If you think about it the c***d push towards 100% remote work (for those who can) was as big a social disruption as the discovery of jaunting.. He also got the Conspicuous Consumption part of the culture right too. Look at the Met Gala this week. Not as impressive as a tracklaying system to allow you to arrive in a steam train but still.
I'm reading/listening to a lot of classic sci-fi these days, and I'm having "days of my youth" flashbacks. This sounds like one of those books that I would have hated as a kid but would find interesting now. I'll look for it.
I looked up Alfred Bester when I saw the character created for Walter Koenig on B5. Something in the back of my mind clicked. We now have copies of the books in our glass-fronted bookcase. Heavy stuff, right along with Clifford Simak's signed volumes.
I can't be effusive enough about how great this book is. The first time I read, unfortunately not until college, it smacked me in the face like Mike Tyson. It reminds me a little of Saul on the road to Damascus and his change into the Apostle Paul. A thoroughly horrible man is redeemed.
If you think about it the c***d push towards 100% remote work (for those who can) was as big a social disruption as the discovery of jaunting.. He also got the Conspicuous Consumption part of the culture right too. Look at the Met Gala this week. Not as impressive as a tracklaying system to allow you to arrive in a steam train but still.
I'm reading/listening to a lot of classic sci-fi these days, and I'm having "days of my youth" flashbacks. This sounds like one of those books that I would have hated as a kid but would find interesting now. I'll look for it.
I looked up Alfred Bester when I saw the character created for Walter Koenig on B5. Something in the back of my mind clicked. We now have copies of the books in our glass-fronted bookcase. Heavy stuff, right along with Clifford Simak's signed volumes.
Good story and yes, people 'can' change/be changed!
I can't be effusive enough about how great this book is. The first time I read, unfortunately not until college, it smacked me in the face like Mike Tyson. It reminds me a little of Saul on the road to Damascus and his change into the Apostle Paul. A thoroughly horrible man is redeemed.
Martin knew what he was doing when he included Bester over Bradbury in the ABC's of Scifi.
(And I love me some Bradbury)