SF BOOK REVIEW: Alfred Bester 'The Dark Side of the Earth - The BEST BESTER!  

Entertaining and educational, as always. I completely relate to the sentimental aspect involved here (being given the book as a child on a day out). I have experienced that a lot, mostly with records, but a few books too. Will try and find a copy of The Dark Side Of The Earth. I enjoyed the passages you read here very much.

I had both collections as a hardcover called Starlight back in the 70s.

Bester was one of the first SF writers that I read decades ago. Of course what I read were his two famous novels. They blew me away, but much later I read Fondly Fahrenheit in an anthology. That blew me away also. And much later I picked up a copy of the collection Virtual Unrealities which you show in the video. Recently, on your recommendation, I was able to get a first printing, 1964, of The Dark Side of the Earth. So I'm on my way with Bester.

Reading stars my destination at the moment, superb . Will have to check out the dark side. Great videos. Cheers.

Hello Stephen! After being admitted to hospital on Tuesday I grabbed a couple of books one of them being the Bester. I finished it that day, there’s a lot of waiting I’ve discovered in Hospital. Thank you for bringing it to my attention I completely loved it, they’re all superbly written and clever isn’t the word…The Pi Man will take another read or two I think to completely get it. I adored The Flowering Thundermug, along with Out Of This World and They Don’t Make Life Like They Used Too. Now to track down that elusive Ellison collection, not any SF in the hospital shop sadly but I did pick up an Ed McBain. Thanks again Sir!

Perhaps nothing grabs the reader like a great opening line . Bester had it . Another writer who had some of the best openers was Elison . Mayhaps one day there could be a vid on great opening lines in stories . I remember Pangborns 'Davy ' . Anyhow thank you .

Loved it! Still haven't read enough Bester to know if you're spot on or just reflecting nostalgia, but hey isn't nostalgia ennobling? One of the things that separate us from our machine overlords anyhow.

So I took your advice and after watching this video ordered the Pan edition of this in fair condition for £7. It had to be done! I look forward to getting stuck into it as I’ve only read Tiger Tiger and The Demolished Man both of which are firm favourites from my teens.

Just discovered your channel Steve and loving it. Great to listen to someone talking about SF with such erudition.

Having only read his two most popular novels, I'll have to keep an eye out for his short fiction!

Agreed!

That's funny because Fondly Fahrenheit is my favorite Bester story.

Love Bester. I have a Signet 1964 edition of Dark Side. I recently picked up a print-in-demand (I think) hardback of Golem 100. Have you read it? Looks very experimental.

Years ago, after reading the SF Masterworks editions of The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man (before they did the unfortunate colour-grading on the covers) I tried to get hold of every Bester book I could find. Definitely interested to see a video about his later books, as there's a lot of discussion online about his early books, but not much about the later ones. When I read them years ago, I had a soft spot for Extro/The Computer Connection and read it a couple of times. I remember finding The Deceivers okay and Psychoshop average. Golem100 was one I didn't finish - probably time to revisit.

Great. My Pan version has interesting red text block.

I've watched a lot of your videos now, and I think this is the first time I recall that you've mentioned Frank Herbert. Do you have enough thoughts on him, Dune in particular, for a video? I enjoyed it as a teenager, along with the Lynch movie, but I've just remembered I tried to reread it recently and forgot about it!