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Bester, Alfred
VIRTUAL UNREALITIES
book-date: 1997
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GRADING:
Vintage
1999?
5th?
Trade paperback
Design: Evan Gaffney
$14.95
Fine-

Subtitled "The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester" - this retrospective is from the 3rd pass through Bester's fiction. Contains 8/11 of Starburst (1958) and 6/7 of The Dark Side of the Earth (1964) - those 2 constitute the "first pass" that collected Bester's short stories. From the "second pass" (which selected from the first 2 collections and included some previously uncollected material) - this book contains 8/11 of Star Light, Star Bright (1976) and 4/8 of The Light Fantastic (1976.) There is another book of the "3rd pass" - Redemolished - which has no overlap with this volume, containing longer fiction plus articles and reviews. None of the 3 passes are "perfect" - each set has stories not found in other sets. Most of Bester's most famous stories are found here, so I strongly recommend it.

Introduction by Robert Silverberg
Disappearing Act
Oddy and Id - (original title= "The Devil's Invention")
Starlight, Starbright
5,271,009 - (a.k.a. "The Starcomber")
Fondly Fahrenheit
Hobson's Choice
Of Time and Third Avenue
Time Is the Traitor
The Men Who Murdered Mohammed
The Pi Man
They Don't Make Life Like They Used To
Will You Wait?
The Flowered Thundermug
Adam and No Eve
And 3-1/2 to Go
Galatea Galante
The Devil Without Glasses

Copyright 1997. "And 3-1/2 to Go" and "The Devil Without Glasses" were original to this edition; "The Flowered Thundermug" was original to The Dark Side of the Earth (1964.) The rest first appeared in from 1941 to 1979: (1 each) in Star SF 2 and Omni, (2) in Astounding, and (10) in The Magazine of F&SF (from 1951 to 1963.)