One Minute Null-A

"The World of Null-A," by A.E. Van Vogt, reviewed.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• oneminutecritic
• vancouver
• library
• fvrl
• books
• scifi

[Mucalytic]

A. E. Van Vogt is my favourite author. I'd definitely say he was a genius and this is definitely one of his better novels. I liked the review (but that's probably because you said nice things about it).

[CrashSolo]

van vogt was definitely ahead of his time, at least with this book. I haven't read too much of his other work, yet - what would you suggest?

[denberg2]

It was written in 1945, not 1947.

[CrashSolo]

We both may be right here - the book was originally three stories published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1945, which he later rewrote into the novel, published in 1948. I say 'written' in 1947, but perhaps I should have stuck to 'published' instead. In either case, i suppose naming a specific year rather than saying something like "in the late 1940's" for this novel is simply an invitation to debate. Thanks for viewing and commenting!

[drainfunk]

I just finished the book today. It deserves all the criticism it got (bad writing, hollow characters, etc.), but at the same time it's a book you just keep on reading, because there are ideas that are just great, some great written scenes and locations. I read it because of PKD's namechecking Van Vogt and yes, his influence is undeniable.

[crossblk]

@dreamstwice "On the other hand, when science fiction author Philip K. Dick was asked [11] which science fiction writers had influenced his work the most, he replied:

I started reading sf when I was about twelve and I read all I could, so any author who was writing about that time, I read. But there's no doubt who got me off originally and that was A.E. van Vogt ...." from a "Phil" interview ...please know your SF better before saying stuff ...read more on wiki ...

[dreamstwice]

Van Vogt is a terrible writer... totally ignorant of science...wooden characters, indecipherable plots... deus ex machina used to get him out every time he writes himself into a corner....totally unreadable.... to compare him to Phil Dick is an insult to Phil.

[gombabacsi]

i love van vogt, one of the best scifi author

but he is megaloman sometimes :)

[VariedInterest]

I wish people wouldn't use terms like "dated" and "stands the test of time", even with technology oriented science fiction. Art doesn't date, our perception just becomes more limited. I have heard people call just about everything more than five years old dated. With CGI I can almost agree, as it's more a process of developing software than an art form, but if you don't have a sufficient pool of knowlege to assimilate things which aren't on the current best seller list, it's your unique failing.

[Mucalytic]

If you get through those, take a look at "The Silkie", "The Proxy Intelligence / Supermind", "The Universe Maker", "The Players of Null A", "Empire of the Atom / The Wizard of Linn" and "The Best of A.E. Van Vogt".. Van Vogt was a very methodical guy. He used to go to sleep and wake himself up after one sleep cycle, write down what he dreamt about, think about what he'd written and go back to sleep, then repeated the cycle throughout the night and by the morning he had a few pages of his story.

[Mucalytic]

My favourites are "The Voyage of the Space Beagle" which is the inspiration for "Star Trek" and the film "Alien", "The Weapon Shops of Isher / The Weapon Makers" which is about immortality, totalitarianism and super-intelligence and "Slan" which is about mutation, human evolution and more super-intelligence. Van Vogt was a very creative and innovative guy. I can see why P.K. Dick was influenced by him. I think Van Vogt is a lot more optimistic in his vision than Dick though.

[drkthms1]

great book with a great and surprise ending.