Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester [Paperback]

Alfred Bester (Author), Keith R. A. DeCandido (Editor), Robert Silverberg (Editor, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 1997

"Dazzlement and enchantment are Bester's methods. His stories never stand still a moment."
—Damon Knight, author of Why Do Birds

Alfred Bester took science fiction into hyperdrive, endowing it with a wit, speed, and narrative inventiveness that have inspired two generations of writers. And nowhere is Bester funnier, speedier, or more audacious than in these seventeen short stories—two of them previously unpublished—that have now been brought together in a single volume for the first time.

Read about the sweet-natured young man whose phenomenal good luck turns out to be disastrous for the rest of humanity. Find out why tourists are flocking to a hellish little town in a post-nuclear Kansas. Meet a warlock who practices on Park Avenue and whose potions comply with the Pure Food and Drug Act. Make a deal with the Devil—but not without calling your agent. Dazzling, effervescent, sexy, and sardonic, Virtual Unrealities is a historic collection from one of science fiction's true pathbreakers.

"Alfred Bester was one of the handful of writers who invented modern science fiction. "
—Harry Harrison

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Alfred Bester (1913-1987) was the author of two of science fiction's seminal works, The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination. He also wrote some fast-moving, sizzling short stories that were very highly regarded; many of them are included in the 17 stories showcased in Virtual Realities; two were never before published. Highlights include "Disappearing Act," in which shell-shocked soldiers vanish from their hospital ward; "Hobson's Choice," in which a statistician uncovers a disturbing population trend in post-nuclear Kansas; "Time Is the Traitor," wherein powerful business people manipulate their most valuable consultant; and "The Devil Without Glasses," a conspiracy tale with an X-Files feel. The science fiction and literary classic "Fondly Fahrenheit" stars wealthy Vandaleur and his mad android who has an unfortunate habit of turning murderous when the temperature gets too hot... All reet!

Bester's use of the word girl and the occasional female as manipulating schemer are not in line with current sensibilities and may give readers pause, especially those accustomed to feminist improvements in modern SF. Nevertheless, these stories are a frenetic and delightful confection of SF from the mid-20th century. --Bonnie Bouman

From Kirkus Reviews

A major retrospective, comprising 15 tales from 194179 (mostly from the '50s and '60s), together with two previously unpublished pieces, though readers should note that the word ``selected'' has been omitted from the subtitle. Bester's (191387) reputation derives from two brilliant and influential novels, The Demolished Man (1953), the first Hugo Awardwinner for Best Novel, and The Stars My Destination (1957), plus a handful of classic stories. Among the latter here: ``Fondly Fahrenheit,'' a black farce about an android that turns homicidal when the temperature exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit; ``The Men Who Murdered Mohammed,'' in which Bester invented quantum time, a notion recently taken up by John Kessel in Corrupting Dr. Nice; ``The Pi Man,'' a chilling masterpiece whose protagonist is compelled to respond to changes in surrounding patterns that only he can perceive, later expanded into a wretched novel; the last man in the world, ``Adam and No Eve''; and ``Will You Wait?,'' a witty deal with the devil. Others, like ``Disappearing Act,'' ``Star Light, Star Bright,'' and ``Time is the Traitor,'' are more style than substance. But then Bester was always a consummate showman. Noteworthy for his passionate delivery, pyrotechnic prose, and dazzling ideas, Bester wrote cyberpunk 30 years before William Gibson. But when reality finally caught up, he fizzled out. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1st edition (November 11, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679767835
• ISBN-13: 978-0679767831
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #318,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good writing, poorly presented, August 2, 2005

By 

D. Greenebaum (Macon, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester (Paperback)

The nice thing about this book is that it's pretty much the only way to get a good chunk of Bester's short fiction collected in one place. That said, the book itself suffers from serious problems. It seems that some time after the last copy editor looked it over, someone in the production process changed the book's type font. Since several of Bester's stories involve playful typesetting and/or characters that are outside the (current) normal set of symbols, a great deal of flavor was lost. One-quarter or one-half fractions replaced by square boxes, that type of thing. Too bad, because the publishers were obviously aiming for a product that you'd call nicer than the usual mass-market paperback. The screwy typeface errors mar that considerably.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 40 years of good science fiction from an originator, January 10, 2000

By 

Gary Sprandel (Frankfort, Kentucky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester (Paperback)

Alfred Bester's science fiction spans 40 years, and is always a treat. In this collection, we are treated to some of his early work "Adam and No Eve" (1941), to some of his last "Galatea Galante" (1979), as well as a previously unpublished complete story and an incomplete fragment (with the note :Its much easier to begin a thing than to finish it) found in his papers after his death.

The common thread in these stories is Bester's flabbergasting imagination. His stories are often ironic, taking a wry observation about current society, and projecting it to its logical conclusion into an absurd future, from the quest for poets in an efficient future of "Disappearing act", to the drop of acid that makes a test tube woman intriguing in "Galatea Galante".

As one of the inventors of science fiction, Bester not only lays the ground work for the popular themes of science fiction such as the last couple on earth, time travel, androids and their programming, but adds his own twists: a man needing an agent to sell his soul to the Devil (of the company Beelzebub, Belial, Devil, and Orgy), collectors in the future recreating a 1950's style room, and a chaos compensator.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A nice nostalgia trip for us old guys . . ., May 14, 2002

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester (Paperback)

Bester is one of those science fiction mainstays whom everyone of a certain age read back in the '50s and '60s, and who is almost totally unknown to younger readers who were raised on the Cyberpunks. But I have to admit that the settings and language and cultural furniture of most of these stories haven't worn very well, unlike the work of Heinlein or Clarke -- or even Bester's own classic novels, _The Demolished Man_ and _The Stars My Destination._ The "messages" in most of these pieces are also pretty trite, but that was never the point of reading Bester anyway. The man was a master of oddball style, eerie description, and droll dialogue, and you can have a really good time chuckling your way through "Will You Wait?" or appreciating the chill of "Fondly Fahrenheit," or picking out all the references in "The Flowered Thundermug."