The Stars My Destination

All college freshmen enjoy their composition classes. My 1st college comp class was taught by a grad student named Thad which was pronounced Tad. He was a hyper liberal that had us write all about our anti conservative feelings. This was during the presidential campaign between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Boy, I dating myself. We were asked to write a paper on which candidate we supported and why. I of course being young and naïve and under the influence of my liberal environment trashed Ronald Reagan as a man who would take us to the brink of nuclear destruction and was so old that it did not matter to him. I could not have been more wrong.

My second comp class was much better. We were allowed to choose from several topics that interested us. I chose to take a comp class that was based on science fiction. I could not have been more pleased with the outcome. We were given a collection of short stories that were discussed and written on. We also read several novels and wrote papers on them. It was my introduction to Alfred Besters, The Stars My Destination. I have re-read that novel several times and enjoyed it more each time. It is based in the near future. Earth has colonized the other planets and the moons of the gas giants. There is a struggle for resources and we are now at war with the colonies. Earth is run by powerful corporations and transportation as we know it has changed completely. We now jaunt everywhere. That is we use our minds to teleport from one place to another. It is limited in range and only used to go from city to city on Earth.

The main character is named Gully Foyle and he is set up as a man with a lost past and limited future. He is stranded on a gutted cruiser in the asteroid belt and sees a ship passing by. He is the only survivor on the ship and is barely living by carrying bottled air to his sealed locker. On a cylinder replacement trip, he sees a ship cruising by and thinks rescue. He fires his ships flares and waits for their arrival. They pass on by without acknowledging his SOS. The name of the ship is the Vorga and his life mission becomes to hunt down the Vorga and destroy it. His ship is captured by a fringe group that inhabits the interior of an asteroid. He is taken in and nursed back to health but his face is tattooed like a tiger mask. This group that is living in the asteroid has started to revert back to savagery. They have abandoned technology and live by salvaging ships. Gully realizes his fate and on the day of his wedding, escapes by stealing a space yacht and returns to Earth to seek his revenge.

I will finish this book report up at a later date as there is much more to say. But I have gotten long winded or worded as the case may be.

Icool

Cobb