thumb|right|The first installment of The Stars My Destination was cover-featured on the October 1956 issue of Galaxy.

The Stars My Destination is a science fiction novel by American writer Alfred Bester. It was first published in book form in the United Kingdom in June 1956, where it was titled Tiger! Tiger!; the novel was named after William Blake's 1794 poem "The Tyger", whose first verse is printed as the first page of the novel. Specifically, the novel features megacorporations as powerful as governments, a dark overall vision of the future, and the cybernetic enhancement of the body.

Allusions

The name of Charles Fort Jaunte, who discovers teleportation, derives from Charles Fort, a writer principally of nonfiction, who coined the term "teleportation".

The title "The Stars My Destination" appears in a quatrain quoted by Foyle twice during the book. The first time, while he is trapped in outer space, he states:

:Gully Foyle is my name

:And Terra is my nation.

:Deep space is my dwelling place,

:And death's my destination.

Toward the end of the novel, after he has returned to human life and become something of a hero, he states:

:Gully Foyle is my name

:And Terra is my nation.

:Deep space is my dwelling place,

:The stars my destination.

Both quatrains are based on a poetic form that was popular in England and the United States during the 18th-to-mid-20th centuries, in which a person stated their name, country, city or town, and a religious homily (often, "Heaven's my destination") within the rhyming four-line structure (see book rhyme).

Bester's initial work on the book began in England, and he took the names for his characters from a UK telephone directory. As a result, many of the characters are named after British or Irish towns or other features:

Characters

  • Gulliver ("Gully") Foyle: Last remaining survivor of the merchant spaceship Nomad. Captured by the "Scientific People" on an asteroid, only his face is tattooed according to their customs. The tattoos are later painfully removed, but the scarred patterns left under his skin become visible whenever his emotions flare out of control.
  • Presteign: Head of the wealthy Presteign clan, whose interests include a chain of luxury department stores, each managed by an identical "Mr. Presto". Wealthy people like Presteign demonstrate their status by using outmoded methods of transportation and never jaunting if they can avoid it. Presteign holds court in his Star Chamber, an elaborate, old-fashioned office equipped with a bar and staffed by robots. It is designed to disorient visitors and give him the psychological edge.
  • Robin Wednesbury: A Black woman, a Telesend, a one-way telepath who can send thoughts but not receive them. Foyle meets her in " rehab" while pretending to be someone who has lost the ability to . She discovers his deception, but he kidnaps her and rapes her to intimidate her into silence. Later, as Fourmyle, he recruits her to help him navigate the upper echelons of society. After she discovers who he really is, he offers her the prospect of finding her family, who were refugees aboard the Vorga.
  • Jisbella ("Jiz") McQueen: A rebellious woman, serving five years of "cure" in Gouffre Martel for larceny, she turned to crime to rebel against the limitations imposed on women to "protect" them in a world where everyone can teleport. She escapes with Foyle and takes him to a criminal doctor who is able to bleach out his facial tattoos by applying a chemical with a tattoo needle. The process is agony for Foyle, but Jisbella makes him endure it out of her disgust for him.
  • Saul Dagenham: The head of a private "special services" agency contracted by Presteign to interrogate Gully Foyle and force him to reveal the location of the derelict Nomad. Dagenham was a nuclear scientist who became radioactive in an accident. He cannot remain in a room with other people for more than a short time.
  • The agents of "Dagenham Couriers Inc.": A bizarre collection of freaks who specialize in "FFCC", or "Fun, Fantasy, Confusion, and Catastrophe" to carry out their missions of theft, kidnapping, and espionage.
  • Peter Y'ang-Yeovil: Head of a government Central Intelligence agency based on ancient Chinese principles who is also trying to find Nomad. He is "a member of the dreaded Society of Paper Men, and an adept of the Tsientsin Image Makers". Although of Chinese descent and able to speak fluent Mandarin, he does not look Chinese.
  • Olivia Presteign: Daughter of Presteign, she is an albino who is blind to visible light, but can see in the infrared spectrum and some radio waves. Like Jisbella, she too is in revolt against her treatment as a woman, and also as a genetic anomaly. Her rebellion takes the form of interplanetary smuggling of refugees. It was on one such mission that she ordered her ship Vorga to ignore the distress calls from Nomad.
  • Regis Sheffield: A high-priced lawyer working for Presteign, he is actually an agent of the Outer Satellites coalition.
  • "Bunny": Sheffield's personal secretary, apparently Chinese, he speaks Mandarin with difficulty and is said to resemble a frightened rabbit, hence his nickname.

Speculative science

The novel included some early descriptions of proto-science and fictional technology, among them Bester's portrayal of psionics,

Reception and influence

Initially, reviews of The Stars My Destination were mixed. The well-regarded science fiction writer and critic Damon Knight, in In Search of Wonder (1956), wrote of the novel's "bad taste, inconsistency, irrationality, and downright factual errors", but called the ending of the book "grotesquely moving". By 1987, when the author died, "it was apparent that the 1980s genre owed an enormous debt to Bester and to this book in particular". and Thomas M. Disch identified it as "one of the great sf novels of the 1950s".

According to Samuel R. Delany, the book is "considered by many to be the greatest single SF novel". Ty Franck, co-author of The Expanse series, said: "I don't remember any of the other stories in [A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, Volume Two; an anthology of science fiction stories], and I read that book a dozen times. The only story that sticks out in my mind is The Stars My Destination".

In a 2011 survey asking leading science fiction writers to name their favorite work of the genre, The Stars My Destination was the choice of William Gibson and Moorcock. Gibson remarked that the book was "perfectly surefooted, elegantly pulpy", and "dizzying in its pace and sweep", and a "talisman" for him when undertaking his first novel. Moorcock hailed Bester's novel as a reminder of "why the best science fiction still contains, as in Ballard, vivid imagery and powerful prose coupled to a strong moral vision".

In 2012, the novel was included in the Library of America two-volume boxed set American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s, edited by Gary K. Wolfe.

Adaptations

Comics

In 1963, Australian comics illustrator Stanley Pitt and his brother Reginald worked on a proposed comic strip adaptation entitled Gully Foyle. Bester looked over the strips and gave his approval. A film company, which held the rights to the novel, apparently put a stop to this. Small circulation publications containing the strips appeared in 1967 and 2001.

A graphic novel adaptation drawn by Howard Chaykin, which utilized the complete text of the original novel was first published, in part, in 1979 by Baronet Publishing. The release of the conclusion was delayed due to Baronet's bankruptcy. The second half was released by Marvel Entertainment's Epic imprint in 1992.

Radio

A dramatisation titled Tiger! Tiger! was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on September 14, 1991 and repeated on August 16, 1993. It was scripted by Ivan Benbrook and directed by Andy Jordan. Alun Armstrong played Gully Foyle, Miranda Richardson was Olivia, Siobhan Redmond was Robin Wednesbury and Lesley Manville was Jisbella McQueen.

Planned feature film adaptations

As mentioned above, one production company had apparently secured the rights to the novel as early as the 1960s. A number of adaptations of the book have been scripted. So far, none have yet made it to the screen. While the novel has long been considered an "unfilmable" work, the screen rights were acquired by Universal Pictures in 2006 and by Paramount Pictures in 2015.

Film adaptations of The Stars My Destination have been frequently rumored. According to David Hughes' Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made, Richard Gere owned the rights to, and wanted to star in, the adaptation following the success of Pretty Woman. At a later point, NeverEnding Story producer Bernd Eichinger had the rights and hired notable comic book artist Neal Adams to produce concept art. Still later, Paul W. S. Anderson was set to direct it, but wound up doing Event Horizon instead. Since then, a number of scripts have been written, but nothing more has happened.

  • The Stars My Degradation, an early comic strip by Alan Moore (later with writing assistance from Steve) parodies the "Gully Foyle is my name" rhyme in the first installment.
  • In Stephen King's Lisey's Story (2006), the title character recalls it as her deceased husband's favorite novel. King’s earlier short story, "The Jaunt" (1981), takes its title from the book, which it names and references it at several points.
  • Gully Foyle makes a cameo appearance as an agent for the Jurisfiction organisation in the BookWorld of author Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. Another novel in the series, The Well of Lost Plots, uses Stars My Destination as the title of a tabloid newspaper in the fictional universe of Emperor Zhark.
  • The Tomorrow People, a British children's TV series, uses "jaunting" to refer to teleportation.
  • In the 2000 video game Deus Ex, Gully Foyle is listed as a current resident of the 'Ton Hotel.
  • Enzo Paulo Gugino, a character from the John Scalzi novel Zoe's Tale wrote a poem entitled "The Stars My Destination" based on "the title from an obscure fantasy adventure book that he'd never read but whose title stayed with him".
  • In Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis, the element PyrE is referenced by Zack Pickles when explaining to protagonist Michael McGill the impact of rebel journalism on society and the power structure of society.
  • In Death's End by Cixin Liu, the Planetary Defense Council adopts Resolution 479, initiating the Stars Our Destination Project.
  • Stars My Destination was the title of a year-long story arc in Starman comics.
  • In the mobile game Tokyo Afterschool Summoners, the lore of the character Nomad is based on the contents of the book, as well as the poem "The Tyger".
  • Many musical groups, including Stereolab, roadside picnic, NASA Space Universe and Slough Feg reference Gully Foyle and/or the title of the novel. Foyle appears on the cover of Sough Feg's Hardworlder album, along with a song entitled "Tiger! Tiger!".

References

Sources

  • The Stars My Destination parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 at the Internet Archive
  • John Baxter reviews The Stars My Destination at US National Public Radio
  • The Stars My Destination at Encyclopedia Astronautica