What to read next after The Stars My Destination?

April 13, 2012 2:32 AM

If I like The Stars My Desintation by Alfred Bester, what else might I like?

I usually read non-fiction and only the occasional novel, but I recently read and loved The Stars My Destination. For context, over the years I've read some of Foundation, several of Neal Stephenson's books, some of William Gibson, and tried and failed on something by Bruce Sterling I can't recall at this moment. I loved TSMD for its believable world, well-drawn characters, how mind-expanding some of the ideas were, and the quality of the writing.

I'm an engineer by training so I don't mind trying some of what I think is called 'hard' sci fi, but in general I don't have as much time to read as I'd like; I tend to only read very long works if I think they will be particularly rewarding (like Stephenson). So I'm open to all suggestions but with a preference for books that are not 1,000 pages.

MeFi SciFi enthusiasts, where should I go next? Thanks in advance :-)

posted by StephenF to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (17 answers total)

Best answer: Oh homie, you gotta read his other decent book The Demolished Man - just as great in my opinion (his other books.... well, the less said the better). I don't read a lot of current scifi these days, so my recommendations are all a bit old school, like Bester.

I also think if you appreciate Bester it's hard not to appreciate the elements of him that surface in Philip K Dick's work. My own personal Top 3 P. Dicky books (and man is this ever a personal thing) in no particular order:

Through A Scanner, Darkly
Now Wait for Last Year (don't know why this isn't more popular, I personally thought it was better than Man in The High Castle).
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (so much more than Blade Runner. Blade Runner was about the difference between robots and humans, Androids is about humanity itself; life and no-life.).

I think you would be most remiss to ignore the early Ursula LeGuin novels, as well, especially
The Dispossessed (possibly my favourite SF of all time)
The Left Hand of Darkness,
The Lathe of Heaven

You could do well to check out some Octavia Butler. Maybe The Parable of The Sower.

These are all short, well-written, provocative novels that have solid plots like Bester's novels.
posted by smoke at 2:49 AM on April 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

The Demolished Man.

Some of Bester's short fiction is collected in Redemolished. It's pretty good, if you skip Hell is Forever.

The Four Hour Fugue is ok, but is the starting point for Golem^100. For what it's worth I gave Golem^100 to a friend and he was so angry with it he couldn't speak. It was pretty amusing, but I can't recommend it.
posted by Leon at 2:52 AM on April 13, 2012

Best answer: And if you like The Demolished Man (smoke's right, that's the next thing you have to read), I think you should try Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany.

In fact, if you're asking about Bester, this is the list everyone's going to be cribbing off: SF Masterworks.
posted by Leon at 2:59 AM on April 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I was coming here to mention the SF Masterworks list, particularly:

- Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
- The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
posted by xqwzts at 3:43 AM on April 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I felt the same way about The Stars My Destination as I did about Walter Tevis's The Man Who Fell To Earth. Both have solid writing and pathos.
posted by steinsaltz at 4:32 AM on April 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Thirding, or fourthing, Demolished Man.
posted by notsnot at 5:29 AM on April 13, 2012

nthing Demolished Man and The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Also, read Niven's Ringworld series. Completely engrossing, well-written, and compelling characters feature throughout. Maybe check out Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series after that.
posted by vkxmai at 5:39 AM on April 13, 2012

Very different from all of the above, and it's about 1,000 pages, but do try Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo, which was an inspiration for The Demolished Man. Huge and vast like a Stephenson, gripping and exciting, rich with action and intrigue, and an incredible portrait of pure revenge. The first few chapters set the scene and it may seem like not a lot happens, but once Dantes is put in jail ... watch out.
posted by wdenton at 7:42 AM on April 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

If you're just getting into Niven's Ringworld, the title novel's okay to begin with, but that's just a part of his Known Space series, which is all fascinating. Another series you might dig is Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun (although I'd give the #5 Urth one a pass). Maybe also, Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars.
posted by Rash at 9:16 AM on April 13, 2012

Well aside from what's been mentioned, Canticle for Leibowitz and Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman.
posted by Gygesringtone at 9:38 AM on April 13, 2012

Cordwainer Smith, a contemporary of Bester. Norstrilia is very good but his short fiction is glorious, some of the best SF of the post-war years. You can even find some of the stories like Scanners Live in Vain and The Game of Rat and Dragon online.
posted by N-stoff at 1:44 PM on April 13, 2012

Best answer: Bester was a major influence on the British and then the American "New Wave of science fiction", so you might like the major New Wave writers (who are roughly, I'd say, J.G. Ballard, Harlan Ellison, Michael Moorcock, Brian Aldiss, and Samuel Delaney). Bester is a precursor, though, so some of the less Campbellian writers of the '50s such Fritz Leiber and Ted Sturgeon along with the aforementioned Cordwainer Smith and Walter Miller might fit the bill (although all but Miller are better short story writers than novelists in my opinion).

Wolfe and LeGuin are both fantastic writers, but neither one strikes me as particularly like Bester. Early Roger Zelanzy is probably the writer I can think of who most closely resembles Bester in having fast-moving, well-written-but-pulpy stories with some Besterian formal experimentation. Lord of Light or Isle of the Dead would be fine places to start. Throwing out a couple other names: Barry Malzberg, who was a major s.f. writer in the 1970s? The contemporary Scottish writer Iain M. Banks?
posted by snarkout at 4:07 PM on April 13, 2012

Best answer: Here are my two favorites:
The Last Gasp by Trevor Hoyle and
The Sykaos Papers by E.P. Thompson.
These I do not loan out!
posted by lungtaworld at 4:07 PM on April 13, 2012

Best answer: A contemporary of Bester's who I enjoy just as much (equally inventive and he's aged just as gracefully) is Clifford Simak . I would recommend specifically City, which is tremendous, and then Way Station, which although it won him both Hugo and Nebula, I didn't enjoy as much (still highly recommended though).

I can't resist recommending Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House, a collection of short stories. Only a few are what could be called sci fi, but they are all memorable.
posted by subajestad at 4:51 PM on April 13, 2012

Best answer: Jack Vance! Fritz Leiber! R.A. Lafferty!
posted by Iridic at 5:32 PM on April 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

When I went on an older scifi kick, Bester was great, and I found I really enjoyed Theodore Sturgeon, too, though I can't recall titles off hand.

After Bester, try Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, and Man In The High Castle by PK Dick.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:18 PM on April 13, 2012

Response by poster: Gah so many good answers it seems crazy to mark them all as best answer. Thanks everyone!
posted by StephenF at 1:52 AM on April 16, 2012