The Event Horizon

3. Book Reviews

3.1 The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester, reviewed by Soh Kam Yung

After much procrastination and putting-off, I finally sat down and read this book. Sure, it's old, but it has been re-released and generally available, so I decided to get it. So, how is it?

In a word, ``Wow!'' There is a lot of amazing stuff packed into this slim book. Wrapped inside a storyline about murder and the battle of wits between the murderer (Ben Reich) and his pursuer (Lincoln Powell), is a world apparently ran by global cartels and monitored by Espers (people with Extra-sensory perception).

The abilities of the Espers plays a major part in the book. In a world where such people (or `peepers' as they are known) can `peep' into your mind, how do you commit murder and get away with it? As the story shows, Ben Reich sets out to do this and nearly succeeds.

The great thing about the book is that it all hangs together: Reich's method, motive and opportunity to commit the murder are clearly shown in the novel, as well as the steps he takes to avoid alerting `peepers' to his actions. Even more remarkable is Bester's approach to Espers: they have rules and regulations that forbid peepers from doing things like mentally killing other people or probing deeply into people's minds without permission. In many other stories about people with extrasensory perceptions, they are often the hunter or the hunted, isolated or a paranoid group of terrorist. Bester is one of the few authors who treat such people as just a class of people (much like Asimov's robot stories treated robots as plain mechanical machines instead of murderous creations with the Frankenstein complex). As a result on the strict use of Esper abilities, Powell has to use standard police procedures (gather evidence, lots of evidence and lots of witnesses) to get Reich, although his skills are augmented by his Esper abilities.

Bester also tries to describe how the Espers see the world around them. The scenes where Espers meet and exchange thoughts has to be read to be believed: their thoughts weave like a spider's web, or are emphasised by different fonts which are probably the closest the publishers could get to expressing how Bester felt the Espers exchanged thoughts.

If you have been watching Babylon 5, it is (to me) quite obvious that the Psi Corps in the series uses Bester's Espers as a model. After reading this novel, it is also very obvious why the main Psi Cop in the series was named after Alfred Bester. It is a definite homage to the author by Straczynski.

This is a book that must be read by anybody who is into science fiction or who wants to know more about how the Psi Corps in Babylon 5 came about. It is a impressive book.

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