Alfred Bester Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Graphic Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Alfred Bester was a comic and graphic novel, mystery and thriller, science fiction, and fantasy novelist from New York City.

He was born in 1913 to a middle-class and very hardworking shoe salesman that provided a modest living for his family. He remembers that his family has a very liberal attitude towards society and religion when he was growing up.

Even though he was born a Jew, the Laissez-faire attitudes of his family meant he got to pick his own faith and he went with Natural Law.
As a teenager, Bester went to the Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduation, he became a member of the Philomathean Society, which happens to be one of the oldest literary societies in the US.

After he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in 1935, he enrolled at Columbia University as a postgraduate student of law.

He then studied protozoology at the University of New York but quit both colleges without graduating. It was during this time that he met Rolly Goulko, who would, later on, become his wife for many years.

Bester’s start was when he enrolled in the 1939 amateur story competition sponsored by “Thrilling Wonder Stories” magazine. His submission was entitled “The Broken Axiom,” which was a short story that he wrote over several months.

Rumor has it that many of the editors of the competition were already familiar with Bester’s work and set up the competition to propel his career. Even that early in his career, he was exceptionally skilled at writing science fiction and short fiction.

For the next few years, he was contracted to write short stories such as “The Mad Molecule” and “Voyage to Nowhere.”

These short stories that were published in the 1940s were published in “Astonishing Stories” magazine and “Thrilling Wonder Stories” magazine.

His early stories were very well received even though they were not widely read. They show his clear progression towards the characteristic style that he would become known for.

They would show the aggressive cynicism that has an emphasis on personal change following a catastrophe. Over the years, she continued to improve his craft as he waited for the opportunity to go mainstream.

Alfred Bester got the opportunity he desperately needed when in 1942 he was offered a job writing for the likes of “The Green Lantern,” “Superman,” “Captain Marvel,” and “Batman” at DC Comics.

In 1946, he changed careers once again and began writing radio scripts for the likes of “The Shadow,” “Nero Wolfe,” and “Charlie Chan.”

From 1950, Bester got into television and produced scripts for the likes of the “Paul Winchell Show,” “Space Cadet,” and “Tom Corbett.”

In 1956, he quit writing TV scripts and got into the writing of features. Working for “Holiday Magazine,” he moved up the ranks to become one of its most prolific contributors and ultimately Senior Literary Editor.

When the magazine shut down several years later, he decided to go back to writing science fiction, which he claimed was his original love.
As an author of science fiction, he is best known for the works he wrote early in his career, which earned his reputation and fame.

“The Stars My Destination” by Alfred Bester is the story of Gully Foyle, the brute genius who combines the characteristics of Prometheus and Cain, Hamlet and Caliban, and Samson and Satan.

During a war between the Outer and Inner Planets, the unskilled, amoral, and unlettered Gully Foyle finds himself on “The Nomad,” a wrecked spaceship that is adrift in space.

He is the only survivor of a brutal attack who hopes that he will be rescued soon enough. When Vorga a friendly ship does not pick him up he is enraged and vows revenge.

It is this passion that provides the motivation for a series of crimes such as murder, rape, blackmail, and many others. He turns himself into Geoffrey Fourmyle who years ago has decided to leave Gully Foyle in the dust.

Foyle’s search is set in a world filled with horrors and marvels. There are all manner of vast underground prisons, teleportation, heartless mega-corporations, cathedrals, and a mysterious substance named that may either transform or consume our world.

Alfred Bester’s novel “The Demolished Man” is an ingenious combination of dystopian science fiction and noir policier work.
It asks the question what if one was very rich and wished to kill another equally wealthy man but live in a place where mutant telepaths work for the city police and almost every mega-corporation.

The Columbo-style novel introduces Ben Reich a man who plans and ultimately kills Craye D’Courtney.

We then observe Lincoln Powell the Police Prefect who is a mutant investigate the crime. He periodically interrogates Reich and it is not long before he is getting closer to the truth.

Both Powell and Reich have their own strategies and working with their allies in flight and in pursuit makes for an entertaining and intricate history.
Another interesting side story is the romantic undertones between Barbara D’Courtney, the beautiful and traumatized daughter of the murdered man, and the Prefect.
The most spectacular part of the work has to be the conclusion in which learn the meaning of demolition. It is a tour de force work just as good as anything that came earlier in Alfred Bester’s career.

“The Computer Connection” by Alfred Bester is a story with a bunch of characters that have experienced traumatic or horrific deaths. The bizarre thing is that they are all unified as epileptics.

The traumatic deaths came about by extreme firing of nerves that shocked their cells and in the process eliminated cellular secretions that usually cause aging.
The characters have achieved some form of immortality and will not die of natural causes which means they can breathe, drink or eat anything they like and not have to suffer the consequences.

But they can still be killed by violent old-fashioned techniques. However, since they achieved some form of immortality they had banded together to protect each other from enemies.

As one can expect from immortals who have lived for millennia or at the very least for centuries, most of these people are masters of different crafts and have developed a range of expertise and knowledge in varied disciplines.

Even though they do not have a formal base or code, they have a sense of loyalty to each other, despite being spread across the solar system and on planet Earth.