THE DEMOLISHED MAN By Alfred Bester

Published : 1953
Pages : 250
Overall Mark : 9/10

Ben Reich is the owner of the second most powerful conglomerate in the entire solar system, but that's not enough for him. When he thinks he's been turned down by his business rival Craye D'Courtney when he asks for their two companies to merge, he decides to murder his rival, but because of the presence of peepers, mind readers who can invade the head of anyone, Reich is forced to commit the crime in such a way that no-one can ever find out about it.

There's something sneakingly clever about this novel, with the introduction of a code and the answers to all our questions almost from the get go. The character of Ben Reich is one of the saddest and most self defeating characters I think I've ever seen outside of a Shakespeare play, and the final twist almost trumps the main twist of the entire novel.

THE GOOD GUY By Dean Koontz

Published : 2006
Pages : 438
Overall Mark : 8/10

When Tim Carrier is mistaken for a hitman for hire, he decides to seek out the subject of the hit and warn her of her impending murder. When he meets the subject of the hit, Linda Paqette, she claims to have no idea who would want her dead, so Tim decides to help her set out on the run, but the hitman whose job it was to kill her has figured out the mix up and is hot on both their trails with murder on his mind.

It's nice to read a novel that looks at things from the perspective of both the good guy and the bad. Tim Carrier isn't the most interesting of characters - I think Koontz may have planned this on purpose - and he feels like too much of a goody-goody at times, but it's Krait that makes the story, with his unorthodox approach to rectifying government mess ups and his thirst for murder and revenge. Worth checking out if you enjoy James Patterson's Alex Cross stories.

MARTIAN TIME-SLIP By Philip K Dick

Published : 1975
Pages : 226
Overall Mark : 7/10

Arnie Kott is one of the wealthiest men on Mars, running the plumbing union who have vitrual control over all of the canals on the planet, but greed leads him to desire even more power of the Martian people. So when he hears a theory that connects autism weith time travel, he decides to use the aid of a young autistic boy so that he can travel back in time and buy some land that Earth's government plan to build housing on.

This is a very intricate and intriguing story. The characters become intertwined in the most unlikely ways, and the notion of time travel is approached in an original and wholly unusual way. The ending is a little to quickly wrapped up for my liking, but overall this is a fine example of Dick's expertise as one of the most accessible sci-fi writers of the recent past.