false 715061 8 Way back in the 1950s, Alfred Bester established himself as one of the greats of SF with a number of dazzling short stories and two major novels: <I>The Demolished Man</I> (1953) and <I>The Stars My Destination</I> (1956, also known as <I>Tiger! Tiger!</I>), both much reprinted. <I>The Deceivers</I>, his final SF novel, appeared in 1981.<p> It's a colorful, whimsical romp that plays entertainingly with themes from Bester's peak years, though without his old driving, compelling savagery. Hero Rogue Winter is a "Synergist," acutely sensitive to the world's patterns: in one set-piece sequence he follows an intuitive trail from 12 drummers drumming in a street parade to the goal of a (metaphorical) partridge in a pear tree. Winter is also heir-apparent to the Maori Mafia, which controls much of the Solar System's crime, but he must single-handedly battle the dread mammoths of Ganymede to earn his crown. Meanwhile, he has fallen helplessly in love with a sexy nonhuman shapeshifter from Titan, making him vulnerable to minions of the insidious Manchu Duke of Death, who plans to smash the syndicate that's smuggling the priceless miracle fuel Meta from the heavily defended mines of Saturn's Chinese/Japanese-dominated moon Triton.<p> Bester crams this wild farrago of a narrative with wisecracks, junk science, circus glamor, odd catch phrases, bits of self-conscious cleverness and excess, Chinese esoterica like the Mirror-and-Listen Mystery, and his trademark typographic tricks. Amusing candyfloss nonsense; quite readable, but definitely not in the same league as his 1950s classics. <I>--David Langford, Amazon.co.uk</I> 308440 1981 The Deceivers total:60|5:7|4:18|3:21|2:11|1:3| 60 195 95 2 2 0 false false Sun Aug 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 18:28:54 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 06 19:15:02 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 1 1 false false Sat Jun 28 16:17:28 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 08 09:30:28 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Mon Nov 09 21:14:34 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 09 21:14:34 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sat Oct 31 14:38:55 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 31 14:38:55 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Oct 28 05:43:17 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 28 05:43:17 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 19 19:45:22 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 19:45:22 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Oct 11 23:05:22 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 11 23:05:22 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Aug 25 22:11:45 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 22:11:45 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Aug 20 06:32:06 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 06:32:06 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Aug 18 12:18:48 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 12:18:48 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Jun 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 11:03:47 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 11:04:11 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Jul 10 11:34:39 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 11:34:39 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jul 02 14:03:01 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 02 14:03:05 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed May 20 23:05:18 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 23:05:18 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu May 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 06:27:22 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 06:27:42 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu May 14 00:21:57 -0700 2009 Thu May 14 00:21:57 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Apr 30 06:34:26 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 06:34:27 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Fri Apr 24 14:31:24 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 24 14:31:24 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Apr 10 10:36:47 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 10:36:47 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Mar 29 23:33:55 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 23:33:55 -0700 2009