 Cover of first edition | |
| Author | Alfred Bester |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Michael Whelan |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
Publication date | Oct. 1981 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 272 |
| ISBN | 0-671-43432-2 |
| OCLC | 8589190 |
The Deceivers is a science fiction novel by American writer Alfred Bester. It was first published in 1981 by Wallaby Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster).
Rogue Winter has superhuman powers of pattern recognition, which he uses to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend and save the Solar System.
The Deceivers received little attention from critics; The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction later posited that resulted from a desire to spare Bester's feelings, since the novel "is not good". [1] Science fiction scholar Jad Smith has described it as a "busy, overwritten pastiche" of Bester's 1956 novel The Stars My Destination . [2] David Langford called it "mildly good fun" and praised Bester's "colourful imagination and general wildness". But Langford declared it substandard for Bester (while still superior to his other then-recent work), describing its characters as "dilettantes" who "never reach those peaks of sheer obsessiveness which powered the early novels"; Langford noted in particular the presence of "a narrator who removes all possible suspense" by telling readers the ending in advance. [3]