The Demolished Man

These old Classics are always a bit tricky to rate. They always seem to revolve around some great technological or human development and most of those are enough to make the books worth reading. In this book, Bester's ESP "Peepers" culture was really well done, especially how it tied into the justice system and, what demolition, meant. The pacing was spot on, as our ESP policeman tracked the protaganist and I was really impressed with the ending. My problem, fair or not, is that it felt limited by the times it was written in. Other than the absence of murder and serious crime, there was no other real social change or advancement. Consequently, it felt one dimensional compared to modern speculative fiction world building.