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The Stars My Destination - The Complete Graphic Story Adaptation
Graphic Novel Adaptation of Bester's novel.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
About the author
Byron Preiss
108 books42 followersByron Preiss was the president of Byron Preiss Visual Publications and Ibooks, and was recognized as a pioneer in digital publishing. He was among the first publishers to release CD-ROM's and electronic books.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Preiss graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 and earned a master's degree in communications from Stanford University. He produced The Words of Gandhi, an audio book that won a Grammy Award in 1985. He was also the co-author of Dragonworld, a novel he co-wrote with J. Michael Reaves that was published by Bantam Books in 1979.
A proponent of illustrated books, as well as comics and graphic novels, Preiss also published works by celebrity authors including Jane Goodall, Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld, LeAnn Rimes and Jay Leno.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Preiss graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 and earned a master's degree in communications from Stanford University. He produced The Words of Gandhi, an audio book that won a Grammy Award in 1985. He was also the co-author of Dragonworld, a novel he co-wrote with J. Michael Reaves that was published by Bantam Books in 1979.
A proponent of illustrated books, as well as comics and graphic novels, Preiss also published works by celebrity authors including Jane Goodall, Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld, LeAnn Rimes and Jay Leno.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 11, 2016
Note: There are mild spoilers in this book review.
Alfred Bester’s novel, The Stars My Destination, is multilayered. On the surface, it’s a sci-fi and myth. Gulliver–or Gully–Foyle (Perhaps named after Swift’s Gulliver?) is an unfortunate adventurer motivated by a burning revenge. What he believes will quench this fire is the destruction of a spaceship.
Stranded on another merchant spaceship Nomad in space and surviving on his animal and human cunning to survive within a large locker, Gully plots his revenge: Get off the wrecked ship, find Vorga (a ship that did not rescue him), and blow it up.
Gully’s burning desire for destruction and revenge is all-consuming. Gully is nothing more than a beast. And this beast-like quality is reflected in a poem that he repeats to himself while stranded on the destroyed spaceship Nomad:
Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation
Deep space is my dwelling place
And death’s my destination.
The deck is stacked against Gully, yet he succeeds reaching his goals, again and again. Fighting the dangers of open space, cults, entrenched corporation clans, and colluding governments, he succeeds through drive, cunning, innate skills, and an underlying intelligence that develops over the story. And as Gully’s intelligence begins to shine, as his understanding of himself and the world grows, Gully becomes more human.
It is Gully’s humanity and final wisdom that are his true destination. His desire to commit an act of revenge evolves from the simple act of blowing up a ship to the desire to murder the ship’s captain, to absolution, to introspection, and to a cosmic insight of where and who Gully is within the universe. When Gully finally returns “home” to the Nomad’s space locker, he recites this poem to himself:
Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation
Deep space is my dwelling place
The stars my destination
By today’s reading expectations, there are a few problems with the book. Bester wrote it in the 1950s, so a number of corporate players are no longer recognizable to younger readers. And the dialogue and slang is a bit dated.
But that should not prevent you from reading this wonderful book. It’s the reading destination that counts, and The Stars My Destination takes us there unlike many sci-fi stories that can’t–in a human way. For all of us, the stars are our destination.
Alfred Bester’s novel, The Stars My Destination, is multilayered. On the surface, it’s a sci-fi and myth. Gulliver–or Gully–Foyle (Perhaps named after Swift’s Gulliver?) is an unfortunate adventurer motivated by a burning revenge. What he believes will quench this fire is the destruction of a spaceship.
Stranded on another merchant spaceship Nomad in space and surviving on his animal and human cunning to survive within a large locker, Gully plots his revenge: Get off the wrecked ship, find Vorga (a ship that did not rescue him), and blow it up.
Gully’s burning desire for destruction and revenge is all-consuming. Gully is nothing more than a beast. And this beast-like quality is reflected in a poem that he repeats to himself while stranded on the destroyed spaceship Nomad:
Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation
Deep space is my dwelling place
And death’s my destination.
The deck is stacked against Gully, yet he succeeds reaching his goals, again and again. Fighting the dangers of open space, cults, entrenched corporation clans, and colluding governments, he succeeds through drive, cunning, innate skills, and an underlying intelligence that develops over the story. And as Gully’s intelligence begins to shine, as his understanding of himself and the world grows, Gully becomes more human.
It is Gully’s humanity and final wisdom that are his true destination. His desire to commit an act of revenge evolves from the simple act of blowing up a ship to the desire to murder the ship’s captain, to absolution, to introspection, and to a cosmic insight of where and who Gully is within the universe. When Gully finally returns “home” to the Nomad’s space locker, he recites this poem to himself:
Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation
Deep space is my dwelling place
The stars my destination
By today’s reading expectations, there are a few problems with the book. Bester wrote it in the 1950s, so a number of corporate players are no longer recognizable to younger readers. And the dialogue and slang is a bit dated.
But that should not prevent you from reading this wonderful book. It’s the reading destination that counts, and The Stars My Destination takes us there unlike many sci-fi stories that can’t–in a human way. For all of us, the stars are our destination.
September 11, 2016
I really liked the story - what an adventure! (4 stars), but the real draw here is Howard Chaykin's painted art - and this elevates the book to 5 stars. Not sure I get the ending 100%, though (that very last panel on the very last page), but that's okay: maybe it's supposed to be ambiguous. (?)
A lot of work went into this book, from the adaptation of Alfred Bester's classic novel The Stars My Destination by Byron Preiss, to arranging the layout of the prose with the illustrations, which vary from thumbnail size to full page spreads. I haven't seen anything else like it. While it is celebrated as a pioneering effort in graphic novels, it is unlike any other graphic novel you have read, and promises to be a unique reading experience - if you can get your hands on a copy, that is. They are quite rare, and consequently not cheap!
A lot of work went into this book, from the adaptation of Alfred Bester's classic novel The Stars My Destination by Byron Preiss, to arranging the layout of the prose with the illustrations, which vary from thumbnail size to full page spreads. I haven't seen anything else like it. While it is celebrated as a pioneering effort in graphic novels, it is unlike any other graphic novel you have read, and promises to be a unique reading experience - if you can get your hands on a copy, that is. They are quite rare, and consequently not cheap!
October 21, 2012
As I said in my review of the "only words" version, this has long been one of my favorite all-time books. It's the basic plot of Counte of Monte Cristo set in a future world, but other than that it's oh-so-unique--especially the clipped, frenetic writing style...I'm not sure anyone has ever even approximated it. Bester wrote this, The Demolished Man (also great), and a bunch of short stories in the 50s, and then he found himself adrift in the drug-addled sixties and wrote some weird stuff that wasn't nearly as good. But this is as golden as golden-age gets!
Chaykin's art is a great complement to the classic text. One of my prize possessions...I re-read it every year or so, and am producing my own homage to Bester's style in the novel I'm writing right now, which is called Kaleidocide and is a sequel to Silhouette: A Peacer Novel
Chaykin's art is a great complement to the classic text. One of my prize possessions...I re-read it every year or so, and am producing my own homage to Bester's style in the novel I'm writing right now, which is called Kaleidocide and is a sequel to Silhouette: A Peacer Novel
July 14, 2012
If you can get your hands on this, it is well-worth reading (or reading again if you've read the novel). The art is fantastic, and meshes well with the type of sci-fi story that this is.
April 25, 2026
📚 REVIEW : THE STARS MY DESTINATION by ALFRED BESTER
This one was selected by our @bostonathenaeum SF book club. I chose to read the graphic novel version from 1992 and I am very glad I did, as the illustrations by Howard Chaykin augment the story and are of a kind I had never seen before. This story is definitely a product of its time (1956), with a lot that can hurt sensibilities today such as very blatant misogyny and racial slurs.
🚀 If you can keep that aside, the story offers engaging ideas like “jaunting” which is mind-driven teleportation, one-way telepaths, cool face tattoos, a character that only sees in infra-red and a hilarious ‘Scientific Race’ descended from scientists previously established on the planet.
👤 This is the tale of Gully Foyle’s revenge journey in which this profoundly unlikeable main character ends up growing a conscience and where clothing conveniently disappears… It is fast paced to the point that it can be jarring but makes for a fun exploration of what pulp Science Fiction was like in the 50’s when this was first published.
If it wasn’t for the awesome work on illustrations by Chaykin, I would have enjoyed this a lot less, for the reasons above as well as the convenient plot. This is a narrative that takes you where it wants to and that would fold quickly if you interrogated it further, with characters reappearing at convenient times.
▶ An interesting and fast-paced time capsule, with striking illustration, but overall not to my taste.
⭐️ 2.5 / 5
Read if you enjoy :
🎨 Graphic novels
🕔 Insights into 50’s pulp science fiction
🏃♀️ A fast-paced narrative
This one was selected by our @bostonathenaeum SF book club. I chose to read the graphic novel version from 1992 and I am very glad I did, as the illustrations by Howard Chaykin augment the story and are of a kind I had never seen before. This story is definitely a product of its time (1956), with a lot that can hurt sensibilities today such as very blatant misogyny and racial slurs.
🚀 If you can keep that aside, the story offers engaging ideas like “jaunting” which is mind-driven teleportation, one-way telepaths, cool face tattoos, a character that only sees in infra-red and a hilarious ‘Scientific Race’ descended from scientists previously established on the planet.
👤 This is the tale of Gully Foyle’s revenge journey in which this profoundly unlikeable main character ends up growing a conscience and where clothing conveniently disappears… It is fast paced to the point that it can be jarring but makes for a fun exploration of what pulp Science Fiction was like in the 50’s when this was first published.
If it wasn’t for the awesome work on illustrations by Chaykin, I would have enjoyed this a lot less, for the reasons above as well as the convenient plot. This is a narrative that takes you where it wants to and that would fold quickly if you interrogated it further, with characters reappearing at convenient times.
▶ An interesting and fast-paced time capsule, with striking illustration, but overall not to my taste.
⭐️ 2.5 / 5
Read if you enjoy :
🎨 Graphic novels
🕔 Insights into 50’s pulp science fiction
🏃♀️ A fast-paced narrative
November 7, 2019
I read the original book as "tiger!tiger!", not "stars my destination", around 26 years ago.
It was the first time I encounter the poem "The Tyger!", by William Blake. The poem stucked in my mind, the initial verse mostly:
"Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
Later, I´ve found the poem many many times and one question always haunted me: "Why all the poem rhymed but the words "eye" and "symmetry"?
It is a silly point, no? But a 26 years doubt must be solved, so I searched for it...
And yes, probably it was voiced "SYMME-TRY", not "SYMME-TREE" as nowadays:
https://english.stackexchange.com/que...
As, for the book, it is a classic, with its dated flaws and its marvelous ideas. I would not touch it for anything, the scars must remain!
The Graphic Story is very good, Howard Chaykin´s style was not still at full speed (it seems, sometimes, a Jim Steranko´s rip-off), but you could already see it growing to the later high standards of "American Flagg" and "Black Kiss".
If you have any hardship to find this adaptation, try this link and good luck:
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/The-...
It was the first time I encounter the poem "The Tyger!", by William Blake. The poem stucked in my mind, the initial verse mostly:
"Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
Later, I´ve found the poem many many times and one question always haunted me: "Why all the poem rhymed but the words "eye" and "symmetry"?
It is a silly point, no? But a 26 years doubt must be solved, so I searched for it...
And yes, probably it was voiced "SYMME-TRY", not "SYMME-TREE" as nowadays:
https://english.stackexchange.com/que...
As, for the book, it is a classic, with its dated flaws and its marvelous ideas. I would not touch it for anything, the scars must remain!
The Graphic Story is very good, Howard Chaykin´s style was not still at full speed (it seems, sometimes, a Jim Steranko´s rip-off), but you could already see it growing to the later high standards of "American Flagg" and "Black Kiss".
If you have any hardship to find this adaptation, try this link and good luck:
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/The-...
February 1, 2026
Uggh. This sucked.
Alfred Bester's Stars My Destination is among my favorite science fiction stories.
So when I found out about a graphic novel adaptation, I was thrilled. When I found a copy at a comic shop, I was excited.
When I opened it up, I was disappointed.
This isn't a graphic novel adaptation. This is most of the text of the story (I haven't bothered checking to see if all of the text was copied or just most of it) with some art thrown next to it on the pages.
I looked him up on wikipedia and apparently Howard is supposed to be an impressive artist.
If you say so.
I was underwhelmed.
I hated the artwork, it wasn't very good and it didn't pair with the text. It's like Howard based his art on vague rumors of what was happening in the original book.
Skip this version and go read the original story. Your imagination will do a better job than this.
Alfred Bester's Stars My Destination is among my favorite science fiction stories.
So when I found out about a graphic novel adaptation, I was thrilled. When I found a copy at a comic shop, I was excited.
When I opened it up, I was disappointed.
This isn't a graphic novel adaptation. This is most of the text of the story (I haven't bothered checking to see if all of the text was copied or just most of it) with some art thrown next to it on the pages.
I looked him up on wikipedia and apparently Howard is supposed to be an impressive artist.
If you say so.
I was underwhelmed.
I hated the artwork, it wasn't very good and it didn't pair with the text. It's like Howard based his art on vague rumors of what was happening in the original book.
Skip this version and go read the original story. Your imagination will do a better job than this.
May 15, 2020
All sorts of nostalgia: a classic sci-fi book written in the 50s, the first part turned into a graphic novel in the late 70s, second part (finally) printed in the 90s.
The story itself is a little clunky, but fun! And Chaykin's hand at the adaptation was top-notch for the time.
Recommended, if you want to revisit many past eras.
The story itself is a little clunky, but fun! And Chaykin's hand at the adaptation was top-notch for the time.
Recommended, if you want to revisit many past eras.
August 4, 2020
Foyle bir jön kadar yakışıklı ve karizmatik çizilmiş. Muhtemelen pazarlama kaygıları önplana çıkmış. Romanı okuduktan sonra çizgi romanını da okudum ve açıkçası verdiği hisler - romanla kıyaslayınca - bana doğru gelmedi.
June 29, 2011
An outstanding 50's era sci-fi novel where everyone can teleport. It's a bit odd and rough around the edges, but entertaining enough.
February 13, 2014
I now own a copy of the COMPLETE Graphic novel! This makes me very happy.
October 24, 2014
Really good graphic version. Terrific illustrations.
April 28, 2015
This is surprisingly good: imaginative, powerful, with an ending you'll never guess. Bester shines in this.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews