unresolved unconscious contends, and corresponding murderous intent. His "path" intersects with a world nearly void of serious crime, due to constant monitoring by trained psychic sensitives, and an extremely rigid ethical code held by those belonging to this professional and social association. Most ot the characterization, seems to me, are two dimensional, and could use more development. I like the fact of the mystery of the identity of the "Man with No Face," which plagues Reich.

My take on Brunner, incidentally, stands. His novels, of which I have some three in my library, tend to feature some good ideas, but are phlegmatic and circuitous/tortuous in style and execution and are—generally speaking—disappointing.

In The Demolished Man, society goes for the Doc Savage school of rehabilitation of criminals. i.e. they alter their brains and minds until they are good productive citizens. Telepaths can generally notice when crimes will be committed beforehand.

Here, a clever supervillain type is at large, and has a plan to change things. A man must try and stop him.

Alfred Bester's 1953 Hugo winner is well deserving its reputation. A futuristic murder mystery that baffles mind reading detectives. Who will be demolished and what does that mean? From the viewpoint of a brilliant mind planning the perfect murder, the book is filled with suspense that keeps you guessing until the final pages - like any good mystery thriller should. Better yet, it's all wrapped up in a sci-fi world.

Still better than the best after all these years.
Some complain that the Freudianim of this book is wrong. Alas, current cognitive therapy and brain sciences have come to the conclusion that a lot of what Freud said is right. They don't say it in those words, in fact they try to tame Freud into a subset of their theories, but he still hit the nail on the head.

I would never have come across this masterpiece if it had not been for the sci-fi letter from the store.com. This book is the Best beginning for the Hugo awards. The charecter development is rich and enticing, the interplay between the psy. cop and the demolished man is magnificent and Bester's imagination takes you where no one has gone before (without leaving the solar system). Enjoy.

I thought I had read great books before. Reading authors like Asimov,D. Adams, books like stranger in a strange land. But now I relize none compare to the virtually unknown Bester. The Demolished Man tells a story that goes deeper into every char. then we are able to go into ourselves. This was the most powerful and wonderful book I have ever read.

After reading Bester's other book (The Starts My Destination) I quickly snatched this one up, only to be disappointed. The shift in focus that occurs about one-third of the way through the book was not smooth, and there was way too much Fruedian psychobabble in the book, Granted, this book was written during the time when that was chic, but it really doesn't carry over well at all to our time. The ending started to pick up the book a bit, but then the last chapter, like so many others, was quite disappointing.
Read it if you are in the mood for a mediorce classic, but if you are trying to catch up on the true classics, skip it.

classic pulp scifi. a fantastic read, well written, entertaining, thought provoking, engaging...too bad the author didn't spend his whole career writing scifi! (he switched to travel writing, according to the brief bio). anyway, a must read, a clear progenitor for much of the scifi that followed.

Admittedly, it was very late for me to discover this SF classic. And that happened only a decade ago. I still remember I picked it up and finished reading it in only a few days. It's just unputdownable for me. Those who love good SF, crime and mystery will find this book a real treat. Bester truly deserved the Hugo Award for this work because he produced a very imaginative and stylish SF thriller. This one should be high on any serious SF reader's list. Highly recommended!

Bester's writings are like a mob enforcer, they jump out of the page, grab you by the neck and the words just fly down your optic nerve. There is an energy in his style which is incredible. Then there is the beautiful typographies used to show the conversations between telepaths. Buy this book.

Short version: I hated it.

Long version: this episodic future-set police procedural is overflowing with offensively-drawn female characters, two-dimensional male characters, a needlessly convoluted plot, woefully inaccurate psychology, a murder plot that is revealed to the reader in stages during the plotting, repeated as it happens then rehashed after the fact in a police hearing just in case you forgot it from the previous two iterations. Such repetition in a volume this slender is unforgivable; though it might be an artifact from when the story was serialized in a magazine (to remind monthly readers of what exactly happened without forcing them to dig out their old issues), it should have been removed for a collected, novel-ized version.

The story bumps along and doesn't really stumble fatally until near the end, when the two main characters engage in mental warfare, resulting in one of them suffering from the title condition. Then, after pages of trite, put-a-bow-on-it detective story wrap up (which reveals things that had been kept from the reader), we are treated to a pair of twists. One is so limp that it had been none-too-subtly telegraphed in the first chapter and the other so convenient that it nearly forced me to hurl the book across the room.

The writing is occasionally clever and verges on great once in a while, but, while Bester has a way with words, his dull and unrealistic characterizations, herky-jerky plotting, lack of a clear point of view (we follow first one character and then another, hopping to and fro between their perspectives whenever it suits the narrative despite it leaving us to ponder what's happening in the skulls of other characters - this technique isn't automatically bad, but it is badly handled here) and mid 20th century attitudes towards women undermine the good work he did here.

There are plenty of good things to say about this book, which others have done at great length, but overall, the flaws undermined my enjoyment to the point of irritation. I may never read another Bester book.

Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man remains an engaging, well-written novel even long after it was first published. Bester's principal characters are intelligent, resourceful, and wonderful to watch in their game of wits; the society he envisions is believable and fascinating; and the writing sparse yet sophisticated. I highly recommend The Demolished Man, as well as Mr. Bester's other works.

And rightly so.
Telepathy causes crime to be impossible - or does it? Bester describes the perfect crime of the perfect crook, set against the perfect cop in a world not perfect at all. For telepathy brings back social classes with all their ugliness.
You'd think a book written that long ago might be outdated, now in the 21st century. Well - it is as relevant today as at its year of publication. But relevant isn't the half of it: it is witty, funny, sad, brilliant and thought provoking.
Read it.

First things first, I LOVED Alfred Bester's, "The Stars My Destination". It is one of my top 10 sci-fi/fantasy books. With that said, this book starts off pretty well and runs along nicely until the last 50 or so pages, where it turns into a confused mish-mash. The ending is beyond stupid and repetitiously annoying. I had high hopes for this book. The real shame is that this book won the Hugo. Bester's other book that I previously mentioned should be the proud owner of that title, not this piece of garbage. It really is amazing how a person can respond to different works by the same author. My advice is to read this if you want because it's not that long, but to be forewarned that it isn't everything its been cracked up to be. It reminds me of The Foundation Trilogy. That started off nicely, but quickly grew repetitious, as well as completely screwed up the most interesting part of the plot within the first 150 pages. If you feel the Foundation books are masterpieces of sci-fi then you might love this book. If you happen to be a discerning reader then you'll quickly see the large flaws contained in this book.

Upon reading the many glowing reviews of this novel, I picked it up wholeheartedly thinking it would blow me away. Unfortunately, it was a struggle to get through. The idea behind the novel is far ahead of its time. It is quite obvious Bester had the gift of coming up with "far-out" ideas for the 1950s. My complaint is that the characters are amazingly wooden. Dialog was difficult to get through without flashes of 50s serials popping into my head. I kept waiting for someone to say "gee wilikers, say its not so sarge!" Much of the writing reminded me of the early comics: 'Explosion!''Whammy!' The characters never became flesh for me, nor did I care one way or the other what happened in the story. Unfortunately I could not get all the way to the end. I stopped, amazingly, at 170 pages.

I realize its 50 years old - it cannot mask its age. If you read this novel, please take this into consideration. Be ready for characters which express their emotion with wooden insencerity and for male-female relations to harken back to the days of bogey and bacall stiffness. This novel falls into the "great idea, poor execution" category. Read at your own risk.

I would give it one star, however, based upon the merit of the imagination of the writer; and the the fact that It must have raised quite a few eyebrows in 1951: I am giving it three stars.

There are telepaths/psychics and since they can read your mind, murder has mostly become a thing of the past (a la Minority Report). Unless you're Ben Reich, CEO of one of the world's two biggest companies. The owner of the other is your rival, and you want to kill him for obvious reasons. How do you do it with all these telepaths watching? Well, that's the question, and it becomes a thrilling cat-and-dog game between the guy who may have committed the perfect crime and the telepath detective pursuing him.

At least it would be more thrilling if it wasn't so antiquated. Alfred Bester wrote radio serials and it shows. I kept hearing old episodes of The Shadow in my head during the dialogue. There are definite signs of its age -- a lot of the sci-fi tropes like common space travel that we know are implausible today are in place, and the storyline starts getting scrambled as you get further in the book. Suddenly everyone is someone's relative a la Star Wars. It felt like it was trying to get all artsy by making the page into a canvas and playing with word shapes.

I HATE it when characters do stupid things and act out-of-character just to advance the plot. And that was both the main character and his ally telepath, over and over through the first part of the book. I wanted to reach in, grab them by the lapels, and scream some sense into them both.
Books are good illustrations of the society in which they were written. Verne's and Well's characters were stuffy and victorian, Heinlein's were all navy men (even the women), etc. Reading TDM I was appalled at the portrait of 50's America he painted. I couldn't recognize any common thread to today, or figure out how the country could have gotten to the twisted state he portrayed, or how we got where we are now if America was really like that in the 50's. I hate to say this, but I almost think Ayn Rand had some points if that's really how men treated women in our parents' generation.
While his use of non-traditional puntuation and typesetting for the mind games, music et al. were vaguely interesting (maybe only vaguely because it's been done since then and better), the lyrics and games were all annoyingly insipid, nerdy, and not credible.
So no, I can't say I much cared for the book.

Truly a brilliant work of fiction, Alfred Bester's "The Demolished Man" satisfies the need for a science fiction story with a unique sense of depth, while allowing accessibility for the reader of any genre. Absolutely remarkable, a must read!

THE DEMOLISHED MAN is the story of crazy gazillionaire industrialist Ben Reich, who is determined to murder his arch business rival, Craye D'Courtney. In this future world, people with ESP are employed in all professional levels of the job market. It is impossible to get away with murder when all the cops, doctors, lawyers, etc can read a person's intentions and stop him before he can fully think about, much less commit, such a deed. Nevertheless, Reich does commit the murder, and most of the book is taken up with his attempted flight from the clutches of Esper Police Prefect Lincoln Powell.

I know, I know, this book is supposed to be a classic, but I thought it was a real stinker. It reads like a smarmy 50s cops-and-robbers story, which is essentially what it is - only set in the future with telepaths. Don't get me started on the character development! All the female characters are either a) breast-heaving, snuggle-kittens or b) crazy death crones. Just awful.

...which is a shame, because More than Human has sophistication in its telepathy theme, whereas the Demolished Man is not really orders of magnitude above, let's say, Harry Harrison's simplistic prose.

Of course, if you are a modern reader, loving your Strosses and Reynoldses, believing implants are just around the corner, then telepathy should sound almost as obsolete as the Easter Island indigenes. In such a case, Demolished Man would basically be for you a cop VS villain story, with a little romance and not much else. It's a shame because in the very beginning, the hero (later turned villain) is confronted with a kafkaesque "man with no face", who just for a few pages lures you into believing the writer has discovered the alchemist's stone of the genre, a science story with deep characterization. Alas, no.

This is 2 stars, and don't get lured by that neon sign on the book's cover "the first ever winner of the Hugo Award". They probably had not calibrated the event enough by 1953, and the proof of this is Hugo 1954, where you have 3 real masterpieces, all in one year (Childhood's End, Caves of Steel, Fahrenheit 451).