#14 in the Millennium SF Masterworks series, a library of the finest science fiction ever written.The first-ever winner of the Hugo Award for best sf novel of the year. “One of the all-time classics of science fiction.”—Isaac Asimov“Bester's two superb books have stood the test of time. For nearly sixty years they’ve held their place on everybody's list of the ten greatest sf novels” —Robert Silverberg “Alfred Bester wrote with the pedal to the floor and the headlights on full beam. His work combined erudition with an unparalleled imaginative inventiveness. Bester was writing cyberpunk while William Gibson was still running around zapping the other kids at school with a toy raygun.”—James LovegroveIn a world policed by telepaths, Ben Reich plans to commit a crime that hasn't been heard of in 70 years: murder. That's the only option left for Reich, whose company is losing a 10-year death struggle with rival D’Courtney Enterprises. Terrorized in his dreams by The Man With No Face and driven to the edge after D’Courtney refuses a merger offer, Reich murders his rival and bribes a high-ranking telepath to help him cover his tracks. But while police prefect Lincoln Powell knows Reich is guilty, his telepath's knowledge is a far cry from admissible evidence. Alfred Bester took science fiction into hyperdrive, endowing it with a wit, speed, and narrative inventiveness that have inspired two generations of writers. And nowhere is Bester funnier, speedier, or more audacious than in these seventeen short storiestwo of them previously unpublishedthat have now been brought together in a single volume for the first time. Read about the sweet-natured young man whose phenomenal good luck turns out to be disastrous for the rest of humanity. Find out why tourists are flocking to a hellish little town in a post-nuclear Kansas. Meet a warlock who practices on Park Avenue and whose potions comply with the Pure Food and Drug Act. Make a deal with the Devilbut not without calling your agent. Dazzling, effervescent, sexy, and sardonic, Virtual Unrealities is a historic collection from one of science fiction's true pathbreakers. CONTENTS: Disappearing Act Oddy and Id Star Light, Star Bright (1953) 5,271,009 (1954) Fondly Fahrenheit (1954) Hobson's Choice (1952) Of Time and Third Avenue (1952) Time is the Traitor (1953) The Men Who Murdered Mohammed (1958) The Pi Man (1959) They Don't Make Life Like They Used To (1963) Will You Wait? (1959) The Flowered Thundermug (1964) Adam and No Eve (1941) And 3 1/2 to Go Galatea Galante (1979) The Devil Without Glasses
"Dazzlement and enchantment are Bester's methods. His stories never stand still a moment."
—Damon Knight, author of Why Do Birds
Alfred Bester took science fiction into hyperdrive, endowing it with a wit, speed, and narrative inventiveness that have inspired two generations of writers. And nowhere is Bester funnier, speedier, or more audacious than in these seventeen short stories—two of them previously unpublished—that have now been brought together in a single volume for the first time.
Read about the sweet-natured young man whose phenomenal good luck turns out to be disastrous for the rest of humanity. Find out why tourists are flocking to a hellish little town in a post-nuclear Kansas. Meet a warlock who practices on Park Avenue and whose potions comply with the Pure Food and Drug Act. Make a deal with the Devil—but not without calling your agent. Dazzling, effervescent, sexy, and sardonic, Virtual Unrealities is a historic collection from one of science fiction's true pathbreakers.
"Alfred Bester was one of the handful of writers who invented modern science fiction. "
—Harry Harrison
In a world in which the police have telepathic powers, how do you get away with murder? Ben Reichs heads a huge 24th century business empire, spanning the solar system. He is also an obsessed, driven man determined to murder a rival. To avoid capture, in a society where murderers can be detected even before they commit their crime, is the greatest challenge of his life. A collection of science fiction stories, most of them reprints from the 1950s. In Hobson's Choice, tourists from the future visit our age to experience a nuclear war, while Adam and No Eve is on the world's last surviving male In the year 2301, the wealthiest man in the universe is determined to commit murder in a world in which telepaths are used to detect possible crimes before they can happen. Bisac Code 1: FIC028040 In 2301, a psychopathic business magnate comes up with the ultimate plan to eliminate his competition and destroy the order of society This one wasn’t the last war or a war to end war. They called it the War for the American Dream.
