Preview of The Demolished Man Summary:

At the base of most of Bester's writing is an interrelated assemblage of social concerns and themes that the author explores in order to draw a lesson or moral. Unlike many writers of popular action fiction, Bester approaches his work with a carefully conceived philosophy of how humankind must evolve out of the precise image of the contemporary world that underlies his philosophical assumptions. Like dramatist George Bernard Shaw, then, Bester creates characters who, when confronted with the weaknesses inherent in modern society, develop into superhumans as a reasonable reaction to their social conditions.

These reactions are individual, but they move the human race forward in a positive direction and serve not only to demonstrate the mechanics of how the race can develop but they provide guidance in terms of where that development must head as well.

The plot of The Demolished Man involves...