This story also reflects Bester’s interest in Freud, who was very in vogue in the post-war era, though as this reminiscence reveals (. “Oddy and Id” published in 1950, offhandedly refers to how a war for oil in the twentieth century destroyed the UN. Forthright and Four-Square, he had ideals has as high and as understandable as the mottos on money” and keeps me going right to the end which reveals the double meaning to the title, while keeping me entertained with tidbits like Yale’s newly introduced courses in telekinesis. “Disappearing Act” – This story grabs me almost immediately from “There are fighting generals (vital to an army), political generals (vital to an administration), and public relations generals (vital to an administration).

I’ve always gotten a great deal of enjoyment out of Bester’s work, and this book has most of my favorites of his I was pleased to see that I still enjoyed almost all the stories as much as I did the first time I read them (though the ones I didn’t like, I still don’t), starting with They Don't Make Life Like They Used To (1963) Dazzling, effervescent, sexy, and sardonic, Virtual Unrealities is a historic collection from one of science fiction's true pathbreakers. Make a deal with the Devil-but not without calling your agent.

Meet a warlock who practices on Park Avenue and whose potions comply with the Pure Food and Drug Act. Find out why tourists are flocking to a hellish little town in a post-nuclear Kansas. Read about the sweet-natured young man whose phenomenal good luck turns out to be disastrous for the rest of humanity. And nowhere is Bester funnier, speedier, or more audacious than in these seventeen short stories-two of them previously unpublished-that have now been brought together in a single volume for the first time. Alfred Bester took science fiction into hyperdrive, endowing it with a wit, speed, and narrative inventiveness that have inspired two generations of writers.

Virtual Unrealities by Alfred Bester