Principalmente, O Homem Demolido não convence: sabemos desde o início que o protagonista matará e que terá problemas de ordem psicanalítica. Mas a execução, a fuga, os embates com a polícia, e a caracterização psicológica dos personagens secundários não convence (afora o fato de que o personagem principal é um playboy inconsequente). Li tudo como descuidado, e demasiado próximo do que seria um roteiro blockbuster, talvez de sucesso, mas furado. E acho que no fundo o freudianismo ajuda, dá o que é de interessante a esse polícial futurista, com telepatas. Mas é pouco. Ademais, que seja dito: mais um daqueles livros machistas em que as personagens femininas são todas bobas, fúteis ou inferiorizadas.

Vencedor do prêmio Hugo de 1953. ( )

This was an entertaining twining of genres, the detective story paired with high-minded allegorical science fiction. There was an antic, hilarious quality to it that kept me off balance as the plot progressed quickly. This action boils over into a big, dreamy twilight-zone conclusion. Like The Stars My Destination (which I've been meaning to reread), the novel turns around a deranged protagonist whose interpretation of reality sets the whole story in motion. "The mind is the reality. You are what you think." It certainly concludes more generously and optimistically than a lot of books in these genres nowadays, which might be the most dated element of it in some ways. It's easy to see how big an influence this first Hugo winner was on the development of the genre and the challenge it presented to other sci-fi writers. I'm extremely surprised this hasn't been made into a big budget action flick. ( )

This was an entertaining twining of genres, the detective story paired with high-minded allegorical science fiction. There was an antic, hilarious quality to it that kept me off balance as the plot progressed quickly. This action boils over into a big, dreamy twilight-zone conclusion. Like The Stars My Destination (which I've been meaning to reread), the novel turns around a deranged protagonist whose interpretation of reality sets the whole story in motion. "The mind is the reality. You are what you think." It certainly concludes more generously and optimistically than a lot of books in these genres nowadays, which might be the most dated element of it in some ways. It's easy to see how big an influence this first Hugo winner was on the development of the genre and the challenge it presented to other sci-fi writers. I'm extremely surprised this hasn't been made into a big budget action flick. ( )

Winner of the first Hugo award, I liked it but didn't love it. My first objection, is that when I'm reading a mystery I don't like the perpetrator revealed until the end, I like to try to solve the mystery not solve how the cop will solve the crime. The only time I've liked a mystery set up that way is the old TV show Colombo. I like reading non-fiction about psychology, but I'm not crazy about "psychological" novels, and eper novels read like psychological novels to me. My final objection was that I guessed who the faceless man was about 2/3's of the way through the book.
Still really glad that I read this classic just wasn't blown away by it. I'm going to try "The Stars My Destination" next which I feel may be more to my tastes. ( )

I like this rating system by ashleytylerjohn of LibraryThing (https://www.librarything.com/profile/ashleytylerjohn) that I have also adopted:
(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful.) ( )