Alfred Bester’s 1951 The Demolished Man is a landmark sci-fi novel in more ways than
one. Prominent enough to have been
awarded the inaugural Hugo, it likewise presents motifs of science fiction that
would later become the mainstays of writers like Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Robert Silverberg, and many others interested in the future and the
mind. Telepathy, psychology mixed with
technology, and big metaphysical questions are the main devices at work. Though several elements of the story are antiquated,
for as much as Bester’s first novel is a product of its times, it is likewise ahead
of its time, the rudiments of cyberpunk and modern sci-fi at play in its heart.
