Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Orbis - Hyspamerica
Description
Fiction. Science Fiction. Alfred Bester's first science fiction novel since The Stars My Destination was a major event--a fast-moving adventure story set in Earth's future. A band of immortals--as charming a bunch of eccentrics as you'll ever come across--recruit a new member, the brilliant Cherokee physicist Sequoya Guess. Dr. Guess, with the group's help, gains control of Extro, the super-computer that controls all mechanical activity on Earth. The plan to rid Earth of political repression and to further Guess's researches--which may lead to a great leap in human evolution to produce a race of supermen. But Extro takes over Guess instead of turns malevolent. The task of the merry band suddenly becomes a fight in deadly earnest for the future of Earth. Sequoya Guess, whom they love, must be killed. And how do you kill an immortal?… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member dbsovereign
Bizarre, wacky story that enthralls despite its absurdity. A group of immortals fights to rid itself of a threat from within that has joined with a monstrous supercomputer to threaten most of the world (and their livelihood). The narrator and the characterizations of a few of his cohorts shine
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through in this jumbled adventure. Given the era, I suppose one must forgive some language/charactization that might be construed as homophobic. Show Less
LibraryThing member Garrison0550
An awful bomb exploding in my brain...make it stop...make it stop! So I did just that. I took it to the used book store as a trade in. They didn't want it either.
LibraryThing member wunder
There was a strain of exuberant writing in the late 1960s and early 1970s and this is solidly in that vein. It ranged from Hunter S. Thompson to Richard Brautigan and beyond. This is solidly in that micro-tradition.
Let go and join the flow. Don't try to figure out the science or the slang or any of
Let go and join the flow. Don't try to figure out the science or the slang or any of
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those things you are used to digging into in an SF novel. This is a wild ride with fireworks at every turn. Show Less
LibraryThing member rakerman
Science fiction authors must get frustrated, because on the one hand they try to clearly explore issues, then to see them play out for real years later without any intelligent discussion taking place, and on the other hand sometimes it seems no matter how crazy the future they imagine, some aspects
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of it end up coming true. Now our modern world is not quite like the one imagined in Alfred Bester's The Computer Connection (called Extro in the UK) yet there are some aspects of his society with its collapse into hedonism and pervasive (and sometimes perverse) advertisement that can be seen reflected in a funhouse mirror in ours. Of course Bester is writing a sort of demented tongue-in-cheek future, not some serious prediction of future events. Nevertheless I am always amazed, given the time period in which some books were written, how they can still resonate, however crazily, with current times. Extro is a very entertaining, wildly creative book, there are immortals and Indians living on dry Great Lake beds, and a chase that spans from Ceres to tunnels deep beneath the earth. It's all really quite mad and frequently amusing. Show Less
LibraryThing member ellisonite
Not as good as some of Bester's other works, but still worth the read, if only for the hyper-eccentricity of the characters.
LibraryThing member RandyStafford
My reactions to reading this novel in 1991. Spoilers follow.
This is not, as Bester said in an interview, an undefined failure.
The story works in terms of interest after a slow start. The novel picks up after the murder of Fee-5 Grauman's Chinese. It is without the more strained typographical
It's interesting to see how Bester repeatedly uses certain elements at certain points in his writing career. Here the ecological themes and idea of a computer run society echo Bester's "Somebody Up There Likes Me", a violent America and Indians show up in his "The Four-Hour Fugue" and Golem100. (I liked his witty satire and rioting, illiterate students.)
I didn't, after awhile, mind the contrived romance between Curzon and Natorna. I'm even able to overlook lapses in plot logic. (Why go to Titan to get the Neanderthal immortal to fool Extro? Why not just go back to the salt mine and detain Guess by force so he can't serve as Extro switchboard by surfacing from the salt mine?.) I liked the brilliant, colorful group of immortals. But the story didn't work nearly as well The Stars My Destination or The Demolished Man. Both these novels were, especially the former, rather grim books. In Bester's latter novels, his wit and urbanity overwhelm his emotional effects, make the story an exercise in plot mechanics and cleverness with no emotional depth. In these latter books -- especially Golem100 -- typographical devices are not as well integrated, seem to be present more out of habit than need. To be sure, the glibness, wit, and superficiality of this book's story was due to the nature of the narrating character but that makes it no more effective
This is not, as Bester said in an interview, an undefined failure.
The story works in terms of interest after a slow start. The novel picks up after the murder of Fee-5 Grauman's Chinese. It is without the more strained typographical
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devices and incomprehensibility of his Golem100. The story of immortals killing to increase their number and their eventual transcendence to virtual godlike omniscient was coherent. It prefigures some cyberpunk themes in books like William Gibson's Neuromancer as does his unusual emphasis on the criminal underworld -- here less pronounced than, say, his The Demolished Man or The Stars My Destination. I wonder if this was one of the first sf novels to show computers running society through electronic networks of linked devices -- both inputs of data and executing machines -- rather than a central monolith computer. These elements help explain cyberpunk authors listing Bester as an influence. It's interesting to see how Bester repeatedly uses certain elements at certain points in his writing career. Here the ecological themes and idea of a computer run society echo Bester's "Somebody Up There Likes Me", a violent America and Indians show up in his "The Four-Hour Fugue" and Golem100. (I liked his witty satire and rioting, illiterate students.)
I didn't, after awhile, mind the contrived romance between Curzon and Natorna. I'm even able to overlook lapses in plot logic. (Why go to Titan to get the Neanderthal immortal to fool Extro? Why not just go back to the salt mine and detain Guess by force so he can't serve as Extro switchboard by surfacing from the salt mine?.) I liked the brilliant, colorful group of immortals. But the story didn't work nearly as well The Stars My Destination or The Demolished Man. Both these novels were, especially the former, rather grim books. In Bester's latter novels, his wit and urbanity overwhelm his emotional effects, make the story an exercise in plot mechanics and cleverness with no emotional depth. In these latter books -- especially Golem100 -- typographical devices are not as well integrated, seem to be present more out of habit than need. To be sure, the glibness, wit, and superficiality of this book's story was due to the nature of the narrating character but that makes it no more effective
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LibraryThing member nmele
Although somewhat dated now, this is still a very good Alfred Bester novel, which means it is a very good story.
LibraryThing member crdf
I've read this book a few times. One of my top favorites. If you are into science fiction this a must must have. It's a page turner.
LibraryThing member clong
I am happy to see that quite a few reviewers here liked this. I wanted to like it, but in the end I just didn't find much to like. Brief hints of the bravura storytelling that made The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination so memorable can do little for characters whose uniqueness can't hide
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their superficiality and a plot that feels utterly random. Oh well... Show Less
LibraryThing member joeldinda
First read this book when it was published, and remember enjoying it immensely. Less enthused now, but it's a fun read.
I remembered a few things from the earlier reading, but didn't really remember the story. Which is OK; the story's pretty flimsy.
A note, though: It's not a casual read. You need to
I remembered a few things from the earlier reading, but didn't really remember the story. Which is OK; the story's pretty flimsy.
A note, though: It's not a casual read. You need to
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pay attention. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1976)
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1975)
Language
Original publication date
1975-05
ISBN
8476344082 / 9788476344088
Other editions
Computer connection by Alfred Bester (Paper Book)
Computer connection by Alfred Bester (Paper Book)