Final Reckoning: The Fate of Bester - Part 2, Reckoning (chapters 10-16 + epilogue)

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for chapters 10-16 of the second part of Gregory J. Keys' Final Reckoning: The Fate of Bester. Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

And thus we come to the end. The three way showdown is a good suspense sequence and always reminds me a bit of The Third Man, atmosphere wise, with its climactic chase sequence.

The trial: I like that Keys lets Bester do verbal fencing with his usual panache and really get into his rethoric best - and then get stopped in his self justifications not by anything the prosecutor says (who is losing the verbal battle) but by a look at Louise and the realisation that he can't justify to himself what he did to her. I think that's the most acknowledgment of guilt you can hope for from Bester this late in his life; not about an issue or his deeds, plural, but about one individual wrong done to one particular person (i.e. taking Louise's memories away). And accepting punishment for that. (It's also a parallel to how he got caught; as I said in my last comment, the French policeman's issue isn't Alfred Bester, War Criminal, but Bester, Murderer Of One Particular Person.)

(Sidenote: Sheridan not showing up for the trial, either for the prosecution or the defense, is a neat touch, because I always saw Sheridan's double standards for telepaths and his trouble handling situations involving them as one of the few weaknesses canon admits he has after Z'ha'dum.)

Of course, Bester's karmic debt goes so far beyond mindwiping Louise. And having to become a "sleeper", a prisoner without his telepathy is the kind of cruel yet fitting solution to this far, far larger debt that makes for a good story, as is ending this where Bester's story began, in "Teeptown", Geneva. With, however, a note of grace at the end. Garibaldi may get his peace by putting a literal stake into Bester's grave (a very Garibaldi gesture); Bester gets his by the irony of seeing that the new statues supposed to show the anti-Psi Corps heroes are in fact his parents and the child supposedly symbolizing hope for the future of all telepaths is himself. And so we get the pay off for Bester's psychosomatic self crippling in the second book of the trilogy when Stephen Walter first tells him about his biological parents and who he was born as, with his crippled arm in the novels as an outward symbol to his constant emotional self sabotage: only now, when he's able to acknowledge the truth to himself (and yes, get a kick out of the irony of the statues, which is very Bester and his dark sense of humour) can he move both hands again and let go, symbolically and literally.

I much enjoyed reading the trilogy again and commenting on it, but I have to say I wonder whether any one ever reads those comments.

[algeh]

I've been reading the comments! I just haven't been able to read along with the group because my books are buried in my storage unit and this is my busy season so I haven't had time to go dig them out like I thought I would. I hope to manage it sometime in the next month or two and start participating with whatever we're reading then.

[alexcat.livejournal.com]

I'm a little behind but I'm reading your comments and plan to comment as get through the rest of the book too. :)

[kathrid.livejournal.com]

I've been reading, but I've never been great at critique so I haven't commented much.

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

lurking...but currently have neither time nor books to participate.
:-(

[alexcat.livejournal.com]

Finally got caught up. I really enjoyed seeing Bester finally get what he deserved but it always seems as if he got the last laugh with the statue of him and his parents in teeptown. I felt that Keyes wrote Garibaldi well too... I could visualize the Garibaldi of the second half of the series in his narrative. I also enjoyed reading these books again, probably more than I did the first time through.