A E van Vogt's "Secret Unattainable" (novella, teleporting gadget, free)

This is van Vogt at his best. Far off concept, but very entertaining story.

Story summary.

Early in the beginning of WWII, a great German scientist is working on a cool gadget: you "focus" it anywhere in the universe, &, through an "orifice" that is part of the gadget, you can directly reach that location.

1. Want crude? Focus it inside an oil well anywhere, & help yourself!
2. Want to attack London? Focus it on someplace in the city you want your tanks in, & just drive through the "orifice"!
3. Want to put an enemy ship out of action at sea? Just drain its fuel tank!
4. ...

Scientist comes to the notice of establishment. Establishment wants his gadget, but the man cannot be trusted - his brother was executed by Nazis for political reasons sometime back. So they get him working on the gadget under careful watch, & arrest him as soon as the gadget is finished. Only the gadget is not going to do them any good, because the scientist indeed was using it as a tool for revenge...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, July 1942.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Analog/Astounding issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

A E van Vogt & E Mayne Hull's "The Flight That Failed" aka "Rebirth: Earth" (as by E M Hull) (short story, weird, free): Making a future happen where Germany loses in WWII

This is a crazy story & I didn't really want to write this post, but have you ever heard of a "moon ray time reflector machine"?

Story summary.

Pilot of secret flight of a US military plane carrying some extremely valuable, but unspecified, cargo & some military, technical & diplomatic personnel, to London during WWII discovers a stowaway, presumed a German spy.

All attempts to arrest & confine him fail in a bizarre way. He claims to be an illusion, projected there by a "moon ray time reflector machine" from an alternate future in which Germany is defeated in this war. And nobody believes him when he tells them the success of this flight is crucial to the future where US wins, & this flight is doomed unless they let the stranger man one of the machine guns of the plane in a German attack to come in a few minutes...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, December 1942.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: C.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

"Astounding Science Fiction", December 1942 (ed John W Campbell, Jr) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

"The Weapon Shop" is among the best known stories of the genre. "Piggy Bank" is among the more pulpish stories of Kuttner/Moore, but features a very curious robot.

Where I have a separate post on a story, link on its title goes there. Link on author's name fetches more fiction of author.

Note: Flash fiction pieces in this issue don't have their individual entries in table of contents, but are bunched together in a single entry called "Probability Zero".

Table of contents.

1. [novelette] A E van Vogt's "The Weapon Shop": "The shop was small--a little place that materialized out of nowhere. Yet, though the old man didn't realize--all the power of a world empire could not break it!"
2. [novelette] Cleve Cartmill's "Some Day We'll Find You" (B): Three groups of capitalists want to fund the commercialization of a certain invention by a broke engineer...
3. [novelette] Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Piggy Bank" (as by Lewis Padgett) (B): "The robot was a rabbit--or had that psychology. He had a diamond-studded body, & was trained to be untouchable. Even his owner could not touch him--without giving information that was suicide!"
4. [ss] A E van Vogt & E Mayne Hull's "The Flight That Failed" (as by E M Hull) (C): Making a future happen where Germany loses the WWII!
5. [ss] Ross Rocklynne's "Interlude" (B): When a caveman freed an advanced civilization of a dictator...
6. [ss] Frank Belknap Long's "To Follow Knowledge": "A strange tale of pluralities of worlds, of a theory based on the hypothesis that, in infinity, everything must happen not once, but many times."
7. [ss] Robert Moore Williams' "Johny Had a Gun": "Johny was a gangster, a small-time punk. But Johny showed up with a gun one night, in an alley fight, that was not small-time stuff--"
8. [ff] William M Danner's "True Fidelity".
9. [ff] Stanley Woolston's "The Human Bomb".
10. [ff] Jack Bivins' "Valadusia".
11. [ff] T D Whitenack, Jr's "O'Ryan, the Invincible".
12. [ff] Frank J Smythe's "My Word!".
13. [ff] L M Jensen's "Take-Off".

Fact sheet.

Labeled: Vol XXX No 4.
Download scans as a CBR file. [via David T @pulpscans]
Related: Fiction from Astounding/Analog (only from issues edited by John Campbell) (whole issues only); old pulps; 1940s.

A E van Vogt's "The War Against the Rull" (fix-up novel)

This is collection of mostly good but not outstanding stories that would have been better left as a short story collection; changes made to accommodate the fix up actually make this book less than what it would have been as a collection of included short stories.

Stories mostly involve 3 species: Man who's at war with rull who are invaders from another galaxy. And ezwal whose world man has grabbed for "strategic" reasons in war against the rull. My first impression was that Man stand for US; rull for communists; & ezwal for ... was it Korea? But these stories all predate US/USSR stand off, & I'm not sure where exactly the author edited for fix-up. But it still reads well as this cold war story!

My notes below are essentially on short stories comprising this fix-up, though they're not named as such in fix-up. But in one or two cases, this fix-up is the only version of the stories I've read. In other cases, I read the original short story long ago but my description is probably more influenced by their fix-up version.

Some of the stories are online. I include links when I'm aware of them.

1. [novelette] "Co-Operate - Or Else!"; download; Astounding, April 1942: Ever since man invaded ezwal world as a strategic war asset, the telepathic ezwal have been fighting a guerrilla rebellion - picking off man at will, but pretending themselves to be animals. When a captured ezwal was being transported to earth, he wrecked the ship & ended up stranded with a man on an uninhabited world - the man who now knows the secret that ezwal are sentient. This is the story of forced cooperation of the two on this dangerous world, or both will die.
2. [novelette] "Repetition" aka "The Gryb"; Astounding, April 1940: An adventure on the moon of ezwal world whose highlights are two clever hunts with unusual weapons: one of grazers for meat by a improvised stick the animals are tricked to eat that causes internal hemorrhage, & second of a hunting animal tricked to cut its tongue (on a fixed knife) enough to bleed to death.
   
   This story is unrelated to everything else in the book.
   
   Note: ISFDB notes '"The Gryb" was a new (standalone) story with this book, and not reprinted independently until 1976.' Yet lists it as from Astouning, April 1940!
3. [novelette] "The Second Solution"; download;Astounding , October 1942: A mother & a child ezwal, captured by man, are now being transported to earth. A gunfight on ship will kill the mother; child will survive the shipwreck on earth & escape in the wilds. Story is of its hunt by Man & of its eventual capture with the help of the man who knows ezwal are telepathic & sentient, & wants them to alley with man.
4. [novelette] "The Green Forest"; Astounding, June 1949: Rull have a device that lets them appear in any shape - in this case, as specific men, so long as you don't try touching them! And they have an unusual technique for implanting hypnotic suggestions in a man: via especially etched pictures on surfaces like walls!
   This is the story of our hero, tricked by these agents to go to a dangerous frontier world where they have a plan to kill him while making the death appear natural! Of course, hero will escape, killing the agents instead.
5. [novelette] "The Sound"; Astounding, February 1950: A star ship is being built somewhere on earth to eventually go to another galaxy to look for Rull world. A ship that will take a lifetime to build, is the size of a city, & the future crew is already living there. And, of course, the place is teeming with rull agents posing as humans using their clever device.
   
   This is the story of a young boy busting an operation involving many Rull agents, with some help from human military & from telepathic ezwal captured in "The Second Solution".
   
6. [novelette] "The Rull"; Astounding, May 1948: Hero is stranded on an uninhabited world with rull supremo! Each has fancy hypnotic devices. Eventually, man will plant a suggestion in rull's mind to end the war & begin a conquest of some galaxy other than Milky Way!

Fact sheet.

First published: 1959.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

A E van Vogt's "Slan" (novel, adventure): Supermen hunted by men

Leave your brains somewhere, & enjoy a generally gripping adventure on earth & Mars.

Story summary.

Humanity is divided into 3 races: normal humans, "true slans", & "tendrilless slans". "True slans" are carefully bred intellectual & physical supermen from natural human mutations. "Tendrilless slans" are carefully mutated form of "true slans" - they don't have tell-tale "golden" tendrils in their hair that act as telepathic antennae in "true slans", & they're'nt telepathic. It's these tendrils that sets "true slans" visually apart from normal humans, &
makes them easy hate targets - hence "tendrilless slans".

This is the story of Jommy Cross, 9 year old when we first meet him. His mother has just been killed for being a slan; he's being hunted to be killed. We'll see him growing up in a world that hates him for being what he is, but like a true hero, he never stoops to becoming an animal in spite of his superhuman abilities.

We'll also meet Kathleen Layton, a 13 year old who's also on the death row for being a slan; her story will abruptly end partway through & later return in a totally crazy way.

Notes.

1. The word "slan" is a sort of shortening of "Samuel Lann". He's the semi-mythical man who arranged conditions for first "true slans" to breed in numbers.

See also.

1. Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Mutant" series of short stories (most are online): Far more thoughtful exploration of similar idea & plot.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, Sep/Oct/Nov/Dec 1940.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

Cataaaa

Forgot adding the read-online link at Slideshare for the story yesterday. Main post is now updated too.

A E Van Vogt's "Cataaaa" (short story, philosophy, free): Showing-off is intrinsic to human nature

This is unlike anything else I've read of van Vogt. Text could use some editing - scene shifts are very abrupt. But I liked the story.

Story summary.

Philip, a biology professor, has received a curious postcard - an invitation to an a circus in town. Specifically, a certain freak show in the circus involving a very strange cat where his old school buddy is the ringmaster.

Event unfolds into something literally out of this world--an interview with an alien post-graduate student on an galactic tour, & a discussion of what's "the dominating character" of humanity.

Quotes.

1. "Man is primarily a religious animal. From times too remote to be a written record, he has needed a faith in something. Once, he believed almost entirely in animate gods like rivers, storms, plants, then his gods became invisible; now they are once more becoming animate. An economic system, science--whatever it will be, the dominating article of it will be that he worships it without regard to reason, in other words, in a purely religious fashion."
2. "Religion is self-dramatization before a god. Self-love, narcissism--in our own little way we show ourselves off...& so a strange being could come in our midst unsuspected."

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantasy Book, July 1947.
Read online at Slideshare (slow page load).
Download full text as part of the scans of Marvel Science Stories, November 1950, where it was reprinted.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

"Marvel Science Stories", Vol 3 No 1 (November 1950) (ed R O Erisman) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Scans of this magazine in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.

"Cataaaa" is the only philosophical story I've seen from van Vogt so far. And a good read too.

Table of contents. 

Links on authors fetch more fiction by author.

1. [novel] Arthur J Burks' "Trin": "WANTED: MAN UNDER THIRTY WITHOUT TIES, AMBITIONS, FEARS OR EXPECTATIONS. --That was the ad I put in the Times. And Joe X answered it. I warned Joe X the job might cost him his life. Joe X replied that that was impossible, he couldn't be killed. I told Joe X that he might be driven insane. Joe X assured me that that was impossible too--because he had no brain!"
2. [novel] Gardner F Fox's "Temptress of the Time Flow": "The universe was going to puff out of existence any moment--unless Tranton was willing to change at once from a decent Earthman to a ruthless space tramp. And his fateful choice did not end there. For beyond the time-flow Alter, he'd have to decide whether he wanted the lovely, gentle golden girl & peace for mankind, or the alluring, flame-haired, red-lipped Drayatha & the conquest of space she promised, the loot & treasure of unguessable centuries!"
3. [novelet] Lloyd Arthur Eshbach's "Overlord of Earth": "Murderer, sadist, product of an earlier, more violent day, Andrev had learned the secret of physical immortality & lay in a hidden crypt for centuries, waiting patiently for men in their growing wisdom to realize the stupidity of war--& so in their new peacefulness, to become easy prey for his blood-thirsty villainy."
4. [novelet] A Bertram Chandler's "Firebrand!"
5. [ss] [reprint] A E van Vogt's "Cataaaa" aka "Cataaaaa" (A); read online (very slow page load); Fantasy Book, Vol 1 No 1 (July 1947): Showing-off is intrinsic to human nature!
6. [ss] Cedric Walker's "The Guinea-Pig": "Feelingless devils, those biologists! They'd never rest until everything in the whole world crept from their ghastly operating tables--even human beings!"
7. [ss] Paul Chadwick's "The Day They Landed": "Why, those other world invaders didn't even have a permit to land their crazy contraption in the town park! The Selectmen of Eastboro were never going to stand for that!"

See also.

1. ISFDB listing for this issue also includes an uncredited short story "Behind the Ate Ball: A Martian Oddity". I don't find it anywhere in ToC. May be they used a different edition (mine is US edition), or more likely, somebody forgot including it on ToC page (I've seen this occasionally in pulps). I haven't scanned the entire issue page by page.

See also.

1. Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.
2. Fiction from 1950s.

A E van Vogt's "The Purpose" (novelette, zombie, free): An attempt to spread love ends up spreading terror

One of the less interesting stories of van Vogt. I found the magical device employed here outright illogical, rather than just utterly incomprehensible that is the case in his many other stories.

Story summary.

Dr Dorial Cranston is the ultimate pacifist: he would like more people, complete strangers, to physically touch each other. He thinks this will spread love.

Since humanity is not ready for stranger-touch, he's developed a device that does the next best thing: when two individuals pass close to each other, there is a microscopic "life force" transfer; his machine amplifies it.

Only the electronic engineer he's employed is a crook, & has sabotaged his machine to overtake the world via an organization called "Futurian Scientific Laboratories": an organization that deliberately kills people so Dr Cranston will turn them into zombies because good doctor cannot stand to see someone dying.

Villains will meet their match when they choose Virginia Mention as their victim. Her husband, Prof Norman Mention, will make sure their terrorizing ends.

See also.

1. John Scalzi's "The President's Brain is Missing" (download): The main gimmick here is keeping the brain of a man not inside the brain case but elsewhere - at least till the suspense is revealed. In this van Vogt story, heart of a man is physically kept half-way around the world from his body!
2. I recall a Medgadget story where kissing has become a requirement for population's physical well being. I don't recall the title though, & I don't seem to have a post on it.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1945.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared in.
Note: One page of story text in these scans has incomplete left scans, missing first 2-3 characters of every line.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Analog/Astounding issues edited by John W Campbell, Jr.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

A E van Vogt's "War of Nerves" (novelette, space opera, free): Cultures reach an _inferior_ stage, & then forever stay there!

Main story is a juvenile adventure: human inter-galactic exploration ship, Space Beagle, is telepathically attacked by "birdlike people" of Riim, a world in "one of a hundred star groups accompanying Earth's galaxy through space." Aliens quickly take over the minds of the ship's crew & send the ship to its suicide mission of plunging into a star. Except for the hero - Elliot Grosvenor, a "Nexialist". He will use aliens' own weapon on themselves to single-handledly save the ship.

How one reads the subtext, however, depends on reader's own prejudices. The key thesis of the story is: cultures eventually fall, a stage author calls "fellah". Once in fellah stage, a culture forever remains there. And all individuals comprising the culture suddenly turn into inflexible idiots - hence easy pickings, even individually, for anyone from a more vigorous culture! Since India is specifically named a "fellah" culture in the story, I'm obviously biased in how I take the thesis.

Notes.

1. Aliens in the story are "hymenopters" - apparently, beings that grow a copy of themselves from their body - on the outside rather than inside; copy later detaches to become a separate individual.

Fact sheet.

First published: Other Worlds, May 1950.
Download full text as part of the scans of the magazine it originally appeared in.
Rating: B.
This story is part of author's "Space Beagle" series.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

A E van Vogt's "Space Beagle" series of short stories

While I've not read the author's fix up novel "The Voyage of the Space Beagle" (aka "Mission:Interplanetary"), I've read 3 of its 4 original short stories (all 3 are online). This post is about the original short stories that were later woven into the novel.

"Black Destroyer" is one of the most famous monster stories of the genre, & among the best known of the author.

1. "Black Destroyer" (A); download; Astounding, July 1939: A practically immortal super-being of an alien world is attacking human visitors & threatens to overrun inhabited galaxy.
2. "Discord in Scarlet"; Astounding, December 1939: Not read.
3. "M33 in Andromeda" (B); download scans as part of a larger package; Astounding, July 1943: A group of human adventurers overcome a galaxy-sized monster!
4. "War of Nerves" (B); download scans as part of a larger package; Other Worlds, May 1950: Cultures reach an inferior stage during their evolution, & then forever stay there!

Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

"Other Worlds Science Stories", Vol 1 No 4 (May 1950) (ed Raymond A Palmer) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Scans of this magazine in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.

"Dear Devil" must be amongst the most loved stories of science fiction, going by the number of personal thank you notes I receive from people who had read it long ago, forgot title & author, kept looking for story based on description for decades, & eventually found it via Google & Variety SF. A kind-hearted Martian explorer chooses to strand himself on earth to uplift back to civilization the once great but now primitive post-apocalypse humanity.

Table of contents. 

Links on author fetch more fiction by author.

1. [novelette] Eric Frank Russell's "Dear Devil" (A): 'Terror drove fathers from their children, & love seemed lost to the Earth. But then came an octopus-armed "devil" to cradle a little boy.'
2. [novelette] A E van Vogt's "War of Nerves"; part of the author's Space Beagle series: "The spaceship flashed through the void--& all at once there began a battle of wits to the death between the crew & a non-human race on a planet still light years away ..."
3. [ss] Raymond F Jones' "Portrait of Narcissus": "Psychaitrists might say that when Narcissus looked into the pool & fell in love with his own image, he was hypnotized; for beauty may well have hypnotic conditioning powers."
4. [ss] Jerome Bixby's "--And All For One": 'a spaceship wreck on the most desolate world in the void--& it was four hungry survivors, "one for all--& all for one"'.
5. [novella] S J Byrne's "Colossus"; sequel to author's "Prometheus II" in Amazing Stories: 'The king sat quietly as the bullets struck his body. "The fourth bullet will be a dud," he predicted. The fourth bullet was a dud.'
6. [ss] Millen Cooke's "Edmund Latimer's Milking Machine": "Edmund invented a miling machine that was perfection in iteself, except for one flaw. "Milk went it, but never came out. But then a strange man showed up who seemed to thing Edmund had done something quite marvelous."
7. [ss] William Wallrich's "The Scissors": "The seemed just an ordinary pair of scissors, but when you opened & closed them, the earth itself opened--& shut."

See also.

1. Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.
2. Fiction from 1950s.

A E van Vogt's "Final Command" (short story, revolution, free): A man helps contain a revolution by robot slaves

A world where robots are as smart as humans, do most chores, & are looked down upon by men as trash. Barr, one of the smartest of robots, has organized an underground movement: at an appointed hour, robots will do a general massacre of humanity - to pave the road towards glorious robot future.

Marknell, a man, has seen the danger in time, & will gently ensure the massacre is called off, & that steps are taken to ensure the robots begin getting the respect they deserve in human society.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, November 1949.
Download full text as part of the scans of the Astounding issue it originally appeared in.
Among the stories of Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

Free fiction: Astounding, October 1943

At Internet Archive in multiple formats.
Editor: John W Campbell, Jr.

"This is a partial copy with only one complete story. 'The Storm' by A.E. Van Vogt." Among the missing pages are both cover & ToC page.

I'm linking this only as an alternate download location of "The Storm". This story is already available as a more convenient download at Baen CD (but without the original illustrations, included in the original magazine link above).

See also.

1. Fiction from Analog/Astounding (only issues edited by Harry Bates, John Campbell).
2. Old "pulp" magazines.
3. Fiction from 1940s.

A E van Vogt's "M 33 in Andromeda" (short story, space opera, free): Smart humans vs galactic-scale monster

According to Wikipedia, title of this story is wrong: "M33 is in constellation Triangulum; M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is in Andromeda."

Also, according to Wikipedia, it's one of the stories in author's fix-up novel, "Voyage of the Space Beagle".

Note this is a juvenile story; don't be too critical or logical. But it did appeal to heart - in a fun, mindless way.

Story summary.

Anabis, a galactic scale alien creature in the form of mist that surrounds worlds & interstellar void of its galaxy, feeds on the "life force" of animals - it's satiated when an animal dies! It doesn't directly do any killings though - it just ensures conditions where there will be killings. That is why it has turned every habitable world in its galaxy to a jungle world - because such worlds have "prolific life-&-death cycles"!

Now human exploration battleship, Space Beagle, is approaching its home galaxy, & Anabis sees a new food source - in the galaxy where the ship came from. Only there are too many galaxies in the general direction the ship is approaching from.

So we see a war of nerves between humans in the ship & Anabis - reveal location of human home galaxy, please. Because it's a van Vogt story, humans will, of course, not only win but see to it that Anabis is destroyed.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, August 1943.
Download full text as part of the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared.
Rating: B.
Among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Part of the author's "Space Beagle" series.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

A E van Vogt's "The Harmonizer" (short story, plant sf, free): Beware! A super-peacekeeper polices the earth!

I think the best part of this story is van Vogt's unique style. When he's in his element, he can enliven up even the craziest ideas!

Story summary.

Especially engineered, immortal, peace-keeping, "ibis" plants arrived on earth 80 million years ago, accidentally, via an alien ship crash. These plants cannot stand "brutality" in their environment, & are equipped to deal with it.

Their shipment was not meant for earth. A later alien expedition culled them on earth - all except one which was rather well hidden. By then, these peacekeeper plants had already taken care of the violence among the dinosaurs.

Now that humans are fighting a major war, will the surviving peace keeper get into action?

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, November 1944.
Download full text as parts of the scans of Astounding issue where it originally appeared.
Rating: A.
Listed among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

A E van Vogt's "Empire of the Atom" (collection, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Two things make the generally sub-par series of stories collected here noteworthy:

1. It probably inspired Lois McMaster Bujold's "Miles Vorkosigan" series. I've read only one Vorkosigan story - "The Mountains of Mourning", but there is too much similarity in the fictional universes: feudal but space traveling society that is a remnant of old glory days of humanity, & a severely handicapped hero from ruling dynasty who must make a place for himself in a society that is unreasonably prejudiced against his handicap. But "The Mountains of Mourning" is infinitely more interesting than anything in this van Vogt original.
2. In some sense, this series can probably be considered a precursor to steampunk. At least I'm not aware of anything older that qualifies.

This book collects all stories in "Lord Clane of Linn" series (aka "Atom Gods" series?) of author, except the novel "The Wizard of Linn" that logically follows the last story in this collection.

Background.

Humanity once traveled the stars, but those days are long gone. There was a devastating war with aliens - so now we have small human societies on many worlds of the solar system - including earth (population a few million), Mars, Venus, & "Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter". And a lot of ruins of old cities - though radioactivity on those sites is now on the wane.

Earth is now a feudal society ruled by the mean Linn family whose members are constantly assassinating or otherwise pulling down each other in never ending power struggles. But the society also has access to the remnants of ancient technology like advanced spaceships & some weapons. This old technology is used with ritual rather then understanding; priests that serve the temples dedicated to four Atom Gods handle the ancient technology.

This series is the developing story of Lord Clane, a mutant born into the Linn family. Stories describe his transformation from being a definite case for infanticide for shaming the aristocratic family by being a mutant to the ruler of the universe.

Table of contents.

List below is in order of logical progression of stories. I had a tough time going through first two stories; rest were easier - either because they're better, or because I was getting used to the curious universe of the stories.

1. [ss] "A Son is Born"; download; Astounding, May 1946: Even Lady Tania, the mother of newborn & daughter-in-law of the current ruler ("Lord Leader"), doesn't expect her mutant son to live, & is puzzled why Scientist Joquin, a priest, is intent on saving him. Child will remain unnamed in this story; first use of his name - Clane - happens only in the next story.
2. [novelette] "Child of the Gods"; download; Astounding, August 1946: Creg, Clane's father, is commanding the earth army raiding Mars & has been losing so far - thanks to back stabbing of Lydia, his step mother who wants her son Tews to be the next Lord Leader.
   
   Brilliant teenager Clane, protected & educated so far by Joquin, will help his father win the losing war by offering a valuable advise. Though his father will be later assassinated by hired killers of Tews, who will then run to exile fearing Lord Leader's punishment.
3. [novelette] "Hand of the Gods"; download; Astounding, December 1946: Lydia manages to convince her husband Lord Leader to name her son Tews, in exile since his part in assassination of Creg, the successor before Lord Leader's death. Tews will assume the title of "Lord Adviser".
   
   But she has also learnt of the growing power of Clane, & will go to any length to have him assassinated. Only Clane is way too powerful, & Lydia will eventually be humbled.
4. [novelette] "Home of the Gods"; download; Astounding, April 1947: Jerrin, Clane's elder brother, is about to win his military campaign against Venusian rebels but is being thwarted by "Lord Adviser" Tews, the current ruler of Linn. Clane will play the diplomat & military leader, & will have each of the 3 parties to war eventually obliged to him - his brother, Tews, & rebels.
5. [novelette] "The Barbarian"; download; Astounding, December 1947: Czinczar, leader of the barbarian hoard from Europa, is finding earth easy to conquer. Lord Adviser Tews has been beheaded, & there is little resistance to Czinczar. Of course, Clane will eventually humble Czinczar, & reclaim the empire for Linn family.

Fact sheet.

First published in book form: 1957.
Stories here are also listed among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt; mutants in fiction.
Legend: ss = short story.

Quotes from A E van Vogt's novel "The Wizard of Linn"

I collect come quotes from this novel here.

Quotes.

1. "A man who cannot protect the empire cannot hold his office."
2. "it is possible to reach the heights of power in any state, however governed, without stabbing a single person in the back."
3. "A man succeeds or fails to the extent that he can understand and control the unrelenting drives of others of his kind."
4. "I reject the notion that one or two men are indispensable to the human race, even if they have managed by political cunning to convince a large following that the group can obtain power through them."
5. "In every great objective the leader must start from the beginning, first evoking the emotional attitude necessary to success."
6. "it is the oldest reality of military history that a bridgehead can always be established and held for a time. And no one has ever figured out a method of preventing an enemy from landing somewhere on a planet."
7. "No planet can be defended. All planets can be attacked; everybody is vulnerable—and this time, here on one of their home planets, we have the least to lose."
8. "no officer could actually be liked for himself alone—the average soldier simply didn't have the opportunity to find out much about the real character of his commander.
   
   So it must be something else. He watched and listened, and finally selected a number of coarse jests which poked fun at authority. Simply by telling one or two of them, he changed the attitude toward him of most of the soldiers who heard his pep talks. According to reports, he came to be regarded as a good fellow. He wasn't, but that made no difference. The so-called humor was a magic key to their good will."
9. "men eager to switch their allegiance now that they were certain there was someone to whom they could switch it."
10. "It's good that men forget their heroes and their gods. If they didn't, life would be drab indeed for the newborn."

Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

A E van Vogt's "The Wizard of Linn" (novel, space opera, free): We live in a recursive universe!

This is the last of author's half dozen odd stories comprising "Lord Clane of Linn" series, & the strongest of the lot. This is the only novel in the series; all others are short stories.

Caution: It took me a while to get into the unbelievable series. A feudal human civilization where you travel by horses & fight with arrows, spears, & swords, but with pockets that have inherited technology way beyond anything we can think of - technology that is used without understanding. And a superhero who achieves technological advancement - working intellectually alone - that is equivalent of thousands of years of normal human progress!

Story summary.

Riss, aliens who had completely destroyed human star-faring civilization in a war 5000 years ago, have returned to Sol with the intention of colonization - destroying humanity in the process.

And their opposition is humanity distributed across several worlds of Sol, the most powerful of which is earth. Earth has feudal Linn family for rulers - a family that is always assassinating a member or another of its own in interminable power struggles, not to speak of general misrule.

The task of saving humanity, as also putting it back on path to technological advancement, rests of Lord Clane, the despised & feared but very capable mutant of the ruling Linn family. Of course, he will succeed, & in only a few years - after a lot of drama & killings. In the process, we visit isolated human worlds on 2 other star systems - one an agricultural society that takes teleporting & telepathy for granted, another where man has burrowed underground but possesses a superweapon he doesn't know how to use.

Major weapons.

1. A "sphere" or "ball" that's actually our whole universe, contained within a few inches! Not a copy, but the same universe! This sphere operates with telepathy, can be sent to do some destruction or to absorb energy of a blast in defense. And with right equipment, when you hit a certain area of a certain "world" within this miniature copy of the universe, the real corresponding world is hit with matching ferocity - because they are the same!
   
   Greg Egan's "Dark Integers" has a similar idea - whenever a certain integer variable that is part of the definition of a computer program acquires certain "bad" values during some run on any computer, bad things happen in a parallel universe!
   
   Essential idea itself, of course, is very old - remember the (I think) Arabian Nights' story of magician whose life is in a parrot kept elsewhere, or Ramayan's story about Ravan's life force living in his naval? May be all kinds of switches have their origins in such tales!
   
2. An energy field that can protect a volume of space from all intruders except those on a white list. Individuals on white list must be identified to the system via a biometric "photograph". Anyone not on this list gets cooked on entry.
3. "Molecular weapons" that can protect a volume of space from even atom bombs, acting as a protective shield.

Fact sheet.

First published: As a 3-part serial in Astounding, April/May/June 1950.
Rating: B.
Download full text from Baen CD.
Quotes from this novel.
Listed among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.

A E van Vogt's "A Son is Born" (short story, politics, free): Struggle for power between a feudal lord & powerful priests

I'll call it a barely ok read. Not sure if the series of which this is the first story later gets better.

Story summary.

Linn is a city on a future earth that has gone retro. It retains atomic power & space travel to other worlds in Sol, but otherwise lives on medieval technology - carrier pigeons, horses & stables, ... Priests control the atomic power with ritual rather than understanding, worshiping the 4 presiding "gods": "Uranium, Plutonium, Radium and Ecks"!

This is the story of Lord Leader's - that's the current ruler - effort to secure his political power base by making "scientists" - that's the name for priests - pliable. He engineers a radioactive leak that affects the unborn baby of his own son; then executes all scientists of the "temple" where the leak took place for the crime! And he has been softening scientists from other temples by putting them under arrest & offering an alternate temple organization that gives ruler the control.

A series of atomic explosions, as part of protest by still free temple scientists, gives an opening to Joquin, a scientist diplomat, to convince the ruler to not further undermine the scientists' power - for the moment, at least.

Note.

A curious remark on religion here, also seen in at least one story of A Bertram Chandler & of some others from West, made me wonder how widespread the prejudice is in countries where majority faith is monotheistic: If you worship "rain gods, river gods, tree gods and various animal gods", you are a "primitive tribe"; if you worship "an invisible omnipotent being who lives somewhere in space in a place called heaven", you are of a "more advanced race"!!

Collected in.

1. A E van Vogt's "Empire of the Atom".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, May 1946.
Rating: B.
Download full text from Baen CD or Webscription.
Listed among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Related: Stories of A E van Vogt.