Van Vogt, A. E.

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Interesting book
Exellent
Wonderful
The best SciFi collection ever
Great bite-size Science Fiction for fans and newcomers

50 Short Science Fiction Tales
Robert A. Heinlein , Fritz Leiber , John D. MacDonald , C. M. Kornbluth , Theodore Sturgeon , A. E. Van Vogt , Robert Sheckley , and Jack Finney
Manufacturer: Collier Books / Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0020163908

Customer Reviews:

Interesting book.......2006-11-10

This book is interesting not just because the stories are good, but it's also interesting to look at stories that depict a future that has since passed.

Exellent.......2006-03-24

This little book has some intresting sc-fi tales,I stumbled across it in a small ass town and got it very cheap and it's not disappointing at all.

Wonderful.......2005-07-12

If you enjoy SciFi then this one's for you. These are obviously very short stories since 50 of 'em are crammed into such a small book - but many of them have a hidden depth that transcends their brevity. Some are deeply philosophical, and many contain clever Rod-Serling-esque twists at the end. Very highly recommended. Turn off the TV and read this instead.

The best SciFi collection ever.......2005-05-02

This book was my first scifi short story collection. I was given it when I twelve by my great aunt. It is so incredibly classic and so powerful, it probably slanted me toward sciences even more than I had been.

If you enjoy Gardner Dozois (editor) anthologies, you'll love this. If you think Dozois' anthologies are sometimes weak, well... you've got Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and Leiber to name a few in this 1963 packed paperback. The only regret you will have is that there are only 287 pages.

Great bite-size Science Fiction for fans and newcomers.......2000-08-05

I have read this book 5 years ago. The stories are great and the writing techniques superb. Some stories are only a page long and yet they will stay in your head for a long long time. I loaned my first copy to a friend and he lost it! Bought the second copy from Amazon and promised myself not to lend it out again!

Read it and get hooked to Science Fiction if you are not already a fan.

Transfinite: The Essential A. E. Van Vogt
Average customer rating:

Timeless classics of science fiction

Transfinite: The Essential A. E. Van Vogt
A. E. Van Vogt
Manufacturer: NESFA Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1886778345

Book Description

Contains the most popular and important stories from van Vogt's wide and varied career.

Customer Reviews:

Timeless classics of science fiction.......2003-08-21

Most of these classic stories are from the years 1939-1950, an era where A.E. van Vogt was, along with Robert Heinlein, the most popular science fiction author in America. And although much science fiction written so many years ago has become dated, van Vogt's stories, for the most part, are still fresh and exciting.

If you have never read van Vogt, be prepared to be swept away from the very first sentence. His stories are not always logical, nor are all loose ends always tidied up, but they move along at breakneck speed, are filled with ideas, and will contain moments that you will remember forever.

From a historic perspective, you will see some of the first science fiction stories dealing with human-alien warfare (The Sound, The Rull), humans that can travel back through time (The Search), encounters with energy vampires (Asylum), humans of varied nationalities populating a spaceship that explores the galaxy, and beyond (Black Destroyer, War of Nerves), and so much more.

Book Description

Grandmaster A. E. Van Vogt was one of the giants of the Golden Age of classic SF, the 1940s. Of his masterpieces, The World of Null-A is most famous and most influential. It was the first major trade SF hardcover ever, published in 1949, and has been in print in various editions ever since. The careers of Philip K. Dick, Keith Laumer, Alfred Bester, Charles Harness, and Philip Jose Farmer were created or influenced by The World of Null-A. It is required reading for anyone who wishes to know the canon of SF classics.

Customer Reviews:

One from SF's Golden Age ... hooboy!.......2007-03-15

This is one of the best bad books I know.

It was first published as a three-part serial in the pulpy pages of Astounding Science Fiction Magazine during the second half of 1945, just after what was then regarded as the science fictional end of World War II. Considering the economics of scratching out a living as a pulp writer and the physical necessities of magazine publication in the heyday of the great Street and Smith pulps, it was probably written in the spring of that year. A couple of references to atomic power were, I think, hastily edited in just before the presses turned. (I have always rather fancied the atomic-powered flashlight that the hero totes for a couple of pages before it is forgotten entirely.)

Van Vogt's hero is a man whose name may or may not be Gilbert Gosseyn. At the beginning of the book, the poor schnook just wants to take a test to qualify for a job. Then things begin to go wrong, really wrong. First he gets killed, shot to pieces by machineguns, then he....

Years later, Alfred (a name he loathed) van Vogt said that he had stumbled on the name "Gosseyn" as the chief of some obscure Central Asian tribe. He had liked the sound of it: pronounceable, a bit exotic and vaguely Indo-European. He was absolutely astonished when the fans knowingly informed each other that he had meant the name to be taken as "Go-Sane."

This "Go-Sane" business arose from Van Vogt's placement of puzzling quotes at the beginning of each chapter. The quotes come from several sources, including his own editor at the magazine, but the ones everyone remembered were hacked out of "Science and Sanity: an Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics" published in 1933 by Alfred (that name again) Korzybski.

Korzybski has his legion of followers even today. (They tend to use such terms as "unrecognized genius" when referring to him.) Whether Korzybski was reconstituting human consciousness or selling intellectual snake oil, it must be admitted that the man had a memorable prose style. Here is a passage that Van Vogt did not happen to quote:

"What we know positively about `space' is that it is not `emptiness', but `fulness' or a `plenum'. Now `fulness' or `plenum', first of all, is a term of entirely different non-el structure. When we have a plenum or fulness, it must be a plenum of `something', `somewhere' at `sometime', and so the term implies, at least, all three of our former elementalistic terms. Furthermore, fulness, by some psycho-logical process, does not require `outside walls'." [Page 229 of the International Non-Aristotelian Library edition; italics omitted in deference to Amazon's software limitations.]

Now that may mean simply "the universe is neither empty nor bounded." On the other hand, it might also--or even instead (or both, of course)--mean "the Gostaak distims the doshes." It's hard to say which. Van Vogt quoted a lot of this stuff. The fans ate it up!

The serial was hugely successful. Before long, there was a sequel, "The Players of Null-A," that was almost equally popular. In 1948, "The World of Null-A" was the first pulp SF novel to achieve the dignity of book publication and, if the blurb on the back of this edition is to be believed, it hasn't been out of print since. I gather that years later Van Vogt wrote a third Null-A book, one I have never run across.

A. E. van Vogt was one of the leading luminaries of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. (Of course, the golden age of anything is about eleven.) He wrote stirring and memorable stuff. While the war was still being waged in the Pacific, he wrote a series of novelettes for Astounding about a far-ranging space vessel called the Beagle, commanded by a sympathetically portrayed Japanese captain. (In those days, that was a brave act.) The stories were gathered together in a book called "The Voyage of the Space Beagle." Read it today and you will never again regard either the movie "Alien" or the first series of "Star Trek" as having the slightest shred of originality about them.

Van Vogt's specialty, and the thing the fans most wanted from him, was the plot of almost maniacal complexity, of enigmas wrapped in hidden agendas, of wheels within wheels within hidden wheels, of characters wearing whole wardrobes of masks for the purpose of discarding one after another. Take this passage as a typical example. The speaker is Patricia Hardy, daughter of the President of Earth, to whom Gosseyn (apparently) falsely believed he was married before her death, which took place before the novel starts--of course. She had helped him leave the presidential palace in the botched escape attempt that had resulted in him being killed ... the first time. This is their second meeting and, the thing is, he's a bit confused:

"The truth is that your lack of personal knowledge has puzzled all groups. Thorson, the personal representative of Enro, has postponed the invasion of Venus. There! I thought that would interest you. But wait! Don't interrupt. I'm giving you information I intended to give you a month ago. You'll want to know about `X.' So do the rest of us. The man has a will of iron, but no one knows what his purpose is. He seems to be primarily interested in his own aggrandizement, and he has expressed the hope that some use can be made of you. The Galactic League people are bewildered. They can't decide whether the cosmic chess player who has moved you into the game is an ally or not. Everybody is groping in the dark, wondering what to do next." [Page 110-111]

Oh, yeah!

And let it not be thought that Van Vogt had to depend on Korzybski for puzzling statements. He was pretty good at it himself:

"The problem," Prescott [Deputy Commander of the "Greatest Empire" invasion force] continued, frowning, "is greatly complicated by a law of nature, of which you have probably never heard. The law is this: if two energies can be attuned in a twenty-decimal approximation of similarity, the greater will bridge the gap of space between them just as if there were no gap, although the juncture is accomplished at finite speeds." [Page 173]

Pay attention! You WILL be tested on this.

Finally, Van Vogt finishes the book with a five word sentence that is one of the great pulp endings, comparable to his own "Poor superman!" in "Masters of Time" or to his friend L. Ron Hubbard's, "God? In a dirty bathrobe?"

Good, But Not His Best.......2005-03-16

"The World Of Null-A" is a tremendously influential work in the SF genre. It was first published in August - October of 1945 in "Astounding Science Fiction", however that version is quite a bit different from the version which was published in book form in 1948. A final revision was published in 1970, which was very close to the 1948 version.

The core of the story is set in the year 2650, and is told from the point of view of Gilbert Gosseyn, who discovers very early on that all his memories are not real. He is being used as a pawn in a struggle for power.

The story of Gosseyn is interesting and the reader does want to find out what happens to him, but there are problems with the story as well. Key to the plot is the philosophy of Null-A (non-Aristotelianism), which is never clearly defined and thus can easily leave the reader confused. This is the first of three books in this series, so perhaps this problem will be resolved in the other books.

For my tastes, "Slan" was a better example of van Vogt's work. In addition, his Isher series is easier to follow as well. The other two books in the Null-A series are: "The Players of Null-A" and "Null-A Three".

Dated, but still fun.......2004-02-22

As a classic Sci-Fi novel it reads pretty good. Much of the futuristic speculative science is not yet either obsolete nor proven impossible 60 years later. Some of the high-tech foreseen by Vogt includes a society run by a mega-computer which selects leader based on a mental discipline and philosophy called "Null-A." Our hero enrolls in the annual selection by the computer after some years of study. Selected winners are sent to an imaginative colony on Venus. Everything in perfect order, until he finds out that his brain has been tampered with, he isn't who he thinks he is, and nothing is as it seems. The Earth is a pawn in a galaxy wide political plot wherein one evil dictator is planning to destroy Earth and Mars as and use it as justification to start a huge interstellar war. Our hero finds out that his brain has been genetically augmented to give him extra abilities, and his body is being cloned and the clones receiving his mental patterns so that when he is killed the clone takes over without loss, a sort of immortality. Typical of early sci-fi the characters are mostly cardboard cutouts. There is a woman in the plot, and he almost but not quite manages a relationship. In Vogt style it ends when he gets tired of writing without the reader finding out what ever became of the space war. Still, it's an entertaining read on a lazy afternoon.

Classic in its time.......2002-01-17

If this book was released today I don't think it would be as critically praised as it has been and regarded as an outright classic of Golden Age SF. It's not that standards were lower back then, but the audience was different and looking for a different type of story, one that audiences today probably aren't as interested in. Of course, keeping in mind that, all nostalgia aside, most of the Golden Age SF, except for a handful of notable authors was mostly derivative crap, this book looks pretty good indeed. It's original, for the most part it's readable and often times fairly exciting. What we have here is a hero who has no idea who he really is fighting against an enemy and being manipulated every time he turns around. Like most novels of the period, Van Vogt wasn't about to let something as simple as plot get in the way of a good story and it shows. The book is supposed to be based around the concept of General Semantics which I admittedly know nothing about and didn't learn much from the book itself . . . the concept is never really fully explained except for general asides and most of the stuff "fully null-A people" would do strikes me as mostly common sense (attack an army at night? it takes a logical system of thought to figure that out) so I suspect there's more to it than Van Vogt shows us. The best way to read this book is as quickly as possible, preferably in one sitting . . . plots shift gears and scenes change so quickly and ideas are tossed out with such uncaring glee that when you're immersed in the story, it's great fun. But when you take a step back to think about it, you're not so pleased. But the ideas and the feelings are what make this story work and explains why people still read it fifty some odd years after its publication . . . it's certainly not for the sophisticated writing or the depth of charactization but simply because it's a fun book that at best will get you interested in General Semantics and at worst will simply entertain you.

NULL-Sci-Fi.......2001-12-09

Have you ever read a story and then wondered what you had read? That was my question after finishing this bedtime thriller. I really got interested in Gilbert's plight, not knowing who or what he was, not knowing why he had a second embryonic brain? And I liked his encounters with asexual Pat Hardie--there always seemed to be hope for a romance there. But I finished the story frustrated and feeling like I had been set up with the first book of a trilogy. Frankly, I knew less about Gilbert on the last page than I did on the first. Yes, we found out he was a pawn, like every character in the story, but what kind of chess game was this? Who were the real life players?

I never quite grabbed the non Aristotelian stuff and General Semantics also left me cold. Why would one write a novel instead of an essay, to interest others in semantics. Semantics is a word game. Semantics worries about words, sets of words, and loses sight of the forest while examining the trees. And nothing in the story showed that Null-A characters were any better or worse off than non Null-A characters. Null-A's were as good at being pawns as were the others. Anyway, it seemed like the Null-A characters were all undercover, pretending to be Aristotelian. And no, I don't want the Author explaining the story in a belated Introduction. So I doubt I'll bother to read the sequel.

The Empire of Isher: The Weapon Makers / The Weapon Shops of Isher
Average customer rating:

Van's best series in one big book

Confusion about two different books

a classic by a giant in the field

Justly reprinted

The Empire of Isher: The Weapon Makers / The Weapon Shops of Isher
A. E. van Vogt
Manufacturer: Orb Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The World of Null-A

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Transfinite: The Essential A. E. Van Vogt

ASIN: 0312875002

Amazon.com

Having more stories from A.E. van Vogt repackaged and reprinted can only be good news: along with Heinlein and Asimov, this prolific, wild-eyed author deserves much of the credit for pioneering science fiction's golden age back in the '40s and '50s. As a sort of crazy old uncle of modern sci-fi, though, van Vogt doesn't always get his due: his writing wasn't always spectacular, his plot and pacing fell somewhere between harum-scarum and willy-nilly, and his ideas were delivered in relentless salvos, each more outlandish than the last. But an embarrassment or not, the visionary van Vogt is indisputably part of the family, an entertaining and daring author whose influence can be seen in the work of countless other writers.

This 288-page paperback binds together two of van Vogt's better stories, "The Weapon Makers of Isher" and "The Weapons Shops of Isher," published in sequel-prequel order back in 1946 and 1951. These time-hopping, politically convoluted tales follow the struggle between the oppressive (but beautiful) Empress Innelda and the superadvanced libertarian Weapon Shops ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free," reads the storefront sign). Much of the melodramatic plot revolves around the Shops' immortal, ultragenius founder Robert Hedrock, his conflict with the Empress, and their differing visions for the future of humanity, but don't fret too much over the details: van Vogt keeps your head comfortably a-swim in a steady stream of whiz-bang gadgetry, plot twists, and breakneck action. --Paul Hughes

Book Description

Two classic Van Vogt works, The Weapon Makers and The Weapon Shops of Isher form the complete story of Robert Hedrock and the Empire of Isher. They are about revolution through time travel, the right to bear arms, the end of the universe and the beginning of the next.

Customer Reviews:

Van's best series in one big book.......2001-12-30

"The Weapon Shops of Isher" is an interestingly mosaic novel based on a few short stories published in the '40s, and the plot strands understandably hardly touch, but the overall effect is one of a nice cross-section of this society.

"The Weapon Makers," a 1943 novel that was written as a finale to the stories that made up "The Weapon Shops of Isher" is even better than the first, and is perhaps Van's finest novel. The plot is very straight-forward but nonetheless full of surprises and interesting turns. The writing style is far better than most of his output, which when combined with the excellent plot and characters makes an outstanding masterpiece.

Confusion about two different books.......2000-07-27

Another reviewer has reviewed a different book. "Reviewer: Trevor J Hall (see more about me) from PERRY,, ME USA At last the two books of the life of the mutant prince of the House of Lin have been combined in one cover...."

This is actually a review of _Empire of the Atom_, an SFnal re-telling of Robert Graves's _I Claudius_, and a quite different book, also by Van Vogt.

As to the books at hand, they are some of vV's best, but suffer from all his characteristic faults -- the too frequent plot changes, the endless consipiricies (often where the leaders of two opposed sides are secretly the same person) a society whose economic basis is dubious at best. But it is a page-turner, and one that keeps this reader returning from time to time. A classic that any SF fan should read sometime or other.

a classic by a giant in the field.......2000-07-02

At last the two books of the life of the mutant prince of the House of Lin have been combined in one cover. A E van Vogt is a master wordsmith, 'thus died a whole legion of men', and this is one of his masterpeices. Somehow both dated and yet timeless this is the career of a mutant prince overcoming his handicaps and ultimately triumphing against his political foes, inspiring loyalty in his companions and gaining the cooperation and admiration of his piratical foes. The tale is told in a somewhat ironic vein which is unforgettable. I have spent many years wishing for a further sequel.

Justly reprinted.......2000-06-27

I have not seen this edition, but both the component novels, "The weapon makers" and "The weapon shops of Isher" are old friends. These are among the better of van Vogt's works, perhaps not the absolute best, but close. For books written some fifty years ago still remarkably readable. Justly reprinted.

Book Description

Empire of the Atom and The Wizard of Linn: Global war smashed civilization¿or so the legends told¿but not all of its machines. A caste of ¿scientists¿ arose who knew how to repair and operate the ancient machines¿but not how they worked¿and worshipped at the altars of the atomic gods who were said to make the machines run. Society was a strange mix of the modern and the medieval, with armies riding on horseback into huge spaceships, then flying to human colonies on other planets to wage war with swords and arrows. Then came the mutant Clane, who would have been put to death for his deformities had he not been born into the ruling family. Though his body was twisted, his mind was brilliant, and he not only recovered the lost science behind the ancient machines, but found the truth behind the legends of civilization¿s downfall. Alien invaders, not human war, had reduced humanity to barbarism as a prelude for a later return in force to colonize the Solar System. And that return would happen soon, unless Clane could find a way to stop it. . . . For the first time, the entire Clane saga, told in the two novels Empire of the Atom and The Wizard of Linn, is complete in one volume.

Mission to the Stars, Van Vogt¿s sweeping novel of interstellar adventure, is also included, along with the two short novels in the ¿Ezwal¿ series, chronicling the struggle of one man to convince a feral but intelligent species to join with humanity in the battle against a mutual enemy¿but first he must convince the lone Ezwal who is trapped with him in a deadly jungle to co-operate, or neither will survive.

Customer Reviews:

The aftermath of a global war which has ended civilization.......2007-03-05

A.E. Van Vogt's TRANSGALACTIC tells of the aftermath of a global war which has ended civilization, leaving 'scientists' to repair and operate their old machines. A brilliant mutant recovers the lost science behind these machines, uncovering in the process the truth about humanity's decline.

Average customer rating:

Slan Hunter
Kevin J. Anderson , and A. E. van Vogt
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Fleet of Worlds
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Axis

ASIN: 0765316757
Release Date: 2007-07-10

Book Description

This startling SF adventure novel is a collaboration between the classic SF Grand Master, A. E. van Vogt, and contemporary master Kevin J. Anderson. At the time of his death in 2000, van Vogt left a partial draft and an outline for the sequel to his most famous novel, Slan. van Vogt's jam-packed, one-damn-thing-after-another story technique makes his active plots compulsively readable. Now the story is completed by Anderson, and is sure to be one of the most popular SF novels of the year.

Slans are a race of superior mutants in the far future, smarter and stronger than Homo sapiens and able to read minds. Yet they are a persecuted minority, survivors of terrible genocidal wars, who live in hiding from the mass of humanity. Slan Hunter tells of this towering conflict in the far future, when a new war among the races of mankind bursts out, and humanity -- all types of humanity -- struggles to survive, and of course of the heroic Jommy Cross, mutant hero of Slan.

The book of Ptath (The Garland library of science fiction)

Average customer rating:

One of the finest fantasy novels ever written
Van Vogt must have had a deadline to meet....
Though it hurts...
An Unusual Novel
Deservedly Out-Of-Print

The book of Ptath (The Garland library of science fiction)
A. E Van Vogt
Manufacturer: Garland Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 0824014405

Customer Reviews:

One of the finest fantasy novels ever written.......2001-12-30

This is one of a few of Van's novels that on the first reading I thought was absolute garbage, but on second reading I thought it was absolutely brilliant. This is not a book to be read and rationalized, but a book to be enjoyed as one would a fantastic dream. The writings of Lord Dunsany and the Dreamworld saga of Lovecraft are similar to this book's style. The plot is, yes, bizarre and often illogical, but that is a great strength rather than a fault. Surrealism permeats this novel, and when you have finished reading it you will remember it like you would a fabulous hazy dream.

Van Vogt must have had a deadline to meet...........2001-10-01

With its very sloppy plot execution and stumbling, verbose, soap opera like dialog, this has too be one of the most poorly written science fantasy novels that I've ever read. So, you are probably asking why I gave the book two stars? Well, notice that I said "poorly written", but not "poorly conceived". And herein the tragedy lyes, for this really could have been a bonified sci-fi classic worthy of the title had old A.E. taken the time to iron out some of the kinks and do his awesome working concept justice.

Because the average reader (anybody not related to van Vogt by blood or marriage) will have no idea what is really going on in the book until the last twenty pages, here's the scoop...at a point somewhere in the very far future, a person creates a device that will later be called the "God Chair". This cube shaped machine gives the recipients of its energies some rather divine powers: the ability to possess the minds of others; the ability to send one's consciousness into the past (and take over the minds of people there as well); the ability to eventually become a totally non-corporeal energy force ("god"); the ability to make any totally possessed host creature nearly impervious to physical harm; and, last but not least, the ability to make others "poles of God power" (who are kept powerful by other devices called "prayer sticks" that are metallic rods fed by the psychic energies of people in this far future totalitarian society who are under the impression that those with "god power" are literally deities). Now, here's where the conflict arises...the creator of the God Chair (a more or less benevolent chap named Ptath)takes two concubines (Ineznia and L'onee) and makes them poles of god power. Ineznia is a power hungry vixen, and she somehow (we never learn EXACTLY how) banishes Ptath from their own time and he goes into the remote past to "merge with the race" (he ends up absorbing the personality of a dying American tank commander during WW2 named Peter Holroyd). Ineznia is under the impression that there are seven conditions (called "spells") that will make Ptath impotent in the event that he returns to the world of two hundred million A.D. (and most of the crummy plot revolves around Ineznia trying to kill off the reborn Ptath--who has returned in the body of her lover Prince Ineznio, but he's brought along the soul of born freedom fighter Peter Holroyd--while L'onee's physical body lingers in Ineznia's dungeon and her projected soul possesses persons who aid Holroyd-Ptath). All the while, Ineznia is cooking up plots and intrigues to overthrow the nation of Nushirvan (where the God Chair is located) and to prevent Ptath from once again sitting in the chair (an action that will make him undefeatable...supposedly).

The novel works as a piece of socio-political commentary...the take on the nature of hero and dictator worship is rather poignant (celebrities and big wigs are only as powerful as their "subjects" allow them to be, all religion is based on fear and loathing, etc.), and the visions of armies millions strong fighting for their respective super-powers (Gonwonlane, Nushirvan, and Accadistran)--all the while employing flesh-eating bird-like monsters called Screers to mutilate the civilian proletariate by the hundreds of thousands--is sort of awe inspiring.

Besides the awkward pacing, dialog, stumbling "make it up as you go" plotting, and numerous spelling errors, there are other laughable things about this story I should mention! 1) The Earth of 200,000,000 AD will be able to support 85 BILLION persons (any ecologist can tell you that that's impossible); 2) By the time this novel takes place, the plant life has evolved into unrecognizable forms...the animal life has evolved into unrecognizable forms...the very landmasses (continents) themselves have changed form...BUT, van Vogt expects us to believe that human beings have REMAINED TOTALLY UNCHANGED (a very unlikely prospect); and 3) everybody on the planet (judging from A.E.'s descriptions) is apparently caucasian!!! (NOTE: if you plan to read this, here's a geography lesson to help you avoid confusion...Gonwonlane is a supercontinent comprised of the remnants of Africa, Australia, South America, and Antarctica; Accadistran (the home of the fascist "Zard" whom Ineznia possesses to sick screers on her own rebellious, Ptath loving subjects in Gonwonlane) consists of the joined continents of North America, Europe, and Asia; and Nushirvan is a mountainous, volcanic isthmus that will rise from the waves in the far future and connect Accadistran with Gonwonlane.

Yes, this was very heavy stuff for 1943 and the concept itself is still rather impressive, but van Vogt obviously knocked this one off in a hurry and really mucked things up. What you have here is a rough draft for a sci-fi classic that unfortunately falls short of the mark.

Though it hurts..........2000-05-26

I mut say, as much as i admire van-vogt's writing's, that this one is'nt very good. Fast paced, but not deep. Interesting, but not memorable charecters. The plot is somewhat confused, as if babbled without preceeding thougt. It felt as though I've realy read parts of a book instead of a whole one.

An Unusual Novel.......1999-11-08

After seeing this title with only one review rated at one star I feel I have no choice but to add my own opinion of this unusually-laid out book. The version I read (published by Garland) had a number of illustrations, and the layout was sort of half-religious text half-fantasy novel. Set 2 million years in Earth's future, the God Ptath was reborn (as an almost invincible man with total amnesia) before he was destined to arrive of his own accord. He first finds himself near a stream, only knowing that he must get to a nearby city. After running into some people on a nearby road, and then being tricked into imprisonment by the evil Temple Goddess once at the city, he regains his memories from a former incarnation (an American WWII tank commander)and from there it is an all-out struggle - for the hapless man who now finds himself in a god's body 2 million years in the future - for his very survival against the evil Goddess's plans for continuing world domination. Quite an interesting story I thought which anyone who doesn't mind reading something a little different won't regret reading.

Deservedly Out-Of-Print.......1999-08-30

Pedestrian story of an American WWII tank commander who is killed and reborn thousands of years later on a dramatically changed Earth, where he is revealed to be the reincarnation of some strange god. His rebirth poses a threat to the existing powers-that-be and they do their best to eliminate him. Virtually no characterizations worth recalling, and little plot. This was not one of Van Vogt's better books, and if I had read this before "Empire Of The Atom" I would not have bothered with any other Van Vogt books. Read "Empire" for a fun, silly, INTERESTING old-style science fiction fantasy where spaceships, empires, bows and arrows, mutants, etc. abound.

Average customer rating:

Almost deserves 5 stars , but...

Battle of Forever
A. E. Van Vogt
Manufacturer: Authors' Co-Op Pub. Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Null a Three

ASIN: 0931150019

Customer Reviews:

Almost deserves 5 stars , but..........2000-07-02

First of all - It's one of Van-Vogt's most ideas-filled books. If you've read Van-Vogt before you know that a comment like that is not to be taken lightly.

Writen in 1970 and being rather "new" in Vogtian standarts , I was afraid that Van has gotten old , lost his zest , and boy , how wrong was I !

From the first word I was captivated in the story of Modyun - a far future human man that has a 30cm body and a 15inch diameter head. Modyun , who's a telepath and a genius using 100% of his brain's potential like all other humans ( who numbers a mere 1000 )decides to enlarge his body to the original size of the ancient humans , and take a tour around the world , to see how the animal-men are doing.

The animal-men , ofcourse , were created by Man by mixing every animal's DNA with human's inorder to give them intelligence. When that was achived , Man has built the animal-men cities and food-commisary's and factories to fulfill every need , and that done - reduced his number to a representative 1000 and began passing time in emotion-free , stimulant-free , totaly peacfull philosophic existance.

When Modyun encounters the world outside the human valley , he has many enlightment's on the way "ancient man" use to think and feel , and the way the body , not the brain , was mostly responsible for those feelings because of the number and intensity of the stimulations over-flowing into the mind and interfere with rational thought. Besides fighting his own bodily sensations , Modyun is noticing a diference in the way the world is run ! He begins his investigations and does have some success but the thing that holds him back is really his own attitude - after hundread's of years of peacfull existance , Modyun is almost uncapable of identifying a violent situation , not to mention a suspicion of scheming !

I won't tell you what Modyun finds out and how he deal's with it , but I'll tell you that though : this book is a wonderfull exemple of the mind-expanding works Van-Vogt give us every once in a while. It might have been his greatest , if the end would'nt have been a bit rushed - hence the four stars. But anyway , It's an excellent book , and you should read it if you're an early sci-fi lover , an A.E Van-Vogt fan , or a person interested in having a wonderfull reading experience.

Very recommended.

YET MORE PENGUIN SCIENCE FICTION: The Wall Around the World; Before Eden; Protected Species; the Rescuer; I Made You; The Country of the Kind; MS Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie; The Cage; Eastward Ho; The Windows of Heaven; Common Time; Fulfilment
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YET MORE PENGUIN SCIENCE FICTION: The Wall Around the World; Before Eden; Protected Species; the Rescuer; I Made You; The Country of the Kind; MS Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie; The Cage; Eastward Ho; The Windows of Heaven; Common Time; Fulfilment
Brian (editor) (Theodore Cogswell; Arthur C. Clarke; H. B. Fyfe; Arthur Porges; Walter M. Miller Jr.; Damon Knight; C. M. Kornbluth; A. Bertram Chandler; William Tenn; John Brunner; James Blish; A. E. van Vogt) Aldiss
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000G9T06A

THE MICROCOSMIC GOD - And Other Stories: Night; Adaptation; The Enchanted Village; Hudding Place; Wake for the Living; Mother
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THE MICROCOSMIC GOD - And Other Stories: Night; Adaptation; The Enchanted Village; Hudding Place; Wake for the Living; Mother
Sam (Moscowitz) (editor) (Theodore Sturgeon; John W. Campbell; John Wyndham; A. E. van Vogt; Clifford D. Simak; Ray Bradbury; Philip Jose Farmer) Moskowitz
Manufacturer: Manor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GK8AUG

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