The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (3 stars)

Explosion! Concussion! The vault doors burst open. And deep inside, the money is racked for pillage, rapine, loot. Who's that? Who's inside the vault? Oh God! The Man With No Face!

This opening made me cringe. It might be the first Hugo winner ever but the opening reads like a story written by a high-school kid, or the script for an old cheesy Batman episode: it's just missing a POW! and a SOCK! But it gets better, and the concept of a highly sophisticated pre-meditated murder in a society where crime doesn't exist because the police can read your mind is a great one. The telepathy, and the ESPers guild are interesting ideas, but I was most impressed with the mind-to-mind conversations between the espers that were written as a woven mesh of words with custom typography. Great stuff.

The novel builds to a fairly early mini-climax where the murder takes place, after which the rest of the novel is spent in a cat and mouse game. Powell, a 1st-class esper police detective, works to build physical evidence to prove the guilt of Reich that he already knows via ESP, but which is not admissible in court. While I initially enjoyed this thrust and parry between Reich and Powell, I got tired of waiting for Powell to prove something that everyone involved, including the reader, already knows to be true.

A couple of confusing things I noticed that didn't get explained: how does Barbara, stumbling around after the struggle with Reich make such an effective escape and how does she end up in a bizarre place like Chooka's? Why become part of a public 'psychic' show when the whole world is pursuing her? Why didn't she go to the police? Was she aware of who Reich was? Why did Reich's goon go to Chooka's with his wife and choose to get a lap dance from Barbara instead of killing her?

The ear-worm jingle that Reich uses as a simple defence against mind-reading is actually really catchy, despite not even knowing the tune:

Tenser, said the Tensor. Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun.

Similar to The Stars My Destination I can see why this was an amazing novel for its time, and a deserving winner for the first Hugo.

3 stars.