The Deceivers by Alfred Bester

I picked up The Deceivers on a whim. It's a beat up water damaged book that I picked up in a free bin somewhere. I'd never heard of it, but I've read several of Bester's other books and enjoyed them so why not.

This is the last of Bester's books, first published in 1981 only seven years before he died. It was initially pretty much ignored by critics and fans and several sources declared it "not good" after the death of the author. There seemed to be a general muttering about the lack response being due to a desire to spare the author's feelings. That may very well be the case, but I don't think that it's fair. 

There is nothing really wrong with The Deceivers assuming that you are accustomed to the foibles of golden era science fiction. It's a fun story but it's not anything overwhelming.  It is a stylistic throwback to sci-fi stories of the 50s and early 60s. On the negative side of that there's several comments on cultural and racial groups that simply didn't age well. Pretty much every ethnic group apparently left Earth to create their own ethnic/cultural colony on the various planets and satellites around Sol. In discussing these, there is a lot of play on stereotypes which are inherently prejudiced. There's also a sort of casual misogyny (or really more of a toxic masculinity) and sexual commentary that was much more common to the pulp literature of the 50's through 70's. While not awesome, many readers of classic sci fi have slogged through much worse. 

On the positive, it's a fast paced story with vibrant characters and conversational tone. There's a lot of invented jargon which is typical of Bester's other sci fi writing. The main character, Rogue Winter, is a sort of strange half brilliant half idiot character who sort of blusters through life as a kind of investigative reporter and heir apparent of the Maori colony on Ganymede. Most of the other major characters are a kid of rogues gallery of brilliant women who are a great deal more put together than Rogue Winter is.

I will say though, what made this sci-fi was really just an issue of setting. There were many elements that were reminiscent of Stevenson's nautical adventure stories mixed with The Godfather. If you are already a Bester fan, there is no reason to avoid this book but it won't measure up to The Demolished Man.