The Event Horizon

2. Book Reviews

2.1 Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester by Alfred Bester, reviewed by Soh Kam Yung

After plowing through, and throughly enjoying, Bester's ``The Demolished Man'' a few months ago, it was with pleasure that I now go through a collection of his better short stories. This collection of stories was, according to the inside, selected by Robert Silverberg, Byron Preiss and Keith R.A. Decandido and contains seventeen short stories. One is a fragment of a story while another story was previously unpublished.

So, how do the stories stack up? Well, the collection is somewhat unbalanced, hitting both highs and lows in terms of plot and resolution. But in terms of 'Bester style' (rapid staccato-like hitting of the reader's emotions via short, rapid sentences), the stories are a remarkable showcase of work from an author which, to many, may seem to be a one (or two) book wonder.

Among the better stories to be found in this collection are:

``Disappearing Act'' starts out by describing an America that has been mobilised to ``protect the American dream''. To protect it, every citizen has been assigned a specific task. Then, strange things begin to happen in a ward of people shell-shocked by the war. As it turns out, the only way to solve it is requires the skill of a certain type of person ironically lost in all the war fervor. The story reminds me strongly of the `jaunts' (instant teleportation) idea in ``The Stars My Destination''.
``Star Light, Star Bright'' tales the tale of a search of a certain Buchanan which may have access to impressive powers. More of a fantasy than a science fiction tale (despite its SF trappings), the suspense is held up well and the ending, which simplistic, has a wonderful impact.
``5,271,009'' deals with the story of Halyson, an artist who went mad, and how he was cured of his madness. The cure requires him to re-enact his fantasies, leading to a very surreal ``Demolished Man-like'' trip through his mind. Hold on to your seats for this story!
``Fondly Fahrenheit'' is a Bester masterpiece. It deals with a murderous android and its despairing owner who escapes from world to world, unable to destroy the android nor turn it in. The story's strength is in its style which 'merges' both master and slave (who is the master and who is the slave?), intermixing both the owner and androids's points of view to the point of leaving you dizzy if you're not careful.
``Hobson's Choice'' deals with a statistician who discovers a strange anomaly in the population data of a future America destroyed by nuclear war; despite incredible loss of life, falling birthrate and rising death rate, the population is increasing. In the course of tracing this population increase, he stumbles on the solution (hint: `the grass is always greener on the other side') and is given a (Hobson's) choice.
``The Men Who Murdered Mohammed'' is Bester's twist on the old time travel paradox (what would happen if you killed your wife's father?). In some ways, Bester's time-travel solution is puzzling and fun. Talk about personal universes...

There are plenty of other wonderful stories in this collection. The ones I picked are my personal favourites but even those I did not mention (with a few) exceptions, are of impressive quality.

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