(Original Review, 1980-08-15)

Some months ago I made the mistake of purchasing a copy of Alfred Bester's GOLEM-100. I quickly found out that the only redeeming feature of this book is the art inside, and you can get that for free by simply opening the book at the bookstand. I have never finished GOLEM-100, I got 150 pp or so into it, gave up, and went back to reading ATTACK OF THE ANT MEN (don't ask....) which, by comparison, is almost decent reading.

There are some 'cutesy' things about GOLEM-100. The art inside (which is, unfortunately, wasted on this book.) The murder scenes near the beginning of the book (which are very/ original.) The way in which (almost all of) the main characters get killed off, one by one. The surprise ending (yes, I skipped ahead....but it wasn't worth it.)

I very much enjoyed Bester's earlier works. THE COMPUTER CONNECTION (also called EXTRO and THE INDIAN GIVER) I read through in one sitting. THE STARS MY DESTINATION is a classic of sf. It is too bad that Bester could not equal his previous achievements with GOLEM-100. It is too bad that I bought the book....

Anybody want a very slightly used hardback copy of GOLEM-100? *Cheap*?

It's probably safe to say that Alfred Bester's latest book GOLEM^100 (Simon and Schuster) is the ultimate Freudian SF novel. He has gone far beyond the Freudian overtones in THE DEMOLISHED MAN and THE STARS MY DESTINATION with an extremely vivid tale of a quest for the Id. However, a major difference is the lack of a central anti-hero character rebelling against society as there had been in his two earlier famous works. This change detracts somewhat from the tale. Instead, we are given three characters: a Black woman with extraordinary vision, a highly-paid chemical-sniffer, and a police investigator. Their headlong search for a murdering 'monster' takes them hither and thither through a near-future gigantic city.

As is usual with Bester, the tale is fairly straightforward. But once again, his writing style takes grip of the reader like few SF authors can. Also present are many gruesome scenes and explicit language not found in his earlier works. Some may find this offensive. However, the story is enriched a great deal.

The B&W illustrations by Jack Gaughan intertwine the text in several places, being more essential to the narrative than is the case with most other illustrated SF novels. And in places, they extend for upwards of 40 pages and are quite well done. Several scenes involve a stream-of-consciousness writing style that Bester hasn't practiced before, and it is quite refreshing.

[2018 EDIT: This review was written at the time as I was running my own personal BBS server. Much of the language of this and other reviews written in 1980 reflect a very particular kind of language: what I call now in retrospect a “BBS language”.] ( )

"We can't all be monsters," Shima protested.
"Deep down inside, in our Underworld, we are. Up here, at the top of the iceberg, we censor and control it; but what happens when that brute beast in us escapes control, breaks out of the cage, and runs wild? Then you have Golem 100."
"How does it break out of the cage?"
"Sharpen a wit, baby. the bee-ladies get together in Regina's hive. They play witchcraft games. Of course they never succeed in raising the Devil because he doesn't exist. That's just folklore."
Shima nodded.
"But their ids combine to form a different demon. there isn't any inferno, but there is an Infraworld, and our remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless ids live down there. The ladies' libidos merge down there and that's the genesis of the Golem."

It must be over twenty-five years since the first time I read this book, but I had always wanted to find another copy and re-readit, even though I didn't remember much about it at all; just the the idea of women as bees with a Queen Bee called Regina and a couple of memorable scenes (bumping into the furniture and what happened to Shima at the end). Gretchen and Regina had merged together in my memory and I didn't remember any of the other characters, or what the Golem was, or any of the many other scenes of sex and violence. Eventually I posted what I did remember on a book identification site, and someone recognised it as Golem 100 so I was able to buy a secondhand copy online.

To start with, I was finding my re-read a disappointment, as the characters are very arch and pretentious, not just the bee ladies, but also Gretchen and especially Subadar, and every time they spoke I was grinding my teeth in irritation. But when Gretchen and Shima started their investigation into the Phasmaworld and whole chapters of the book were filled with illustrations of what they were senseeing (sensing/seeing) there, with only a sentence or two per page, my interest grew.

I may be being generous, but I think I'll give it 4 stars for being the weirdest book I have ever read and because I really liked the illustrated sections. ( )

Pity there's no clean way to write a superscript in the title, since the title of this book is really Golem to the hundredth power. Who knew a golem could be such an entertaining creature? Who knew the future could be so very strange? ( )

My reactions to my second reading of this book in 1990. Some spoilers follow.

In some ways, this is Bester’s most ambitious novel, and I liked it better the second time around.

In the notes of his Starlight collection, Bester explains he uses typography to make reading an experience beyond mere reading of words -- a sensory experience of sight and sound. The cartoons in this novel seem more integrated into the text, more comprehensible the second time around. Bu,t while the technique is ambitious and beyond anything Bester has ever tried, the story is in the same Freudian vein as much of Bester’s work. Here a dillettantish dabbling in black magic brings a creature from the idworld to the world of the future (more monsters from the id!). There is Bester’s usual wit, here more sparkling than ever. I particularly liked the jabs at comic book writing in the where Gretchen Nunn confronts sexually all sorts of quasi super heroes.

This book is quite risque and funny in its use of sex. Interestingly, Bester, in the notes of his Starlight collection, says he feels uncomfortable in writing such nearly pornographic things. The smelly world of the Corridor is vintage, baroque decadence in Bester’s typical style (though the world doesn’t seem quite as dangerous as we’re led to believe).

The characters -- a homosexual, clever, erudite Indian policeman; a black female troubleshoote; and a brilliant perfumer -- are rather fun. The psychomancer Salem Burne is fun, a combination witch doctor and psychologist.

Bester throws in satire on polluting industries and art trends (1930s communist cells as a decorating motiff) and a surprisingly gory storyline.

Yet, the book is ultimately unsuccessful. I think things go astray two chapters from the end of the book, right after Indiri Subadar enters the idworld and declares the Golem vanished, unable to find a human host. After that, Gretchen Nunn becomes possessed and imitates the behavior of a candidate queen. Bester has a character explain she’s going back to an old pattern of nature as she kills her competitors in the Hive, mates with every male in sight, and kills lover Blaiseshima in a particularly gruesome way -- she rips his penis off. Then we find that Subadar is now the incarnation of Golem. We also hear Nunn say that men are to be used but never anything else. We have also seen Nunn has freakish psi talents (a Bester trademark) which mark her as the next stage in evolution. At novel’s end, Nunn seems to imply the Golem was unleashed because of man’s oppression of woman’s true, unconscious nature. Or Bester may be, in Subadar’s possession, likening the dictates of evolution to blind possession by the id.

The novel, to me, seems confused as to whether it wants to be a feminist work or Bester’s usual monsters from the id, or, perhaps more appropriately, monsters from sociobiological imperatives. The last chapter, with its nearly incomprehensible future argot, implies some vast changes have been worked on the human race, but we don’t know what. It’s beyond me and quite annoying.

As a novel, this is Bester’s most ambitious and biggest failure. I think part of the book’s problem lies in Bester’s confessed need to end his novels in a grand finale (as explained, again, in the notes for Starlight). Chopping this book’s last three chapter would have helped it ( )

golem 100 - one of the best books I've ever read! Can only be described as a unique, pyschadellic madness impressed upon the pages! Stylish transcendence of sci-fi; Alfred Bester is in a league of his own.

An Earth centuries in the future, characterised by nihilitic boredom, shameless poverty, lascivious violence and brutal insanity .
A hindu cheif of police is confronted by an impossible debacle.
Several murders have been committed, and the culprite is not of this world.
"Queen Regina" and her "bee ladies" are ever in search of the 'ultimate entertainment'.
A seductive and sassy private detective falls in love with curious man - with a curious proboscis!
A demon is created, and hungry for death.

These ingredients combine to generate ( )