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Review - Psychoshop - Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny

Science authors' favourites - Brian Clegg

Every now and then someone decides to finish off an uncompleted work by a dead author. Often the result is less than thrilling - but here the combination of 1950s superstar Alfred Bester and the equally scintillating Roger Zelazny (sadly now also dead) is fascinating.

Bester really invented modern science fiction, moving away from the cardboard characterizations of the earlier authors. His books sizzle, glitter, scintillate - in many ways they prefigure the electric action of cyberpunk without the nasty bits. You can see much of this in Psychoshop, yet it's overlaid with Zelazny's wit and charm.

Just occasionally the gaps show, and the ending missed out on a final polish which makes it less than the perfect book it could have been - also Zelazny (I guess it was him) comes out with his occasional tendency to overdescribe lengthy fight sequences - but the result is still remarkable.

What's it about? At its most basic, a psychic pawnbroker's shop based around a black hole that has been trading in physical and mental capabilities for over 2000 years. But there's much more to it - and to the main characters - than first seems the case. Enjoy!

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

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