#5. THE STARS MY DESTINATION By Alfred Bester

Published : 1956
Pages : 258
Overall Mark : 8/10

EDUCATION : none.
SKILLS : none.
MERITS : none.
RECOMMENDATIONS : none.
That is the official verdicton Gully Foyle, unskilled space crewman. But Gully has managed to survive for 170 days in the airless purgatory of deep space after the wreck of his ship, and has escaped to Earth carrying a murderous grudge and a secret that could change the course of history.

ALFRED BESTER (1913-1987)
A scriptwriter and journalist by profession, Bester set the science fiction field alight in the 1950s with two novels, The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination, and a succession of extraordinary stories. His work was an inpiration both to the SF New Wave of the 1960s and the cyberpunk movement of the 1980s.

VERDICT
This is a great little sci-fi novel, with a lead character which you sympathise with whilst also taking an instant disliking to. Bester manages with expert ease to build a framework around Gully Foyle and the rest of the supporting characters which is both believable and strangely accessible, whilst creating scenarios and settings which are both fantastic and highly imaginative.