Or one speaks of the wondrous metaphysical strangeness of Philip K. Instead, the sf lover goes on about Theodore Surgeon's eloquent prose and compassionate characterization, soft-pedaling the extent to which many of his tales are simply good mimetic fiction, with a rocketship or other such device stuck on. Who is Bester, what is he, that all these respectable swains adore him? Rereading his short stories in the new book, Virtual Unrealities, I am strengthened in the belief that he may be the ideal writer to show to Mainstream Lit as an example of sf at its best.Īcademic supporters of sf, like the well-intentioned members of any Establishment speaking up for any marginalized group, use two arguments: 'They are fascinating in their unique way,' and yet 'Deep down inside they are Just Like Us.' Ideally, one reports examples that simultaneously display both qualities, but these are hard to find. Now they have followed those with a presumably definitive collection of Bester's short fiction. Last year, Vintage Books, publishers of Faulkner, Nabokov, and that lot, brought their brand of quality-paperback immortality to two Alfred Bester novels: the aforementioned The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man. Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination was their choice for the best science-fiction novel of all. In 1975 Peter Passell and Leonard Ross wrote a book proclaiming The Best in all fields that came to their minds, from restaurants to financial strategies. Neither author nor title is supplied, but we get sufficient description to know that the story in question is Alfred Bester's 'Adam and No Eve.'

The protagonist of John Updike's serious literary novel, Of the Farm (1965), spends some time reading a science-fiction story.

Alfred Bester Virtual Unrealities by Alfred Bester New York: Vintage Books, 1997 $14.00 tpb 384 pages reviewed by Arthur D.