Gully Foyle is as common as they come.  In the 25th century, there is no shortage of his type; the average, unmotivated masses idle through life and through space without a second thought.  He is no different until his ship, Nomad, is caught in the fire of intergalactic war and Gully is stranded, floating amidst the junk of the wreckage, left to die.

Six long months pass through delirium and an iron will.  Gully Foyle should have been dead.  He is no longer common.  A ship nears his cluttered wreck and Foyle somehow finds a way to get the attention of Vorga, the ship.  It becomes abundantly clear that Vorga spots Foyle and is poised to make a rescue.  But it does not.  It spotlights Foyle, recognizes that he is there, and casually cruises by like an uninterested child to a puppy in a shop window.  Foyle has found his motivation.

Through a vivid and fiercely paced narration, Alfred Bester writes Jules Verne high adventure better than Verne himself. Places and reactions happen so fast that ideas take a while to catch up. But when they do, they shatter the plot.

In addition to introducing incredible sci-fi concept after concept, Bester describes a hugely rich and thickly layered universe. Without ornament, he paints exactly the backdrop that is necessary to move the story, and it leaves us wanting more.  Not for a long time have I read a story that has captured my imagination in the way that Stars has.  The child inside me grinned from the start and never stopped along the way.

But my adult self was remarkably pleased as well while I read.  Amid Gully’s Count of Monte Cristo revenge is a brilliantly conceived political situation that is really the driving force.  Beyond the political background too is an intricate and thorough, however brief, societal make-up that looks as foreign to and as exacting to our familiar world.

Despite all of this, the root of the story is as old as humanity; Gully is left behind.  The promise of civilization is not progress or fairness or anything closely resembling anything like that.  The promise of civilization is to keep us safe and, ultimately, from being alone.  It always has, and always will, fail us.

Forget-me-not: the universal human condition.  How can alienation exist where technology allows us to routinely travel among the stars?  How can anyone not be where they belong when the skill of “jaunting”, a means of telekinetic transportation, eliminates conventional planetside travel?  What’s more is that there are those who can instantaneously receive and send thoughts to and from others.  How do we still find ourselves…alone?

Joss Whedon’s famous cancelled series Firefly handles this topic beautifully.  Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) is a rebel, fighting with faith for the Independents against the meddling hands of the Alliance.  While warring in Serenity Valley, his brigade is tucked in deep and within the sights of the advancing enemy.  While Mal desperately obliges his orders, awaiting for backup to save him, he receives the shock of his life: the Independents leave him to surrender or die.

It isn’t the surrendering that captures Mal, it is the abandonment.  And that’s what the whole series is about.  Mal’s character struggles with issues of trust and loyalty and honor while attempting to heal from the ultimate wound of abandonment.  Simon Tam’s (Sean Maher) subplot mirrors Mal’s in this way.

In the episode “Safe”, we get to see Simon become increasingly concerned that his sister River may be in danger at a government “school”.  When he realizes that his parents don’t share his concern, he takes it upon himself to figure out what’s going on.  This lands him in trouble with the law.  When his father bails him out, he pledges never to come back for Simon again.  Simon is as troubled as Mal is at Serenity Valley.  Later in the episode, Simon and River are kidnapped and Mal and the crew leave them to their captors.  Simon believes that he is left behind once again.  He accepts his fate, but refuses to leave his sister behind, for the second time, and is ready for death.  In the ultimate act of redemption, Mal and the crew return to save them, thereby fulfilling the promise of that civilization refuses to keep.  Simon is safe.  The idea of desertion is taken up again in the comic version of the television show in Firefly: Those Left Behind.

Gully Foyle makes a similar move for redemption in the end, which is then blasted apart and flipped on its head, like much of the novel.  This move by Gully illustrates the book’s greatest achievement in the character arc of Foyle.  He begins apathetically, turns Tiger with emotion, and finally becomes moral and wise.  Yet the splendor is the authenticity of each fluid stage of his development, which is no small task.

The Stars My Destination is a marvelous piece of work that astonishes with its relevance, despite turning 50 a few years ago.  One could argue that it is only now that this book is finally relevant.  Although this book, like much classic science fiction, was probably a commentary for Bester on the Cold War, communism, and nuclear hysteria, it resonates just as well or better now than when it was written.

Maybe the internet is our equivalent to “jaunting”.  The ferocious rate of information and opinion exchange has impacted the world in a way that no one could have predicted.  Except maybe Bester.  Perhaps he is the only one who could imagine the consequences of ultra-rapid communications because he first imagined instantaneous transportation.  Of this, I cannot be sure.

What I can be sure of however is that I will be reading this book again very soon.  I picked it up after seeing a list of recommended books from somewhere and I am sooo glad I did.  I’m not a big reader, but I am eternally grateful for having taken the time to explore this wonderful world and the life of this Burning Man called Gulliver Foyle.