Really good -- despite being weighed down with some cheesy moments & moralizing soliloquies, it's clever, compelling, and very original.

Plot wise, it's basically the Count of Monte Cristo in space: a revenge story, complete with a dramatic prison break. The protagonist is a remorseless psychopath at the start of the book, but his obsession gradually reshapes him into a more complex character and leads him through a series of vignettes of life in the 2400s solar system.

The 'worldbuilding' revolves around the conceit that humans gain the ability to teleport in the 2200. Bester develops the implications of this idea elegantly without pedantic exposition -- he clearly put thought into how this would reshape the way we live, travel, work, think, fight, do crimes, etc. but doesn't let it get in the way of the storytelling. The world also has a satirical edge -- corporations from the present day have turned into quadi-feudal dynasties w/ logos as heraldry (partying while half of Earth gets nuked by the the outer planets), there's a science-worshipping asteroid cult, creepy Martian skoptsy, & surgery to turn sexual deviants into real-life furries. Everything fits together cohesively but feels tongue-in-cheek at the same time.

There's some very fun typographic onomatopoeia at the end -- it felt earned, and not gimmicky.

I'm just parroting every other reviewer but the book is way ahead of its 1956 publication date -- one of those where you read it and suddenly recognize its stamp on dozens of subsequent works. E.g.

The aristocratic corporate intrigue & sort of general vibe in Samuel Delaney's Nova
The psychic baby in Akira
All sorts of sci-fi psychedelia like the 2001 ending, or End of Evangelion
The whole cyberpunk genre
(I'd argue) the "he's just like me fr" anti-hero

I think it's tragic nobody has made a film version -- would probably be kinda bad but with some very cool visuals. Terry Gilliam should direct.

The Stars My Destination

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