This book is on countless best of sci-fi lists and for very good reason; hard and soft, prose and pulp, literary and accessible, scientific and mystical, fantastical and satirical, cyberpunk and steampunk, fastpaced and thoughtful... Hitting the sweet-spot between the directives of speculative techno/cultural fiction and new-wave psycho emo/humanism is a rarity - a feat even more astonishing, given the truly well-crafted storytelling and Bester's liberal though accomplished writing style.
There's almost nothing, including my typical gender nitpicks, that I really dislike about this book, from premise to structure to execution. And while countless imitations, spin-offs and sub-genres have centrifuged away from Bester's serialized novel with enough conviction of their own, The Stars My Destination manages to think and read fresh more than 50 years later. An excellent read.
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