by Alfred Bester

isbn: 0679767819
subject: SF, Fiction and Literature
finished: 7/4/1999

Could you get away with murder in a world where telepaths can sniff out the intent to commit a crime before it's committed? The Demolished Man explores the answer to this question. Although it was written more than 45 years ago, this book feels less dated than a lot of much more recent science fiction. It succeeds on many levels and maintains a high level of tension all the way to the end, where we find out that the whole plot hangs on some vaguely Freudian nonsense -- too bad. Still, this is a good book, and was the deserving recipient of the first Hugo award.