The Deceivers [Paperback]

Alfred Bester (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1999

Rogue Winter is King of the Maori Commandos. His lover is the beautiful Demi Jeroux, who has been kidnapped by the villanous Manchu Duke of Death. Rogue must search through the solar system to find the missing Demi Jeroux. But she is merely a pawn in the Duke of Death's gambit to seize control.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Way back in the 1950s, Alfred Bester established himself as one of the greats of SF with a number of dazzling short stories and two major novels: The Demolished Man (1953) and The Stars My Destination (1956, also known as Tiger! Tiger!), both much reprinted. The Deceivers, his final SF novel, appeared in 1981.

It's a colorful, whimsical romp that plays entertainingly with themes from Bester's peak years, though without his old driving, compelling savagery. Hero Rogue Winter is a "Synergist," acutely sensitive to the world's patterns: in one set-piece sequence he follows an intuitive trail from 12 drummers drumming in a street parade to the goal of a (metaphorical) partridge in a pear tree. Winter is also heir-apparent to the Maori Mafia, which controls much of the Solar System's crime, but he must single-handedly battle the dread mammoths of Ganymede to earn his crown. Meanwhile, he has fallen helplessly in love with a sexy nonhuman shapeshifter from Titan, making him vulnerable to minions of the insidious Manchu Duke of Death, who plans to smash the syndicate that's smuggling the priceless miracle fuel Meta from the heavily defended mines of Saturn's Chinese/Japanese-dominated moon Triton.

Bester crams this wild farrago of a narrative with wisecracks, junk science, circus glamor, odd catch phrases, bits of self-conscious cleverness and excess, Chinese esoterica like the Mirror-and-Listen Mystery, and his trademark typographic tricks. Amusing candyfloss nonsense; quite readable, but definitely not in the same league as his 1950s classics. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: I Books (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671038893
• ISBN-13: 978-0671038892
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,627,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Over-written and self-indulgent, February 27, 2003

By 

chris romano "toonlets.com" (Topanga, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Deceivers (Paperback)

I've previously read a few of Bester's stories. THE STARS MY DESTINATION, THE DEMOLISHED MAN, and some of the shorter pieces...I thoroughly enjoyed them all, with STARS probably being my overall favorite.

THE DECEIVERS was written later in his career, and it's my belief that THE DECEIVERS is one long in-joke, filled with cryptic goodies and extremes which probably only Bester and his closest supporters took any real enjoyment in. My feeling is THE DECEIVERS was much less written for the audience at large, and much more written for an aged author who was trying to keep himself entertained.

On one level, the text seems to be written with great ease and intricacy, but at what expense? It's a campy, oblique love story set in an elaborately expanded solar system, with tricky gibberish and painful future slang tossed in. I feel like Bester must've had an absolute blast writing this book. And in the process, I think he alienated the more casual reader.

I read it. I finished it. I can't say that I enjoyed it. In fact, there were a few moments where I asked myself, "Why am I reading this?" Libraries were invented for books like this one.

THE DECEIVERS is a very deliberate work of fiction, but more valuable as a performed effort of an accomplished afficianado than as accessible entertainment for the masses.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Only for Bester's completists, February 6, 2001

By 

Paolo Marino "pamar" (Torino, TO Italy) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Deceivers (Paperback)

I agree with most of the other reviews: it is a fun Bester book (not as depressing as "Golem 1000", for example) but it is not in the same league as "The Demolished Man" or "Tiger, Tiger". Why 4 stars, you ask? Well, considering the quality of Bester's works, even his worst is still better then most of the pure-fun SF you can read from other authors.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nothing new, but the old is damn good, April 8, 2001

By 

Greg Havlicsek - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Deceivers (Paperback)

I don't have too much to say about this book, except that it is deffinately worth reading. I've seen most of the concepts preseted in this book (chemically altered super genius, shapeshifting aliens, human/alien marriages, etc.) but everything a new twist, a special touch that makes this a fun and interesting read. It only took me a day to read, so one doesn't have to commit much time or effort to this book. For that reason, I'd recommend this book to anyone, not just fans of Bester or sci-fi in general.