The Best of A.E. Van Vogt

by A.E. van Vogt

Contents:
5 · Ah, Careless, Rapturous van Vogt! · Barry N. Malzberg · in
11 · Introduction · in
15 · Don’t Hold Your Breath · ss Saving Worlds, ed. Roger Elwood & Virginia Kidd, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973
38 · All We Have on This Planet · ss Stopwatch, ed. George Hay, NEL, 1974
47 · War of Nerves [Beagle] · nv Other Worlds May ’50
72 · The Rull [Rulls] · nv Astounding May ’48
99 · The Semantics of Twenty-First Century Science · ar, 1976
120 · Future Perfect · nv Vertex Aug ’73
146 · Being an Examination of the Ponsian and Holmesian Secret Deductive Systems · ar The Pontine Dossier v1 #2 ’71; speech given at the annual banquet of the Praed Street Irregulars in 1971.
152 · Home of the Gods [Clane] · nv Astounding Apr ’47
178 · The Violent Male · ar, 1976; last of a series of five talks given on radio station KPFK in 1964/65.
192 · Prologue to “The Silkie” [Silkie] · ex If Jul ’64
201 · The Proxy Intelligence [William Leigh] · na If Oct ’68
253 · Final Comment · aw

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Modern, Anthologies

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1974

About the author

Alfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born science fiction author regarded by some as one of the most popular and complex science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century—the "Golden Age" of the genre.

van Vogt was born to Russian Mennonite family. Until he was four years old, van Vogt and his family spoke only a dialect of Low German in the home.

He began his writing career with 'true story' romances, but then moved to writing science fiction, a field he identified with. His first story was Black Destroyer, that appeared as the front cover story for the July 1939 edtion of the popular "Astounding Science Fiction" magazine.

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for an unanthologized van Vogt short story, Centaurus II (link is to the June 1947 Astounding where it appeared), which isn't safe to add because there are some folks who think this is a cataloging website not a review site.

Rating: 3* of five

This is part of a series of generation-ship stories that Joachim Boaz is running that a collection of bloggers are participating in. His review of the story Thirteen for Centaurus by J.G. Ballard is linked.

This novelette is by the altogether less talented writer van Vogt; J.G. Ballard blows van Vogt's prose style into a pile of barely perceptible dust fragments. It takes a generation-ship setting as a stand-in for the reign of Edward III. All the events that occur are part of the playbook that Isabella and Mortimer used to depose the old king. Anyway, whatever his sources, the generation ship itself has little relevance. Its purpose is to close the horizons of the people within as effectively as the Black Death did England of the 1340s. The story's weakness is its simple inability to connect with the reader on any but the most superficial levels. I don't necessarily demand that I get every i crossed and t dotted but I'd like to have some idea of what and why the ship got built and sent out; I'd like to have a glimmer that there are people below decks whose purposes are meaningful to them; I'm just that kind of a hairpin. I got none of those things, though I did get plenty of action reported to me, and I got some glancing awareness that Earth is indeed rare among the innumerable planets in this galaxy, therefore urgently needed by humanity.

There's a message I can get behind.

But in the end, I read the story without the pleasure or the sense of immersion that marked my read of Thirteen for Centaurus. This story was, apparently, never anthologized by the practically obsessively anthologizing van Vogt; that says something. The prose is serviceable, the idea a good one, and I'd be remiss if I didn't give it its due: He thought through the issues of human nature as applied to a long, isolated voyage, and came to a conclusion I can heartily agree with, ie that Humanity is made up of nasty wolves and lazy sheep and if you're bristling at that binary's harshness, you're a sheep.

È finita la commedia.

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title for this collection is odd, as this is a collection of a few classic short stories (that are not his most notorious) compiled with more recent works (which are rather unknown) and non-fiction essays and articles with other non-fiction writings. So, it is not his "best" but is, however, very interesting stuff. Maybe it ought to have been titled, "Interesting writings of A.E. van Vogt" instead. If you are one of those strange readers who believe van Vogt's writing is interesting (as I am), then this is for you. If not, this is not a good collection to begin with. Better to go with, "The Worlds of A.E. van Vogt" as it is more indicative as what one would consider his "best" work.

[Maksym Karpovets · Rating 5 out of 5]

Це абсолютно геніальна річ! Якщо ви хочете навчитись писати безкінечно глибинні речі у мікроформі - це оповідання підходить ідеально. Насправді це відносно пізня робота Альфреда ван Вогта, де, здавалося б, можна віднайти якісь ключові речі, що вплинули на Філіпа Діка (до слова, учня ван Вогта), але цього марно шукати. Перед нами стара, майже архаїчна у своїй тональності фантастика із гуманістичними нотами, товстими штрихами прописування світів та дико потужна соціально-філософська історія (тут доречніше згадати все ж Кліфорда Саймака). Можливо, що зараз я під емоційним враженням, адже справді відкрив для себе такий очевидний, але весь час непомітний скарб, але навіть у цьому світлі я вбачаю міцну конструкцію, яку важко буде з часом подолати, яким би великим не був читацький досвід.

[Capitalismissexy · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a reason AE van vogt is arguably the best author of all time. Only Jack Vance, Robert E Howard, and when he's on Michael Moorcock can compete. Glen cook and lawrence watt evans tiny dash fo almsot as cool. I am collecting all his known works.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you only read one sci-fi anthology this year, read this one. There's lots of background material about Van Vogt's work here and he wrote it too.

[Dan Clore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a very good collection of short stories and non-fiction by this classic science-fiction author, with interesting commentary about Van Vogt's philosophy of fiction-writing and other issues.

[Cole Schoolland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting look into A.E. Van Vogt himself. He talks much about his own journey and personal philosophy which he then reflects in his stories. It was also very nice to read stories that he had hand-picked himself for use in this collection. Though, not the most typical of his works, it was interesting to see his perspective on each of these shorts in context.

[Mark Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

An unusual collection of stories, some completely outside the scope of sci-fi, but still an interesting view into A. E. Van Vogt's mind.

[Marie Domská · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vůbec jsem netušila, že mám doma takový poklad. Až na tu poslední, byly všechny povídky velmi dobré a já si je opravdu užila 🥰🤩👏🏻👽🚀

[Maximillian Abdee · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️ 3.0
A good collection of short stories and a couple interesting essays. There were some memorable entires, but more were either just good or slightly forgettable. Enjoyed it nonetheless.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need to reread this--it's been a long time. I just remember liking his stories.

[Lysergius · Rating 3 out of 5]

van Vogt has a unique style of writing and even though many of the short stories in this volume are quite old, they are still fresh, and contain quite a few surprises in store.