• The Demolished Man

  • By: Alfred Bester
  • Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
  • Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (204 ratings)

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The Demolished Man

By: Alfred Bester
Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
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Publisher's summary

In a world policed by telepaths, Ben Reich plans to commit a crime that hasn't been heard of in 70 years: murder. That's the only option left for Reich, whose company is losing a 10-year death struggle with rival D'Courtney Enterprises.

Terrorized in his dreams by The Man with No Face and driven to the edge after D'Courtney refuses a merger offer, Reich murders his rival and bribes a high-ranking telepath to help him cover his tracks. But while police prefect Lincoln Powell knows Reich is guilty, his telepath's knowledge is a far cry from admissible evidence.

©1951 Galaxy Publishing Corporation; copyright 1953 by Alfred Bester; copyright renewed 1979 by Alfred Bester; Introduction copyright 1996 by Harry Harrison (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Bester's two superb books have stood the test of time. For nearly 60 years they've held their place on everybody's list of the 10 greatest SF novels" (Robert Silverberg, author)

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What listeners say about The Demolished Man

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

It needed the visuals of the paper book.

There is no denying that Bester has written a top notch SF mystery. I read it many years ago in book form. While the audio is excellent, there were visuals that needed to be seen to understand some of the story. The conversational patterns just got lost without that visual. BUT...since I had read it before, I could follow along with those. The overall thrust of the story remained intact; I just missed those little things.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Demolishing the perfect murder

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester is a far future tale of a perfectly planned murder in the context of a society where a portion of humanity possesses mind reading powers. A rich business tycoon plans the perfect murder of a rival, but things go awry when a witness shows up. The tycoon battles a determined police investigator with the highest esp levels. At the same time, the tycoon is battling a personal demon that haunts his dreams that is partly to blame for his paranoid behaviors.

The main sci-fi element is the development of latent "esper" power of the human mind that only some individuals possess to varying degree ("peeping" the conscious, the unconscious, or the subconscious). This effectively precludes someone from lying or hiding information. Major portions of the solar system have been settled, although life in many respects is pretty typical of mid 20th century (the tale is set at the dawn of the 24th century). The use of logic computer for assessing adequacy of a criminal case for prosecution was an intriguing application for its time. Finally, mental illness and criminal punishment is treated by "demolition" whereby the subject's mental construct is broken down and permitted to re-establish itself through an accelerated childhood that recapitulates normal growth.

The narration is well done with excellent character distinction of both genders. Pacing and tone are well aligned to the story, especially given the multiple scenes of nightmares and other related mental instabilities.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Profoundly dated, yet inventive sf

If like me you arrived here on the strength of Bester’s far superior second novel ‘The Stars My Destination’ here are a few words of warning.

The story of the so-called perfect murder is well told, and moves along at a quick pace. And Gerard Doyle’s read is lively. The future New York setting is largely sketched in lacking much of the detail of the author’s later works, focusing instead on the ESP abilities of the Espers. So far so good.

Unfortunately the story is profoundly dated, the deeply ingrained sexism and misogynistic attitudes marring an otherwise inventively told tale. Doyle’s read compounds the book’s problems by giving all the female characters an obsequious tone that ups the pulp quality of the dialogue beyond the point most could tolerate, even giving some allowance for the era it was written in.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Dated but a piece of history

Expected all the reveals. The unflagging paternalistic quality of the story is cringe-worthy at this point in history and just makes it difficult to feel like the people are real humans and not just caricatures. Sure it was realistic for the times, but times have changed and this inability of misogyny and to stand the test of time is just demonstrative of its drawbacks. Not saying it's not worth reading. It's a piece of history. The telepathic world that's built is somewhat impressive, even if shudderingly patriarchal. Just keep in mind, it's dated and it shows not only with its misogyny but also with its outmoded psychological concepts.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Most excellent performance! Good story.

Most excellent performance! Good story. The ending touched me. Being from the 1950s, the story still holds up very well.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great journey, end didn’t hold up for me

Fascinating story along the way with lots of clever and memorable points, the end really felt rushed and just of a different story and didn’t work for me.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An SF Classic

A traverse police procedural. Set in the far future, the police are mind reading ESPers who haven’t failed to convict a murderer in almost full century. The main character is an individual who sets out to commit the perfect crime. Why he does it and how the police eventually work out the details is story full of twists. An overall excellent listen.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A classic I loved 40 years ago, but hurts now

I love the novel, many of their twists and ideas. But rereading (actually listening) it now it hurt me how poor the woman characters were at that time, even in some of the best authors like Bester.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Very outdated

I started with good intentions. I knew it was written a long time ago but i was curious to hear the first Hugo award winner. I thought i could get past the archaisms. It turns out i could not and o stopped at 90%. The role of women is particularly bad (and a sad reminder of what it used to be) either white, lover or to be protected with very often a mixture of those roles. It also feels like the author wanted to put some tidbits of psychology which must have sounded like science fiction at the time but it just feels idiotic now.
Rather disappointing

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Really well preformed

The narrator does a lovely job with each character.
This story is a classic, and was enjoyed.

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