Starburst Book

This is a collection of eleven short stories by Alfred Bester. It is the first book I have read by this author, but I have read the book itself more than once in pre-GR days.

Most of the stories were written in the early 1950's with one (Adam And No Eve) previously published in 1941.

Generally the stories had a theme of the allure of time travel but the need to accept your own time; and the need to grow up, be a mature man or woman, to face your problems like an adult. All very good advice for any person in any age.

As in most story collections, I had my favorites. Adam And No Eve was one of them. In this story we meet Steven Krane, who is in a situation that he never expected, and one that he does not know how to handle. All he knows is that he must get to the sea. If he can find it. This story caught me off guard at the end and made me cry.

And it is not easy to read aloud when you are all weepy. Oh, I should mention that this was the latest book in the Zapata Reading Club. Two members, myself and my husband Marco. We used to read aloud together when we first moved to Mexico, but with one thing and another popping up that fun pastime got put aside.

But now, with him still in Mexico, me in Arizona with Mom, and contact through telephone calls or emails only, we decided we would try to resurrect our reading hobby. I picked a few books out of my vast collection, looking for ones I thought would interest him and would also be fairly quick to read. No thousand page chunksters on our lists! We take turns picking and we read three times a week. Well, I read. lol

If I have already reviewed a ZRC book for GR, I decided I would not list it officially as Currently Reading. That is why this is our third reading selection but only the first title to be reviewed and added to this bookshelf. It is my turn to pick the next book, and although I will not say here what it will be (Marco reads my reviews and I want to surprise him on Saturday, our next reading day) I will say that I have reviewed it for GR back in 2015.

Now, back to what I am supposed to be talking about in a review: the book!

It was quite clear that like most sci-fi authors of his day, Bester was concerned with the looming threat of nuclear war. And the thought of escape. One story in particular explored this topic. Hobson's Choice tells what happens to a statistician when he tries to find the reason for a population surge in an area where one of The Bombs fell. What does he discover and what will the discovery mean for him?

One story that I did not like at all was The Starcomber. Mostly because it was very difficult to read aloud. As clever as it can be to have a character who uses eccentric language and a plot line that repeats itself every few pages with only slight differences, to read such a story aloud was sheer torture. I confess by the end I was reading very fast, and not from excitement, just from my need to get done!

Something that is interesting to me about reading like this is our different reactions to each story. Sometimes I was confused by the comments Marco made about a story, sometimes he was confused by mine. Once we had a good laugh when I asked him what his reaction had to do with the particular story we had just finished and he admitted he did not know, it was just what had popped into his head as he listened to me read. lol

So the Zapata Reading Club is fulfilling its purpose: we are entertained, we have many more topics to discuss (on top of the zillions of things we already talk about), and we share a little magic the way we used to when we were actually able to be in the same country. On Reading Days, the world shrinks to myself, Marco and the characters on the page. And when I finish for that day, whether it is in tears or laughter or sometimes more than a little confusion, we have shared another moment that makes our present a happy one and keeps us moving towards our future.

I highly recommend both this book and the idea of reading aloud with your partner. Try it sometime and see for yourself how much fun you can have!