The Stars My Destination

Gully Foyle is my name

And Terra is my nation.

Deep space is my dwelling place,

And death's my destination.

Alfred Bester’s masterpiece is possibly the most influential Sci-fi novel of all time (More so than Dune) but leaving that byzantine debate aside, it is undoubtedly a masterpiece, which unlike others of the genre has aged like a fine Pinot Noir.

The action takes place sometime between the 24th and the 25th century. Humanity has colonized the solar system but has split into 2 factions: The Inner Planets (Earth, Moon, Mars etc.) and the Outer Satellites, whom are at war with each other because of jaunting (teleportation) and how it changed the economic equilibrium.

The protagonist is Gully Foyle, a savage of a man: dumb, slow and with no ambition in life. He has been marooned in space for six months, being the sole survivor after his ship the NOMAD was attacked. Waiting to be rescued, he sees a passing spaceship, the Vorga (also owned by the same company as the NOMAD) hope builds in his soul and he rushed to send another distress signal. The Vorga notices the signal because it moves closer but then ignores it and abandons Foyle to the blackness of space. It is at that moment that he transforms and swears revenge upon the crew of that ship. For the first time in his life he has found purpose, and he shall have his vengeance.

With his new found will to live, Foyle manages to fix the ship but is captured by a cult which lives in an asteroid belt and which tattoos a mask of a tiger on his face. He manages to flee and returns to planet Earth to find the Vorga.

The novel is a kind of adaptation of the Count of Montecristo. Foyle begins as a man with potential but no motivation. When he finally breaks free from his passivity he becomes a demon bent on revenge. Nothing else matters except destroying the Vorga. In the course of the book he grows, he learns many skills, wears many masks, he adapts, he goes from a troglodyte to a homo sapiens that can think and plan. No price is too high to pay and he’ll abandon or crush anyone who get’s in his way. Very seldom do we see the evolution of a character as clear as in Foyle’s case. As the story advances he realizes that he is up against very powerful forces: government agencies and corporations, so he begins to learn and evolve.

One of the reason why the book is a classic is that it anticipated or created many staples of later science fiction: mega-corporations controlling the world, cybernetic enhancements, and a pessimistic vision of the future. Added to that is the element of teleportation.

Jaunting is essential and it is named after the scientist (Charles Fort Jaunte) who discovered it. It involves instant teleportation of one’s body including clothes and anything that the person might be carrying. Since then humanity evolved and almost everyone is able to jaunt. However there are rules for jaunting.

You can teleport from point to point provided you know the exact location of the departure and arrival and have physically seen the destination. There is only one limit: nobody can jaunte through outer space.

The Stars my Destination reads like a pulp novel, it’s fast paced and has sinister characters. The protagonist is not a likeable person, in fact he’s quite atrocious and does some acts throughout the book, which are criminal, but he doesn’t care, he is blinded by his desire for revenge. But as he evolves, this also changes and has a certain change of heart. He is the ultimate sole-warrior, the man versus the world antihero.

When it first appeared in book form its title was Tiger! Tiger! after William Blake’s poem which is mentioned in the novel. In fact the Tiger mask tattooed on Foyle’s face is a leitmotif, a mirror of a human’s soul and desire.

Everyone he meets is startled by his face, before they can exchange words they know he is a monster and he doesn’t even have a chance to hide it but he is also the most human of all the characters in the book which is maybe why the book has not lost its appeal.

Gully Foyle is my name

And Terra is my nation.

Deep space is my dwelling place,

The stars my destination