Tag Archives: a.e. van vogt

Book Review: The Wizard of Linn by A.E. Van Vogt

In the distant future, Earth is ruled by the Linnan Empire, led by Lord Adviser Jerrin—until he is poisoned by his scheming wife, Lilidel, in the chaos of an attack by a powerful alien race known as the Riss.

The Wizard of Linn by AE Van Vogt

Rather than take his brother’s place and find himself in Lilidel’s crosshairs, the scientist and high priest Clane turns his attention to defeating the Riss with assistance from Czinczar, general of a barbarian army defeated and assimilated by the Linnan years before. Meanwhile, Jerrin’s oldest son, Calaj, is installed as Lord Adviser of Linn, but is wholly unprepared for the responsibility and is quickly corrupted by power and the influence of his mother.

After capturing a Riss vessel during the battle, Clane, Czinczar, and a crew comprised of Linn and barbarian soldiers set off in search of help in their battle against the Riss. After traversing the cosmos for months, they encounter twin planets known as Outland and Inland on which reside agrarian societies of enigmatic humans with remarkable abilities of telepathy and spontaneous teleportation—not to mention an alliance with the Riss!

Clane attempts to forge a friendship with the reluctant Outlanders in order to learn the source of their powers and find a way to use them against the Riss invaders on Earth.

The Wizard of Linn is a sequel to Empire of the Atom, a patchwork novel comprised of short stories focusing on Clane of Linn, who is reviled by the population as much for his physical deformity as for his pursuit of matters beyond their comprehension.

The Wizard of Linn is a stronger and more cohesive story that sees a mature Clane at the height of his scientific prowess. Still, he is not perfect and makes the occasional mistake. The Outlanders find him amusingly incompetent and even upon returning to Earth with the knowledge and technology to potentially rescue the planet from the Riss, Clane is beset by the forces of his nephew Calaj.

Book Review: SLAN by A.E. Van Vogt

Slan by A.E. Van VogtJohn Thomas “Jommy” Cross is a member of the telepathic race of mutant humans called “slans,” eponymously named for Samuel Lann, believed to be their creator. The only physical distinction between the two races are the slan’s set of golden tendrils protruding from their scalps that serve as antennae for their telepathy.

On Earth, slans were overthrown by humans during an ancient war and are still considered the enemy. The police and military are ordered to destroy all slans on sight. Jommy’s father, a renown physicist, was killed when Jommy was a toddler, but not before concealing the secrets of his research in an underground cavern and bequeathing its location to his son.

At the age of nine, after his mother is murdered by the police in broad daylight, Jommy escapes and sets off on his own, but is soon captured by a penurious yet cunning old termagant who threatens to report him unless he uses his telepathic abilities for her selfish gain. While repulsed by the situation, Jommy realizes that he can use the woman’s hovel to hide from the police until he reaches adulthood, at which time, he will locate his father’s research and find a way to bring peace between slans and humans.

There is only one problem. During a shoplifting escapade at the behest of “Granny,” Jommy ventures across town to the space port and encounters a race of tendrilless slans! After reading their minds, Jommy discovers that this unfamiliar branch of the slan race has complete control of the spaceport and is building a fleet off world. At an appointed time, they will attack Earth and obliterate humans and “true” slans alike!

It’s up to Jommy to avoid capture, locate his father’s research, and find a way to stop this invasion before more atrocities are committed, but how can one man stop an armada led by a ruthless offshoot of his own race?

All told, a beautifully crafted, suspensful, and fast-paced tale. It is no wonder that SLAN is considered among the best works from one of science fiction’s earliest grand masters. It’s definitely among my top five all-time favorite SF novels.

Book Review: A.E. Van Vogt’s Science Fiction Monsters edited by Forrest J. Ackerman

Science Fiction Monsters by AE Van VogtIn his exuberant introduction, the inimitable Forrest J. Ackerman expresses not only his own admiration for A.E. Van Vogt, but also quotes a praising review of one of Van Vogt’s stories by none other than a young Ray Bradbury. The theme of this collection is—as the uninspired title specifies—Science Fiction Monsters (giving the impression of a reference book rather than a phenomenal fiction collection) and there are eight of them covering different themes and classified by ol’ Uncle Forry himself.

“Not Only Dead Men” (Genus: Space Monster) – During WWII, a whaling ship equipped with machine guns encounters what at first appears to be a Japanese submarine off the coast of Alaska. Upon closer inspection, the captain and crew are shocked to learn that the vessel is actually an alien spacecraft…

“Final Command” (Genus: Robot Monster) – On a future Earth, a war is brimming between robots seeking equality and their human masters who wish to destroy them, but an alien prisoner of war might hold the key to peace between the two races.

In “War of Nerves” (Genus: Arianoid Monster), the interstellar Earth vessel, Space Beagle, is threatened by a telepathic alien race known as the Riim. After setting the ship on a direct course for a nearby star, the Riim use their powers to spark a mutiny, pitting scientists against the military. Elliott Grosvenor, a scientist with special mental training known as Nexialism, is the only one unaffected by the mental manipulation, but can he devise a way to defeat the Riim before the Space Beagle plunges to its destruction?

“Enchanted Village” (Genus: Martian Monster) describes the travails of Bill Jenner, the last survivor of a doomed expedition to Mars. When Jenner encounters an abandoned village, he soon realizes that it is alive and can adapt to the physiology of its residents… or is it the other way around?

“The Sea Thing” (Genus: Oceanic Monster) drops us on a remote South Pacific island where a shapeshifting creature emerges from the depths, adopts the form of a man, and seeks revenge on a band of shark hunters.

In “Resurrection,” an alien race known as the Ganae arrive on a post-apocalyptic Earth with technology that can revive long dead lifeforms for the purpose of information retrieval. After resurrecting three humans from various time periods—and subsequently killing them—they finally come upon a man with advance capabilities of his own, posing a threat to the Ganae. Uncle Forry provided no genus for this story, but I would suggest Interstellar Monsters.

Saving the best until last, we have “Vault of the Beast” (Genus: Multimorph Monster) in which a shapeshifting android is sent to Earth by an alien race to find a human mathematician capable of liberating a beast, known as Kalorn, from an ancient Martian prison.

The least among these stories, in my opinion, was “Concealment” (Genus: Mystery Monster). A battleship from Earth invades the Dellian star system and encounters a Watcher—a meteorologist who monitors storms in the space lanes and warns approaching vessels. The captain of the ship attempts to interrogate the seemingly feeble Watcher for the location of his homeworld and gets more than she bargained for.

Book Review: Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku

Physics of the Impossible by Michio KakuCo-founder of String Field Theory, Doctor Michio Kaku discusses the scientific plausibility of a wide range of popular science fiction devices, abilities, and technologies in his book, Physics of the Impossible.

The topics covered in this engaging analysis include force fields, invisibility cloaks, phasers, laser beams, lightsabers, teleportation, telepathy, time travel, robots, psychokinesis, UFOs, alien races, faster than light travel, and more. Doctor Kaku references many popular SF TV shows and films including Star Trek, Star Wars, Flash Gordon, Back to the Future, Doctor Who, The Fly, Independence Day, E.T., and others.

I was delighted to note that Doctor Kaku also draws from a rich array of SF novels and short stories such as The Man Without a Body by Edward Page Mitchell, The Disintegration Machine by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Slan by A.E. van Vogt, Larry Niven’s Ringworld series, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and the works of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein.

Backed by practical and theoretical physics, chemistry, biology, and a rich history of scientific discoveries, Doctor Kaku offers detailed explanations as to which fictional technologies and abilities might be possible in the future and which are simply impractical—at least based on our current understanding of science.

Physics of the Impossible is by far one of the most enthralling and illuminating scientific discourses I’ve read to date. I equate Doctor Kaku with Doctors Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson for his considerable talents as a science communicator.

Book Review: A. E. Van Vogt’s Renaissance

Renaissance by Van VogtIn the year 2023, a revolution is brewing against the alien overlords of Earth known as the Utt. Forty years prior, after their swift and peaceful subjugation of every world government, it had been the Utt’s conclusion that most of planet’s tribulations had been the fault of men. Thus, the Utt enacted laws that made women the dominant sex. All men are required to undergo a procedure that leaves them nearsighted and are forced to wear chemically treated glasses that somehow leaves them emasculated.

However, when Peter Grayson, a physicist for a chemical company, finds both lenses of his rose-tinted glasses cracked, he uses a special transparent tape to repair them—and quickly discovers that his simple repair nullifies the submissive power of the glasses and liberates him from the oppression of his domineering wife.

Shortly after, Grayson finds himself embroiled in the male revolution against the Utt, a situation which he attempts to manipulate for his own personal gain…

I found Renaissance to be the weakest of all Van Vogt books I’ve read so far. Published in 1979, the quality was nowhere near his earlier work. The concept is preposterous and served as little more than an opportunity for a plot laden with blatant and cringeworthy male wish fulfillment. Worse, the prose was clunky and riddled with awkward sentence structure, inelegant wording (ex: “From that very first moment, being scientifically trained, Grayson did his trying-to-understand-with-his-knowledge.”), and scenes that served little to no purpose. Some plot elements that held the promise of an ultimate climax never paid off in the end.

If you want to explore the best works of Van Vogt, avoid Renaissance and read his earlier work such as Slan, The World of Null-A, Voyage of the Space Beagle, The Twisted Men, The Weapon Shops of Isher, and The Weapon Makers, to name a few.

Book Review: The Weapon Makers by A.E. Van Vogt

A.E. Van Vogt - The Weapon MakersTwo thousand years in the future, the solar system is united under the monarchy of the Isher family. To keep the government in check and ensure against tyranny, a guild known as the Weapon Shops has for generations provided technologically advanced arms to the citizens and maintained a close watch on imperial affairs. Naturally, this arrangement often sets guild and government at odds with one another.

The situation reaches a boiling point when Empress Innelda learns of a Weapon Shop spy among her court in the form of Captain Robert Hedrock. When the captain learns that Innelda plans to execute him, Hedrock mounts a bold and public defense, which results in his temporary expulsion from the palace. However, Hedrock learns that Innelda is concealing the existence of an interstellar drive from the Weapons Shops and the public in the hopes of bolstering Isher supremacy.

On this way out of the palace, Hedrock is arrested by officers of the Weapons Shops on the charge of subterfuge against the guild! He is brought before the council and interrogated about his mysterious background. When his answers fail to satisfy them, the councilmen order his execution. After mounting yet another daring escape, Hedrock sets out to reveal Innelda’s clandestine project to the world—an adventure which pits him against criminal elements on Earth and bizarre telepathic aliens in interstellar space…

A sequel to The Weapon Shops of Isher, The Weapon Makers begins as a fast-paced tale of intrigue that occasionally waxes melodramatic and, late in the plot, veers off course into ethereal concepts and bombastic language that feel contrived, especially during Hedrock’s encounters with the telepathic aliens. The story is a mélange of fantasy and science fiction that doesn’t always mesh well. Nevertheless, Van Vogt’s reputation as a master of imaginative fiction remains intact.