The Essential A.E. van Vogt

Transfinite: The Essential A.E. van Vogt (NESFA Press, ISBN 1-886778-34-5).

Thanks to a tip from a reader at Ye Olde Blog (remarking about my review here), I pulled this volume off the shelf. It has a couple of the pre-novel versions of the stories that appeared in Voyage of the Space Beagle, so I'll be able to do more comparing when I get to them.

Introductions: The first introduction makes it clear how much effort goes into such a fan-based product. Once again, buy these books from NESFA Press! Support these folks! These should be on the shelf of every SF fan! For the second introduction, I'll have some thoughts, below.

I'll have more thoughts on van Vogt's writing style after I get through a few more stories, but this bit from the Introduction by Hal Clement sums things up nicely:

His tendency later on to base story ideas on more controversial aspects of science, such as the Bates eye-exercise fad and the non-Aristotelian aspect of "general semantics," sometimes made me a little unhappy, but did little if any real harm to the stories themselves. This, it seems to me, was because van Vogt had mastered, or possibly was born with, the most basic technique essential to science fiction and fantasy writers. He could work in the key details of a non standard background situation without slowing the pace of his story.

Black Destroyer: See my comments here and here.

The Monster: An amusing little twist to the standard Earth-is-invaded-by-aliens tale. I also see echoes of some of the "Don A. Stuart" writings of John W. Campbell, Jr. Earth is invaded by an alien race. They find the world dead except for plant life. They use their advanced science to revive the remains of several humans. Alas, the last one they revive turns out to be more than they can handle. I liked the tale for that, and the fact that van Vogt did not embellish this tale with some of the fringe stuff that was ladled onto other tales. It's a fairly straightforward "Golden Age" story and a good one, at that.

Film Library: A man who rents out films for educational and entertainment use finds that the films in the canisters are not what the label says they are. They all seem to be films for maintaining a advanced engine, or travel to Venus and the like. A somewhat intriguing idea, poorly executed by van Vogt. Later incorporated into the book Quest for the Future.

The Enchanted Village: The survivor of the first expedition from Earth to Mars finds an abandoned village on Mars. He tries to get it to adapt to his needs, it ends up adapting him to its parameters. A pretty nifty story with a Ray Bradbury style to it. I first read this one years ago and had totally forgot it until I got to the last paragraph and it all came back to me.

Asylum: A pair of vampire-like creatures descends upon Earth where they look forward to a feeding frenzy on the unsuspecting inhabitants. Their only problem: getting past one of the galactic watchers that is protecting the planet. Some nifty stuff here (hiding a spaceship under a restaurant), but suffers from some of van Vogt's "surprises" (instead of sprinkling clues, you drop a major plot twist down). Still a good story, but would have been more of a major classic but for that.

Vault of the Beast: Another famous tale by van Vogt. Suffers from too much "ultimate" (ultimate metal and the ultimate prime number—there can't be such a thing!) and some more "surprise" plot twists. It's interesting to see echoes of this story in today's science fiction (especially filmed SF).

The Ghost: First appearing in the short-lived Unknown Worlds (companion magazine to Astounding Science Fiction), this is just about the most "straight forward" story by van Vogt that I have come across. True, there is some meddling with the plot by having the "ghost" of the title have some powers that deal with time, but there are no major 180-degree gut-wrenching plot twists or appearances by super-beings, etc. A pretty good tale, and makes you wonder what would have come from van Vogt in this sub-genre had the magazine lasted longer.

The Rull: A story set in one of van Vogt's most famous creations. The tale pits a sole human against humanity's greatest enemy, the implacable and mysterious Rull. This tale and others were later gathered in a "fix-up" book. Still one of my favorites of all his works, but every now and again you come across a passage that makes you go "huh?":

The will to death is in all life. Every organic cell ecphorizes the inherited engrams of its inorganic origin. The pulse of life is a squamous film superimposed on an underlying matter so intricate in its delicate balancing of different energies that life itself is but a brief, vain straining against that balance.

But never mind that. We need to overcome the pattern that the Rull are trying to impose on us, charge our antigravity drive and engage in battle with their supercruisers!

Recruiting Station: A very long entry in the book, dealing with a war across time. Contains some elements (probably small) that were later incorporated into van Vogt's Linn series. (I haven't read them in a couple of decades, but they are included in the Baen Books edition of Transgalactic, which is on next year's Mount Toberead.)

A Can of Paint: A pretty funny tale about an intelligence test being administered to the first human to land on Venus. Also, a very straightforward story from van Vogt. No galaxy-shattering plot twists and some good physical humor.

The Search: One of the best tales in the book. A man loses his memory and goes on a search (aha!) to find out what happened to him. He encounters a strange saleswoman, her father, and a mysterious agency.

Dear Pen Pal: Another humorous tale about an alien who starts a correspondence with a human with the evil purpose of switching bodies. The joke is eventually on him, though.

The Harmonizer: Less a tale than an evolutionary narrative about an alien plant that comes to Earth. Might have worked better as a shorter story.

The Great Judge: Another body-switching tale. Not as good as the above-mentioned one.

Far Centaurus: A fairly traditional plot here with the first ship to the stars being overtaken by ships going faster than the speed of light. A lot of super-science substituting for plot development after the initial part, which showed a lot of promise.

Secret Unattainable: A series of memos, letters, transcripts and the like that describe a secret Nazi weapons program during World War II. A good mixture of real people and made-up personalities.

Future Perfect: Probably the weakest tale in the story, written in 1973. It appears to be an attempt by van Vogt to ride the "New Wave".

The Great Engine: A man finds a mysterious artifact while looking for junk to salvage. He gets caught up in a conspiracy.

Dormant: Inspired by Theodore Sturgeon's Killdozer? A mysterious alien force is found on a Pacific island. Unfortunately, efforts to destroy it end up activating it.

The Sound: A short story that was later incorporated into van Vogt's The War Against the Rull. The story has potential (using children to help battle alien infiltrators), but weak points as well (what the heck is the sound?). Interesting to see how this (plus stories that Baen Books has reprinted in Transgalactic) were incorporated into the novel.

The Rulers: A man stumbles across the true rulers of the world. Confused plotting.

The Final Command: A war between humans and robots is barely averted.

War of Nerves: Another story in the saga of the voyage of the Space Beagle. See my notes on Black Destroyer, above. Written well after the other two entries in the series that appear in this book (1950 vs. 1939), it shows some major changes from those two entries. For one, the story has the Nexialist, Elliot Grosvenor, whereas the other two tales do not. Does his presence make it a better story? A worse story? I think it makes it a weaker story. The original versions of the other two tales, compared with the book version, work just as well, heck, better, without Nexialism's mumbo-jumbo than with it.

Don't Hold Your Breath: A somewhat mediocre tale about a change in the atmosphere of Earth.

Discord in Scarlet: van Vogt's second tale, and continues the story of the voyage of the Space Beagle. See my notes on Black Destroyer, above. One of his best early tales. A very nicely realized monster, one that still gives me the shudders!

Afterword (Ric Katze): Mostly thanks for those who worked on the book.

Made up of: The Man in the Labyrinth (Joe Rico); Alfred E. van Vogt (Hal Clement); Black Destroyer; The Monster; Film Library; The Enchanted Village; Asylum; Vault of the Beast; The Ghost; The Rull; Recruiting Station; A Can of Paint; The Search; Dear Pen Pal; The Harmonizer; The Great Judge; Far Centaurus; Secret Unattainable; Future Perfect; The Great Engine; Dormant; The Sound; The Rulers; Final Command; War of Nerves; Don't Hold Your Breath; Discord in Scarlet; Afterword (Ric Katze).

Counts as six (6) entries in the 2006 short story project.

Counts as twenty-two (22) 2007 Short Story Project.

Next year? Transgalactic!