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The Demolished Man 

The Demolished Man (1951)
A novel by Alfred Bester

 
Awards
Hugo
In the year 2301, guns are only museum pieces and benign telepaths sweep the minds of the populace to detect crimes before they happen. In 2301 murder is virtually impossible, but one man is about to change that... Ben Reich, a psychopathic business magnate, has devised the ultimate scheme to eliminate the competition and destroy the order of his society. The Demolished Man is a masterpiece of imaginative suspense, set in a superbly imagined world in which everything has changed except the ancient instinct for murder.Alfred Bester's early, pyrotechnic novels gave us two of SF's greatest antiheroes: Gully Foyle in The Stars My Destination (1956) and Ben Reich in The Demolished Man (1953)--which deservedly won the first-ever Hugo Award for Best Novel. Reich is an obsessed monster, haunted by nightmares of a Man With No Face, driven and compelled to murder a rival magnate in a future where crime can't be hidden from police telepaths. The penalty is Demolition: erasure of the criminal's mind. Armed with an ugly weapon holding very special ammo, an insane jingle to mask his thoughts, and the resources of his interplanetary business empire, Reich takes on the world--but, as hinted by clues in chapter 1, he still doesn't understand his own buried motives. It's an impossible problem for police chief Lincoln Powell, one of the hated mind-reading elite--who knows very well whodunnit but can't go to court on telepathic evidence alone. Bester's dazzling 24th century is full of brilliant and dotty conceits, most famously the woven typographic patterns of telepaths' group 'conversations'. A gripping, headlong storyline hurtles from Earth's decadent high society to its lowest dives, with an interlude of mayhem at the Spaceland asteroid resort. The final confrontations are apocalyptic and unforgettable, with major psychological shockers and a moving aftermath. A genuine SF classic. --David Langford


 

Hardback Editions

April 2012 : Hardback
Title: The Demolished Man
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 1258272741 / 9781258272746
Publisher: Literary Licensing, LLC
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   

June 1993 : Hardback
Title: The Demolished Man
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 0899683290 / 9780899683294 (USA edition)
Publisher: Lightyear Pr
Availability: Amazon   Amazon CA   Amazon UK   

November 1989 : Hardback
Title: Demolished Man
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 1856955435 / 9781856955430 (UK edition)
Publisher: Isis Audio Books
Availability: Amazon CA   

June 1951 : Hardback
Title: The Demolished Man
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 0824014022 / 9780824014025 (USA edition)
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Availability: Amazon   Amazon CA   Amazon UK   

Paperback Editions

April 2012 : Paperback
Title: The Demolished Man
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 1258277190 / 9781258277192
Publisher: Literary Licensing, LLC
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   

July 1999 : Paperback
Title: The Demolished Man (S.F. MASTERWORKS)
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 1857988221 / 9781857988222 (UK edition)
Publisher: Gollancz
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   

July 1996 : Paperback
Title: The Demolished Man
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 0679767819 / 9780679767817 (USA edition)
Publisher: Vintage
Availability: Amazon UK   Amazon   Amazon CA   

June 1978 : Paperback
Title: Demolished Man
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 0671476262 / 9780671476267 (USA edition)
Publisher: Pocket Books (Mm)
Availability: Amazon   Amazon CA   Amazon UK   

December 1979 : Paperback
Title: Demolished Man
Author(s):: Alfred bester
ISBN: 0671835300 / 9780671835309 (USA edition)
Publisher: Pocket
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   

June 1978 : Mass Market Paperback
Title: DEMOLISHED MAN
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 067182046X / 9780671820466 (USA edition)
Publisher: Pocket Books
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   Amazon CA   

March 1954 : Mass Market Paperback
Title: Demolished Man
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 0451075854 / 9780451075857 (USA edition)
Publisher: New Amer Library (Mm)
Availability: Amazon CA   Amazon UK   Amazon   

December 1974 : Mass Market Paperback
Title: The Demolished Man
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 0451062256 / 9780451062253 (USA edition)
Publisher: Penguin
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   

November 1974 : Paperback
Title: The Demolished Man (Penguin science fiction)
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 0140025367 / 9780140025361 (UK edition)
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Availability: Amazon UK   Amazon   

December 1970 : Mass Market Paperback
Title: The Demolished Man
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 0451044614 / 9780451044617 (USA edition)
Publisher: Signet
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   

December 1966 : Paperback
Title: Demolished Man (Classic science fiction)
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 0140101217 / 9780140101218 (UK edition)
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   

April 1961 : Mass Market Paperback
Title: Demolished Man
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 0451011058 / 9780451011053 (USA edition)
Publisher: Roc
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   

April 1961 : Mass Market Paperback
Title: The Demolished Man (Signet SF, D2679)
Author(s):: Alfred Bester
ISBN: 0451026799 / 9780451026798 (USA edition)
Publisher: New American Library
Availability: Amazon   

 


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