I enjoyed the book. I will defer to the opinion of Besterholic as to how this fits in with other material by Bester; to me it seems to be enjoyable science fiction.

My primary motivation for writing this reviewing is that the book is actually flawed. The edition I have, which has the same cover as that displayed here, has been very poorly edited. There are numerous examples of misplaced punctuation, as well as lack of breaks between dialogue between two characters, etc.

I have never seen a book with so many obvious errors; the publishers really ought to fix it. (One almost suspects the typesetting was done with voice recognition software to save money, but without adequate follow-up editing.)

Redemolished is an eclectic collection of the late and great Alfred Bester's work. It is by no means his finest work, for that see The Demolished Man, The Stars My Destination and Virtual Realities. Redemolished is more for the die-hard Bester fans, who are glad to see work that has never been reprinted.

Sadly, much of this book hasn't been reprinted because it isn't very good. Several stories(and the bulk of the text) are made up of Bester's early attempts at science fiction from the 1940s, which don't stand up in comparison to his great work of the 1950s. I think that these stories deserve to be reprinted, but will appeal mainly to Bester fanatics. As one myself, I feel that ideally all of his stories from this first stint with science fiction should have been collected in a single, complete volume. Its good to see some, but this isn't what I was hoping for.

The balance of the text is made up of essays and interviews, many that I've seen before. Some good, some not so good.

For the casual Bester reader, this is not the volume you're looking for. For the really serious reader, this isn't it either--although the best you'll find available.

This book was my initial introduction to Alfred Bester and to Sci-Fi books in general. I could not put it down. I enjoyed all of the stories tremendously. The level of detail as well as the smooth flow impressed me. I'm now an avid Sci-Fi book fan, thanks to Alfred Bester.

Two collections of Bester's short stories, "The Light Fantastic" and "Star Light, Star Bright" are published together in this single volume. Without meaning to denigrate Mr. Bester's skills as a writer (he has a number of excellent novels to his credit), this is an uneven collection at best. A fascination with (now largely discredited) Freudian psychology runs through many of these stories, often to their detriment, as exemplified by the rambling ravings of "5,271,009" and the almost silly "Oddy and Id". Bester tends to let his characters' eccentricities become the whole story, rather than just a part of it, so the tale's entire impact hangs on how believable readers find that character to be. The above-named stories (among too many others) fail completely on that basis, while the stronger yarns, such as "Fondly Fahrenheit" and "They Don't Make Life Like They Used To" are credible enough to capture the reader's attention and hold it. "Fahrenheit" is probably the strongest entry in this volume, a maddening tale about a defective android whose destructive behavior brings disaster to its unlucky owner. Up to the same high standard is "Adam and No Eve", an agonizing rendering of the last man on Earth, who must live with the knowledge that he has destroyed himself and his entire world with his own hubris. These two stories in themselves deserve the very highest rating. Unfortunately, the rest of this book is composed of Freudian nonsense ("The Four Hour Fugue"), pointless time travel stories ("Of Time and Third Avenue" is especially forgettable), silly mind-over-matter yarns (like the disappointing "Star Light, Star Bright", which starts out well enough, but goes nowhere), and trite deals with the devil (including the endless "Hell is Forever"). Some of this material might have been exciting or even revolutionary 50 years ago when it was first published, but the science of psychology has progressed enormously during the interval, leaving these stories badly out of date. Perhaps this is why Mr. Bester chose to leave science fiction for greener (and possibly less demanding) pastures.

That's it - throw it far from you, and back slowly away from it. Easy does it - you don't want to arouse its ire, for it could surely suck us all into the giant, gaping hole that is _Golem 100_.

Seldom have I ever tipped my head sideways in that confused puppy look more often than I did whilst reading this book - it is, and I'm positive it's supposed to be this way, full of non-sequitors and jump cuts which make absolutely no sense. Couple that with the bizarre drawings, and the completely nonsensical ending, and you've got a recipe for a migraine right there. There wasn't much of anything about this book that was entertaining - a few bits were intriguing, but it was not by any means "enjoyable." I picked it up because I was curious about Bester's writing, and I stuck through it til the end, just in case there was some hugely clever way he wrapped it all up and made it sensical. Alas, none was there.

I don't believe there are words to describe this book fully - you'd have to have an all-senses lexicon to do the hideousness justice. Y'know, something that could pull in visual, auditory, and olfactory input, in addition to a paragraph or so of the book's text, all in one assaultive packet of data.

Very rarely do I ever think, "sweet mother, _there's_ time I won't ever get back" after reading a book, even a bad one. I'm of the opinion that everything I read enriches me, in one way or another. This one? No way. No enrichment here. I want my time back!!! I mean, I would rather poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick (repeatedly!) than have to read this horrible piece of trash again.

I keep it on-hand just to remind me of how awful it is, just in case (after a few more years pass) I ever think "Gee, maybe I should reread that again in case I missed something." I tell you, I assuredly did miss something, because nothing could suck that hard, but you know what? I don't care! I never want to see the inside of that book again! In fact, I have stapled a photograph of myself pulling my hair out inside the cover, just in case I ever do pick it up.

So, to review: Run away! Put it down! Put it through the shredder! For the love of Mike, DON'T READ IT! Don't waste the time!! Honestly!!!!!!

This is the first Bester book I have read - I've always disliked the juxtaposition of humor and horror, so there is much for me to dislike in Golem100. Quick synopsis: Several horrible murders occur in New York of 2175, and 3 dissimilar personalites come together to try to find the culprit. Golem100 occasionally succeeds as a detective/crime novel, and I found it hard to put down. It is NOT science fiction - it's more of a hallucinogenic-psycho-drama set in the future. Some of the stylistic devices are very inventive. I've heard that this book is hard to fathom - I didn't find it a difficult read, but be prepared to have your intellect taxed. It's basically a pornographic version of "Fantasic Planet".

With too much time on their hands, a group of well to do ladies conspire to summon the devil. This they unknowingly do, unleashing a chain of unlikely and gruesome murders. During the outbreak of the murders the perfume designer, Blaise Shima, who has an extraordinary sensitivity to odours, is drawn in by way of the strong smell of death that is coincidental with the creature / Golem that the ladies have set loose.

Police investigator, Subador Ind'dni is baffled by the killings but learns the truth when he is eventually confronted by the strange goings on between Blaise Shima and the Psychodynamicist, Gretchen Nunn, who has been employed by Blaise Shima's employers to discover why their top perfume designer is acting oddly.

Attempts to destroy the Golem appear to have succeded, but Gretchen Nunn is ultimately a replacement to the ladies that instigated the problem, and Subador Indin'dni becomes the Golem.

Much of this book is very similar to Iain M Banks' material, a couple of sections pretty much a precursor to sections of Use of Weapons and Against a Dark Background. The opening chapter is similar to John Updike's, The Witches of Eastwick. Overall, Golem 100 was a straightforward read apart from a few parts toward the final pages, which were a bit tiresome and which can be skimmed through. A section in which a number of murders were taking place was awkwardly handled: the break from Suabador Indin'dni to a sequence of murders and back again, taking a page or two to figure out what the intended effect was supposed to be, since it was a stylistic divergence from the preceding text.

All of the illustrations worked okay, but were sometimes a little confusing because they were either post or pre sync to the text.

In general, Golem 100 is a well put together piece of work all the links well thought through and convincing. The satirical aspect of the book was - I'm afraid to say - dependant upon events that I've forgotten the relevance of, making this aspect of the book little more than slightly comedic. Doubtless there are others, who will be better informed than myself, and more appreciative of Alfred Bester's intentions...

Only devoted fans of Alfred Bester's science fiction and fantasy will be enthralled with this book, a collection of largely forgettable stories and other odds and ends. The book wisely opens with a bang - the powerfully moving "Adam and No Eve" which describes the fate of the driven scientific visionary who becomes the last man on Earth. In an unusual twist, the intrepid explorer's determination to reach for the stars instigates an ecological catastrophe that renders the whole planet uninhabitable. Bester gets maximum mileage from his skill at writing prose that is heavy with violence and pain in this paean to a lost world. This kind of story is not for everyone, of course, but it's easily the best piece in this collection. Of the remaining stories, the more memorable are those that feature aberrant personalities, like the not-quite lovable kooks in "They Don't Make Life Like They Used To" and the frightening but fascinating lunatic who calls himself "The Pi Man". In a lighter vein, "Something Up There Likes Me" shows us the proud parents of an intelligent satellite and how their loving "son" affects their lives, as well as those of everyone on the planet. Included in the collection are three stories about time travel: the psychologically-based "Time Is the Traitor" fizzles despite some strong characterizations, "Hobson's Choice" suggests that one can never be happy outside one's own milieu, and "Of Time and Third Avenue" is a thoroughly forgettable yarn about an almanac from the future. The theme behind each of these stories is that time travel is a dead end to be avoided. Bester seems to think that better results can be obtained by mental control over external events, as with the genius in "Star Light, Star Bright", although he points out the dangers of such powers in "Oddy and Id". His interview with sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov is far too short to be memorable, and the autobiographical essay "My Affair with Science Fiction" may be interesting to Bester's fans, but isn't especially notable in itself. Few of these stories are scientific enough to show their age (although most of them are over 40 years old), but the ideas espoused in this collection seem to somehow fall a little short. Bester is surely a very talented writer, but too many of these stories have a half-finished quality that begs for another re-write, as though most of the story were written before he'd worked out the ending, and then once finished, he didn't have time to go back and fit the first half to the second. In any case, only "Adam and No Eve" really merits a recommendation. The rest of this book can be skipped without any major loss.