The Demolished Man
by Alfred Bester

The Demolished Man is considered a classic novel in the science fiction field. After reading it for myself, it is not hard to see why. It is a novel that plays at several levels: it is a detective novel, a novel about a special group of people and a novel with psychological underpinnings. On all those levels, it succeeds.

The novel revolves around two people. One is Ben Reich, owner of a solar system wide conglomerate who is in a domination struggle with another conglomerate and losing. In a desperate bid to change his fortunes, he decides to murder the leader of the opposing group, allowing him to take it over an achieve total control.

But how is Reich to do this in a world that feature people with telephatic abilities, known as the Espers? Powerful people usually have a few of them (known popularly as 'peepers') who do surface scans of the minds of people around them. Any attempt to commit violence would be sensed by them.

But, as the novel shows, this is possible and the method could be used even today, assuming Espers really exist. When the murder is discovered, an Esper police officer, Lincoln Powell, is called in to investigate. He discovers that Reich is the murderer using standard police procedures. In this world, Espers have to play by the rules and one rule is that they cannot scan people without their permission and Esper lawyers make sure even the cops follow that rule!

Once the murderer is discovered, the novel turns into a game of cat and mouse between Reich and Powell, one fighting to retain his 'self' (the punishment for murder is 'demolition') while the other must find the standard three elements of the murderer: means, motive and opportunity. Here, Powell's Esper powers help to guide him towards them. But he still needs his police skills to get Reich.

And, just when you thought the game was up, Bester throws in a psychological angle on the situation that depends on a crucial section in the early part of the novel (that's the only hint I'll give), giving the ending a very large twist.

Bester proposes a well formed world where people with telephatic powers are accepted as part of society. They form a guild with strict guidelines on how their powers are used (the punishment for breaking it is expulsion and isolation from other Espers). Their goal is to find more Espers and to eventually find a way to make everybody have Esper powers. This contrasts with many stories that treat people with telephatic powers as either freaks or as absolute masters of 'normal' people. In many ways, the Psi Corps featured in the TV series, Babylon 5, owes a lot to this view of Espers. It is no wonder J. Michael Straczynski (the creator of Babylon 5) named the chief Psi Cop in the show Bester (you can find more information on Babylon 5 on the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5.

An amazing novel that deserves to win a Hugo award (which it did: it won the very first one awarded) and is a highly recommended novel.

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The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

The Demolished Man
by Alfred Bester