Comic-book Characterisation

Jul 2021
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester – Byron Preiss Visual Publications, 2013
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I got this one because it was the highest-ranked novel in the GoodReads best 100 SF list that I hadn't already read (other than A Clockwork Orange, which is a) depressing and b) by a mainstream author that I don't much like). It was also the first winner of the Hugo award in 1953.

Bester spent several years as a short story and comic book writer which must have been an influence on his style when he later turned to novels. Certainly it would explain the energy and elegant brevity of the prose in this book, but unfortunately also its terrible, terrible flaws.
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