Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Stars My Destination

  • By: Alfred Bester
  • Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
  • Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (239 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Stars My Destination cover art

The Stars My Destination

By: Alfred Bester
Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £17.99

Buy Now for £17.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Demolished Man cover art
The Mote in God's Eye cover art
City cover art
The Forever War cover art
Solar Lottery cover art
Solaris cover art
Hyperion cover art
Gateway cover art
Exile cover art
Ringworld cover art
Ubik cover art
Empire in Black and Gold cover art
Xenos cover art
Who? cover art
The World Jones Made cover art
Ravenor cover art

Summary

Marooned in outer space after an attack on his ship, Nomad, Gulliver Foyle lives to obsessively pursue the crew of a rescue vessel that had intended to leave him to die.

When it comes to pop culture, Alfred Bester (1913-1987) is something of an unsung hero. He wrote radio scripts, screenplays, and comic books (in which capacity he created the original Green Lantern Oath). But Bester is best known for his science fiction novels, and The Stars My Destination may be his finest creation. With its sly potshotting at corporate skullduggery, The Stars My Destination seems utterly contemporary, and has maintained its status as an underground classic for over 50 years.

©1956 Alfred Bester; copyright renewed 1984 by Alfred Bester; special restored text of this edition copyright 1996 by the Estate of Alfred Bester; Introduction copyright 1996 by Neil Gaiman (P)2017 Tantor

What listeners say about The Stars My Destination

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    126
  • 4 Stars
    75
  • 3 Stars
    29
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    123
  • 4 Stars
    67
  • 3 Stars
    17
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    117
  • 4 Stars
    65
  • 3 Stars
    21
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Tiger Tiger burning bright

This has to be the best novel ever written. Prophetic, Psychedelic, Astonishing, Incredible, MindBending, Unfeasible

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent sci fi tale

I've read this book a few times over the years and I really enjoyed this audiobook version which was really well narrated.
Amazing that Alfred Bester published it in 1956, I've always thought it would make a fantastic film but it would need a visionary director and a huge budget to get it right.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely brilliant, epic sci-fi.

Despite thinking of myself as a Sci-Fi fan, I'd never encountered any Bester before this and as such had no expectations, but my god was I pleasantly surprised. Bester appears to be a master of the anti-hero protagonist (see also Demolished Man) and his scope for world building, nay universe building is second to none. He tells a fantastic story here, reaching through time and space with a huge arc of plot and character development. I was hooked from the first chapter, never once bored and ultimately satisfied by the end.

At first hearing of Gerard Doyle's narration I was a little unsure, but by the third page I was settled in and realised that he's a fantastic talent. To the extent now that I couldn't bear to not have him read Bester. It really is a marriage made in the stars. So make this your next Audible destination!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

D A T E D

Slightly surprised by the number of rave reviews. This is a pretty typical early SF novel, and not one of the best in my option. Clunky exposition a few to many deus ex machina moments. The main character isn't an "antihero" he's just a dickhead.
And it always disappoints me when an author can have so many visionary ideas about the future and what society will be like but can't imagine that women are anything but objects and sprinkled around a story just to be shagged.

I've read a lot of old SF and I can accept that some of them have outdated facets but this one is just unpleasant right from the start.

I gave up halfway, just after the third rape. Ugh. The one woman, our notional heroine, who's consents (sometimes) to sex with Foyle is called "Jiz". Yes really.

Narrater does a good job.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

A book that hates women

The narrator is great, the ideas in the book are great. But the intense unlikeability of the main character and the way he treats women from beginning to end - and which the listener is supposed to just accept - is too much.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Genuine SciFi Classic

Cant believe how well this story has "stood the test of time".
I must have read it over 35 years ago and it just hasn't dated. A good story is a good story, whenever it was written.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A classic.

A classic must read scifi story. The performance wasn't my favourite but none the less worth a listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Top quality Sci-Fi

Plot, pacing, language, ideas, character, worldbuilding - it has it all. Engaging from the opening sentence. Really well performed. Head and shoulders above other ‘included’ books on audible that I’ve encountered (so far)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A wonderful adventure

Full of energy and imagination. Really enjoyed it. As always with the best stories of any genre, it’s a wonderful human story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing book, original beyond any normal sci-fi

This is a truly remarkable book, it is engrossing and thought provoking. Rightfully regarded as one of the greatest sci-fi books ever written.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!