Virtual Unrealities: Short Fiction

I love science fiction. This guy is a master. The pi man is my favorite story - a guy who has to adjust for all of the imbalances in the universe - if too much english is being spoken, he speaks french. Etc. Bester writes some of the most inventive short stories I've ever read.

This is a collection of stort stories; there are a couple masterpieces, particularly Fondly Fahrenheit and 5,271,009, as well as a half dozen other great stories.

This is, without a doubt in my mind, the best collection of short stories I've ever read. Alfred Bester rocks. Each story (with I think two exceptions) is totally unique in ideas and structure to any other short (or long) stories that I've ever read. And I mean that. This book is an incredible display of imagination. And I hate adjectives. Alfred Bester was simply a master of creating a...more

This is, without a doubt in my mind, the best collection of short stories I've ever read. Alfred Bester rocks. Each story (with I think two exceptions) is totally unique in ideas and structure to any other short (or long) stories that I've ever read. And I mean that. This book is an incredible display of imagination. And I hate adjectives. Alfred Bester was simply a master of creating a captivating tale that sucked you straight through and knocked you on your ass at the end by revealing to you that the world you've made your reality for the past half-hour was totally messed up. And he doesn't let you see that crucial point until the end. And it surprises you every time. It's like suspended magic. His stories are wacky, interesting, and everything else I personally want as a reader. That's all. I'm not a big fan of short story collections, but I like the fact that you can read them over long periods of time, and finish a few other books in that time. I started this back in '98 and have read about twenty-five other books since then. The rating relates to short story collections and not really to other books. It's hard to make a comparison between short and long stories, you know? But either way, this book ranks pretty high. Review written in 1999.   hide