The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester – – sci-fi

Gully Foyle is marooned on a destroyed ship in space. Another ship passes him by and he sends out a distress call, only to be ignored. Gully is enraged and vows to enact revenge on the captain who ordered to leave him floating alone in space. With renewed vigor, he gets the ship moving and starts on his own quest for revenge.

The Stars My Destination was very fast paced and a fun read. Gully lives in the future, where people can “jaunte” or teleport, using their minds. I found the idea of jaunting really cool. There were specified locations where people were allowed to jaunte and private residences were obscured so people couldn’t come in unannounced or unwanted. In order for Gully to enact his revenge, he has to get some vital information from some very important and influential people, with a lot of money.

These people have him imprisoned because he won’t reveal the location of his original ship. On the original ship was apparently money and something else, dangerous, that could turn the war that was raging between the inner and outer colonies in space. Gully wants the money to help him with his revenge scheme.

The way Gully’s scheme played out reminded me a little of The Count of Monte Cristo. Man is imprisoned. Man finds treasure. Man assumes the identity of a rich, influential character. Man uses money for revenge. Those were where the similarities ended, though.