Customer Reviews

Starburst (Signet SF, T4460)

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I've read a lot of short stories...from Vonnegut to Kafka, H.G. Wells to Neil Gaiman. But none of those remotely compare to what you'll find in Bester's short stories. His stories are all fast-paced, and he gets his meaning across. He doesn't have to put in a lot of nonsense just to take up space. If his story is three pages long, so be it! He doesn't add another 15 pages just for the sake of having a long story. If he gets his message across, he ends his story. I think a lot of authors nowadays should take note! But just in terms of science-fiction, it's easy to see why Bester has had so much influence on the sci-fi community. His ideas are so awesome. He was like so many other science-fiction authors: ahead of his time! What I like most about his short stories is how we get a glimpse of characters that appear in Bester's larger works. For instance, some of the characters from "The Stars My Destination" appear in some of these short stories. I just think it adds to the fun.

I can't even say a coherent statement about this book, and I apologize. I'm just still in shock. I think that if you like science-fiction, Alfred Bester in particular, or just like to read, you NEED to read at least one of Bester's short stories. After that, you'll be hooked.

I picked this book up along with Bester's _The Stars My Destination._
I only bought the _Starburst_ anthology because I wanted to read more from Bester. I was not prepared to be blown away by his entertaining and breezy writing style. Yet Bester's topics are for adults, not grownup children.
Thematically, each story is so different from the next. Bester, although didactic in a philosophical sense, writes some very serious themes such as which choices go into making one a mature, existential human being.
I was simply enchanted by his ability to take a simple story, one after another, and weave such complex themes of the human condition into them!
This man understood mankind, he understood self-delusion, and he understood the vice of wishful thinking. That is "Hobson's Choice." Such a profound thinker as Bester should not be underestimated. The insight just sneaks up on you! All in a tale of a simple statistician and time travel...
True, "Travel Diary" is clever but ultimately inane and condescending, but it is still a valid critique of a cultural type that may have been rampant in the early 50's, the "Ugly American." Perhaps a few readers read themselves into this mindset and feel uncomfortable. Who knows?
"Fondly Fahrenheit," an android story, told in a brief twenty pages is as good in its exploration of insanity and the criminal "split personality" as the Hitchcock/Bloch film "Psycho."
"Starcomber" involves the existential yet "simple" element of choice. Prepare to have yourself examined.
At some level, I suspect that reading--and thinking about--this anthology is as good as 6 months of psychoanalysis.
Definitely science fiction for grownups.

I got this book second-hand based on the review below. I had not read any of Alfread Bester's work previously. The first five short stories in Starburst are pretty good, but the rest, which take up the second half of the book, are filler. I would suggest going with a different collection of short stories as Starburst is a pretty mediocre collection and didn't give me the impression that Bester was a particularly good short story writer.