The Demolished Man

Paperback, 256 pages

English language

Published Jan. 5, 1999 by Millennium.

ISBN:
978-1-85798-822-2
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
44736912

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4 stars (46 reviews)

MASTERWORKS is a library of the greatest SF ever written, chosen with the help of today's leading SF writers and editors. These books show that genuinely innovative SF is as exciting today as when it was first written.

25 editions

Review of 'The Demolished Man' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

So my big thing about detective novels is that I love the gathering of evidence, the grand reveal and generally there being some sense of mystery to the events. This novel does away with all that and simply follows the murderer. Which cut a lot of the pleasure for me.

Ostensibly this story is set in the future however it was largely irrelevant to the plot. This novel could just has easily be set now, or even when it was written and you could still make everything except the esp stuff work. Furthermore a lot of the technology simply wasn't explored, there were smart computers, however they didn't seem to be used by the characters beyond a couple of moments, interplanetary space travel, and out of phase safes, but they really didn't come into play. Seems like a bit of a waste.

The other thing that lost a star for …

Review of 'The Demolished Man' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I have a feeling that when this book first came out it was original. But now over 50 years later, it was predictable and everything in the book is now SF cliche. It was obvious from the first page that the Man With No Face would turn out to be Ben Reich.

I hated the Powell/Barbara relationship, especially since I found it also a little creepy. She regresses to a child and he raises her as his daughter then by the end of the book they are in love and getting married. There's a definite Electra complex there.

I also hated the Reich character and half the book was his perspective. Throughout the book other characters would refer to him positively, but I didn't buy it. The guy was a dick. A ruthless, corporate CEO with no morals. I didn't see one likeable aspect to him and wanted him to …

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