What do you think?
Rate this book
Masters of Time
Original title, in magazine serial, was "Recruiting Station." Also published by Ace Books as "Earth's Last Fortress."
~ ~~ ~
A recruiting station; a storefront in the heart of a big-city downtown. Young men can volunteer to join the armies of a beleaguered new democracy overseas.
~ ~~ ~
But the recruitment is a scam. Each volunteer goes, not to the Calonian army, but through a pulsing machine which moves them hundreds of centuries up the time line, to become cannon fodder in a war which is shaking the universe.
~ ~~ ~
Two present-day humans are taking on this mammoth military machine. Their chances are miniscule. Their only hope is to save a few lives before giving up their own. But playing tricks with Time can lead to unexpected results.
~ ~~ ~
A recruiting station; a storefront in the heart of a big-city downtown. Young men can volunteer to join the armies of a beleaguered new democracy overseas.
~ ~~ ~
But the recruitment is a scam. Each volunteer goes, not to the Calonian army, but through a pulsing machine which moves them hundreds of centuries up the time line, to become cannon fodder in a war which is shaking the universe.
~ ~~ ~
Two present-day humans are taking on this mammoth military machine. Their chances are miniscule. Their only hope is to save a few lives before giving up their own. But playing tricks with Time can lead to unexpected results.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
3 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
A.E. van Vogt
648 books459 followersAlfred 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
October 9, 2019
So I seem to have started some sort of van Vogt reading marathon. Well ok this is only the 2nd in a row and I have no more of his books with me here in Greece, so that will be it till I get home :)
As with Destination Universe, I really enjoyed this and remembered nothing of my 1970s read. In fact this book comprises 2 novellas which is not immediately obvious; Earth's Last Fortress and The Three Eyes of Evil.
Earth's Last Fortress
An interesting time travel story pitting the far future against the far far future but using men of all eras to fight the war. I'm beginning to realise that van Vogt has a style all his own with obvious undertones of the Golden Era of sci-fi. I have no idea or intention of attempting to describe it, suffice to say, read enough books from that author/era and you will get it. In this story a man and a woman from the 1960s somehow hold the key to solving the war and saving the future of humanity from a time based extinction. A fast romp through the eras.
The Three Eyes of Evil
This was a cracking novella based on a man who discovers he has 3 eyes :-) Is he evil ? Well actually no. But some of those 3 eyed people he encounters in a parallel universe accessed via his 3rd eye, are evil. Needless to say he is the key to saving humanity, well the 3 eyed versions. Sound familiar :-) ?
Well he has some great adventures along the way, and it is again a well written novella. Similar but vastly different :-)
Overall a solid 4 star + read. And well worth catching up with if you like that sort of thing.
As with Destination Universe, I really enjoyed this and remembered nothing of my 1970s read. In fact this book comprises 2 novellas which is not immediately obvious; Earth's Last Fortress and The Three Eyes of Evil.
Earth's Last Fortress
An interesting time travel story pitting the far future against the far far future but using men of all eras to fight the war. I'm beginning to realise that van Vogt has a style all his own with obvious undertones of the Golden Era of sci-fi. I have no idea or intention of attempting to describe it, suffice to say, read enough books from that author/era and you will get it. In this story a man and a woman from the 1960s somehow hold the key to solving the war and saving the future of humanity from a time based extinction. A fast romp through the eras.
The Three Eyes of Evil
This was a cracking novella based on a man who discovers he has 3 eyes :-) Is he evil ? Well actually no. But some of those 3 eyed people he encounters in a parallel universe accessed via his 3rd eye, are evil. Needless to say he is the key to saving humanity, well the 3 eyed versions. Sound familiar :-) ?
Well he has some great adventures along the way, and it is again a well written novella. Similar but vastly different :-)
Overall a solid 4 star + read. And well worth catching up with if you like that sort of thing.
February 6, 2024
This book collects two short novels by van Vogt, Masters of Time and The Changeling, both of which were fix-ups of stories previously published in John W. Campbell's Astounding SF magazine during World War II. They were both subsequently published separately in paperback editions by McFadden-Bartell and later from Manor Books. Masters of Time is an okay cosmic time travel tale, and The Changeling is a somewhat confusing (to me, anyway) telepathic-mutant story with an unreliable narrator. Neither has aged especially well, nor are they among his best work, but they're enjoyable samples of the Golden Age and I really liked the Edd Cartier illustrations. I stumbled across one of 500 signed and numbered editions and was impressed by the signature page. Many signed editions have little illegible squiggles or scrawls or pen scratches that could be anything from anyone, but this one from 1950 is very carefully and neatly inscribed #316 and "All best wishes A.E. van Vogt."
February 6, 2024
Masters of Time is a short fix-up novel comprised of two novelettes originally published in John Campbell's Astounding in 1942 and 1944. The two halves don't mesh in tone very well, though they do tell a coherent story. It's a time travel tale (obviously!), with a cosmic back-drop, but hasn't aged too well. For example, the heroine, who's significantly more intelligent and competent than the hero, never even considers that she might have a career in addition to a marriage; it's strictly an either/or question. It's an interesting quick read, but minor van Vogt.
December 5, 2016
This is a slim book, at least part of it was written in 1942. I mention the date, since the book shows its age in its writing style. It takes place in a non-descript American town in about 1942 in fact. The main character, Norma, was on the verge of suicide when she is approached from a mysterious stranger who seems to know more than he should and turns out to be from the future. Soon he is enslaving her with the aid of an evil machine, while she helps run a recruiting station that lures men under false pretenses to a deadly war. As it turns out, these recruits are invariably losing their lives or worse.
Norma, we discover has been stunted emotionally, and even slightly in appearance, due to her having chosen to follow an (unsuccessful) career rather than choose the path of marriage that is better suited for women. Yes, there is definitely a bit of sexism in this, especially since the suitor, Jack Garson, she rejected ten years earlier has not gotten over her, but also not been stunted in a similar way. To make a long story short, Norma and Jack take on the evil men of the future, gaining unexpected and epic experiences and powers. The ending has an unusual twist, that exploits fully time travel.
There are several things one might not like about the book. The plot is disjointed and often inexplicable things happen for no reason at all. The sexism is a minor aspect but does not get forgotten. By the end Norma realizes: "She wanted not death, nor power, nor the devastation of third-order energies, but marriage, a home with green grass and a flower garden. She wanted life, contentment, Garson!" As it turns out it is this realization on her part that leads to her final triumph. (!)
On the plus side of the sexism: Norma turns out to be inexplicably capable and powerful. On the other hand, Jack who is always presented as well-balanced, intelligent, and superior is actually quite ineffectual in everything he attempts.
But, I digress. The real strength of the book is the mood it portrays, and the psychological aspects. The mood, the pervading fears, the mostly groundless hopes all combine to make it a compelling read. Consider the first paragraph: "She didn't dare! Suddenly, the night was a cold, enveloping thing. The edge of the broad, black river gurgled evilly at her feet as if, now that she had changed her mind, it hungered after her." Or, the first sentences of the second chapter: "She stopped short in the deserted night street. The sound that came was like a whisper touching her brain: a machine whirring somewhere with almost infinite softness. For a moment, her mind concentrated on the shadow vibrations; and then, somehow, they seemed to fade like figments of her imagination."
It is interesting to speculate about how the book was influenced by being written in the middle of World War II. It was only after reading the book that I realized the connection, but surely this had a large influence on Van Vogt as he wrote the book. Purely as speculation, the sense of horror and disaster, the men being recruited off to a deadly war, may well have come then-current events affecting Van Vogt.
As a final comment, it is also interesting to compare this book to much, much better known, and well-loved "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle. "Masters of Time" overlaps with "The Wrinkle in Time" in several ways: both books are hard science fiction, both books have a strong female protagonist, both books whisk their characters willy-nilly over great distances of time (MoT) or space (AWiT), both books contain enemies who are possibly (MoT) or definitely (AWiT) of ultimate evil, both books have machines which (who?) attempt to seal people into an depersonalized social conformity, both books have secondary main characters who can successfully resist the machine, both books deal at least implicitly with the meaning and purpose of life.
On the other hand, "Masters of Time" is darker and more negative, and lacks any analogues of the good characters, Mrs. Whatsit, Who, and Which; it also lacks any emphasis on family or friendship, and the ultimate goodness of humanity. And, "Masters of Time" is unambiguously aimed at teens or adults, not children. Still, one wonders if this influenced L'Engle.
Norma, we discover has been stunted emotionally, and even slightly in appearance, due to her having chosen to follow an (unsuccessful) career rather than choose the path of marriage that is better suited for women. Yes, there is definitely a bit of sexism in this, especially since the suitor, Jack Garson, she rejected ten years earlier has not gotten over her, but also not been stunted in a similar way. To make a long story short, Norma and Jack take on the evil men of the future, gaining unexpected and epic experiences and powers. The ending has an unusual twist, that exploits fully time travel.
There are several things one might not like about the book. The plot is disjointed and often inexplicable things happen for no reason at all. The sexism is a minor aspect but does not get forgotten. By the end Norma realizes: "She wanted not death, nor power, nor the devastation of third-order energies, but marriage, a home with green grass and a flower garden. She wanted life, contentment, Garson!" As it turns out it is this realization on her part that leads to her final triumph. (!)
On the plus side of the sexism: Norma turns out to be inexplicably capable and powerful. On the other hand, Jack who is always presented as well-balanced, intelligent, and superior is actually quite ineffectual in everything he attempts.
But, I digress. The real strength of the book is the mood it portrays, and the psychological aspects. The mood, the pervading fears, the mostly groundless hopes all combine to make it a compelling read. Consider the first paragraph: "She didn't dare! Suddenly, the night was a cold, enveloping thing. The edge of the broad, black river gurgled evilly at her feet as if, now that she had changed her mind, it hungered after her." Or, the first sentences of the second chapter: "She stopped short in the deserted night street. The sound that came was like a whisper touching her brain: a machine whirring somewhere with almost infinite softness. For a moment, her mind concentrated on the shadow vibrations; and then, somehow, they seemed to fade like figments of her imagination."
It is interesting to speculate about how the book was influenced by being written in the middle of World War II. It was only after reading the book that I realized the connection, but surely this had a large influence on Van Vogt as he wrote the book. Purely as speculation, the sense of horror and disaster, the men being recruited off to a deadly war, may well have come then-current events affecting Van Vogt.
As a final comment, it is also interesting to compare this book to much, much better known, and well-loved "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle. "Masters of Time" overlaps with "The Wrinkle in Time" in several ways: both books are hard science fiction, both books have a strong female protagonist, both books whisk their characters willy-nilly over great distances of time (MoT) or space (AWiT), both books contain enemies who are possibly (MoT) or definitely (AWiT) of ultimate evil, both books have machines which (who?) attempt to seal people into an depersonalized social conformity, both books have secondary main characters who can successfully resist the machine, both books deal at least implicitly with the meaning and purpose of life.
On the other hand, "Masters of Time" is darker and more negative, and lacks any analogues of the good characters, Mrs. Whatsit, Who, and Which; it also lacks any emphasis on family or friendship, and the ultimate goodness of humanity. And, "Masters of Time" is unambiguously aimed at teens or adults, not children. Still, one wonders if this influenced L'Engle.
June 3, 2018
This book was terrible. The set up and motivation for the characters is absent. The interest in the story is low and the writing has dated badly. It’s only a short book but I still ditched it about half way through.
The only positive thing I could say about it is that some of the ideas were refined and reused in later psych sci-fi like The Matrix and Bladerunner.
I’d suggest avoiding this one.
The only positive thing I could say about it is that some of the ideas were refined and reused in later psych sci-fi like The Matrix and Bladerunner.
I’d suggest avoiding this one.
January 8, 2009
One of the worst A.E Van Vogt books I've read - and I've read a good chunk of them
January 2, 2022
Norma is contemplating suicide when Dr. Lell offers her a job at a recruiting station, complete with a room upstairs. It might be frying pan into the fire, the next day he proclaims she's a slave to the machine and the recruits are for some war in the far future between the Glorious and Planetarians. She fights off the hypnotism or whatever it is and goes to report them to the police, but when she arrives she's a 90 year old and Lell is there to take her back. After being at the recruiting station a couple of weeks she receives a reply (yeah, no mention of her letter) from her ex-beau, saying you must be delusional, here are all the answers to your questions about time travel (that I don't believe in).
Of course, Jack has never gotten over her, decides to come to her rescue, and instead is captured and sent into the future to be turned into a dehumanized soldier in their war. And so on...
The best I can say is that it was short. The plot was not contiguous, e.g. the reply with no mention of the original. I couldn't visualize any of the scenes. It felt like he was making up as he went along. At one point jack is in a Glorious ship/tank going into the battle and somehow ends up in a ship on its way to Venus. I think Venus was thrown in as a "wow" measure to excite the twelve year old minds of the time. 2.25 stars.
Of course, Jack has never gotten over her, decides to come to her rescue, and instead is captured and sent into the future to be turned into a dehumanized soldier in their war. And so on...
The best I can say is that it was short. The plot was not contiguous, e.g. the reply with no mention of the original. I couldn't visualize any of the scenes. It felt like he was making up as he went along. At one point jack is in a Glorious ship/tank going into the battle and somehow ends up in a ship on its way to Venus. I think Venus was thrown in as a "wow" measure to excite the twelve year old minds of the time. 2.25 stars.
June 13, 2021
Awful writing. Confused plot. The sf ideas are hardly mind blowing. Why do I read this nonsense?
July 19, 2017
I gave this 3 stars but it was really just rounding up from 2.5 stars. My first experience with Van Vogt was reading the Weapon Shop books while in high school in the early 60's, which i enjoyed very much. The next story that sticks in my memory is Black Destroyer, which was very good, especially considering it was written in 1939. But my more recent experiences with Van Vogt haven't been as positive.
The Null-A books were a disappointment. I thought it was because I really didn't understand General Semantics so I did some investigation. After I found Korzybski's writing almost impossible to read but did manage to gain some understanding of General Semantics. but that partial understanding only made me feel that Van Vogt either didn't understand it any better than me or he just wasn't able to do a very good job of using it as a plot device.
I love classic Sf and now that I am retired I have been going back and reading or re-reading, chronologically if possible, the major figures of that era - Asimov, Brackett, Brown, del Rey, PDK, Heinlien, Kornbluth, Kuttner/Moore, Simak, Sturgeon. That's obviously not a complete list but more a list of my favorites from that era.
The most positive thing about Masters of time was the innovative idea concerning time travel and it's use in a future war that Van Vogt created. Unfortunately I found the writing style very pulpish, even for 1942. I read this story on kindle and was very surprised and a little annoyed by the abrupt ending. Was Van Vogt thinking about a possible sequel?
Even though I was disappointed with "Masters of Time" I haven't given up on Van Vogt. The next book I intend to read is "The House That Stood Still".
The Null-A books were a disappointment. I thought it was because I really didn't understand General Semantics so I did some investigation. After I found Korzybski's writing almost impossible to read but did manage to gain some understanding of General Semantics. but that partial understanding only made me feel that Van Vogt either didn't understand it any better than me or he just wasn't able to do a very good job of using it as a plot device.
I love classic Sf and now that I am retired I have been going back and reading or re-reading, chronologically if possible, the major figures of that era - Asimov, Brackett, Brown, del Rey, PDK, Heinlien, Kornbluth, Kuttner/Moore, Simak, Sturgeon. That's obviously not a complete list but more a list of my favorites from that era.
The most positive thing about Masters of time was the innovative idea concerning time travel and it's use in a future war that Van Vogt created. Unfortunately I found the writing style very pulpish, even for 1942. I read this story on kindle and was very surprised and a little annoyed by the abrupt ending. Was Van Vogt thinking about a possible sequel?
Even though I was disappointed with "Masters of Time" I haven't given up on Van Vogt. The next book I intend to read is "The House That Stood Still".
June 28, 2021
Well, definitely didn't expect a female lead in a sci-fi book written in the mid 40s! Granted, she's trying to commit suicide in the beginning of the book, but still.
This book does nothing to change my hatred of time travel... while it's a pretty fun concept (future superpeople recruiting foot soliders from the past).. that's where the interesting bits stop.
Vogt makes it completely unclear why there's a big war in the future or even what they're fighting for, and neither are very nice.. one group devolves it's soldiers into mindless slaves, the other uses robots, but the people are monitored constantly and there are 'tentacles' that enforce their will.
Then there's a couple bits where it's not even clear which people are which.... but on the plus side... Norma, the female lead, uses tools! And gets super powers! Of course, there's still a male hero, and of course they get married in the end, so it's not THAT enlightened, but it gets an extra star at least for letting Norma be the one that figures out how to get the powers, even if she can't really use them.
Overall, far from Vogt's best (maybe his worst that I've read) but a few interesting tidbits in there, and it's pretty short, so not really a big time investment.
This book does nothing to change my hatred of time travel... while it's a pretty fun concept (future superpeople recruiting foot soliders from the past).. that's where the interesting bits stop.
Vogt makes it completely unclear why there's a big war in the future or even what they're fighting for, and neither are very nice.. one group devolves it's soldiers into mindless slaves, the other uses robots, but the people are monitored constantly and there are 'tentacles' that enforce their will.
Then there's a couple bits where it's not even clear which people are which.... but on the plus side... Norma, the female lead, uses tools! And gets super powers! Of course, there's still a male hero, and of course they get married in the end, so it's not THAT enlightened, but it gets an extra star at least for letting Norma be the one that figures out how to get the powers, even if she can't really use them.
Overall, far from Vogt's best (maybe his worst that I've read) but a few interesting tidbits in there, and it's pretty short, so not really a big time investment.
March 12, 2021
I appear to keep forcing myself to read van Vogt's works until hopefully I like one. Not quite yet, unfortunately. The novella (yes, not a full-length novel) begins rather okay-ish, with an agency from "outside time" recruiting a few people out of 1940, but then quickly turns into a big mess.
The entire plot unfolds via dialogue between the small cast of characters (about five), but the spatial and time coordinates change so abruptly and the ultimate goal of the recruiting agency is so vague, that, even if I did manage to force myself to finish the novella, five minutes after putting it down, I simply couldn't describe what happened.
The entire plot unfolds via dialogue between the small cast of characters (about five), but the spatial and time coordinates change so abruptly and the ultimate goal of the recruiting agency is so vague, that, even if I did manage to force myself to finish the novella, five minutes after putting it down, I simply couldn't describe what happened.
October 2, 2015
Non so se è anche colpa della traduzione italiana, ma ho trovato L'ultima fortezza della Terra un guazzabuglio di idee mal sviluppate ai limiti della leggibilità. Zero empatia coi personaggi, intreccio confuso e colmo di vicoli ciechi, finale forzatissimo... questo romanzo di van Vogt è senza dubbio la peggior fantascienza che ho letto quest'anno.
November 29, 2025
A.E. van Vogt's 1950 Masters of Time contains two stories originally published in Astounding Science-Fiction in 1942 and 1944: "Masters of Time," which first appeared as "Recruiting Station" in March 1942, and "The Changeling," which appeared in April 1944.
Now, first, a note on the reading-- Although the cover of the Fantasy Press first printing calls the book "A Science Novel," these stories actually, at least without any other works here tying them together, do not seem related. The first hinges on time travel and the second on a biological super-process, and I myself happened to see no commonality of these worlds. My recommendation, therefore, is that the package be read as a collection of disparate stories or novellas--similar to, say, Robert A. Heinlein's Waldo and Magic, Inc.--rather than something unified, since looking for unity would lead only to frustration.
In any event, "Masters of Time" begins with Norma Matheson on a park bench late at night, "coldly furious with her fear" (1950 Fantasy Press hardcover, page 11) as, after rejecting her college sweetheart upon graduation ten years earlier and instead spending the lonely time sunk in the "career [she] wanted," she "tr[ies] to get up the nerve for another attempt at [the] deadly waters" of the river (page 12) that will end it all. She is interrupted, however, by an approaching figure whose voice is "vaguely foreign in tone, yet modulated, cultured" (page 11).
The man calls her by her name, she realizes confusedly. "Yes, I know your name," he tells her. "I know your history and your fear!" (page 12). After only a little more palaver, some of which may strike us as more than a tad sexist, the stranger hires her on as the receptionist of a recruiting station for "the Calonian cause," presumably, considering the time of writing, that of some small nation struggling against the invading Nazis. Of course the work "is illegal," he explains, since "only the American government can enlist American citizens and operate recruiting stations. [They] exist on sufferance and sympathy, but at any time someone may lay a charge; and the police will have to act" (page 14).
The local flatfeet are the least of Norma's problems, though, for the "[d]ark men, blond men, young men, grim men, hard men, and veterans of other wars" she sends into the back room to the gloatingly sneering fellow who can read minds are headed not to Calonia but to "somewhere, in the future, [where] a great war [is] being fought; a war so great that all the ages [are] being ransacked for manpower" (page 33). To the requisite question of who or perhaps what he is, the self-declared "Dr. Lell," he of "that lean, strange, dark, finely chiseled, evil face with its glittering dark eyes," already has lifted his "strong chin...unconsciously" and then "in a cold, proud, ringing voice" he declares, "We are the masters of time. We live at the farthest frontier of time itself, and all the ages belong to us. No words could describe the vastness of our empire or the futility of opposing us" (page 28).
Yes, it is quite a stagey thing, but...well, the story originally was published in a pulp magazine, was it not? And anyway, someone must be opposing them, and opposing them pretty strongly, actually, if Lell and his fellows are "ransack[ing]" everywhen for blaster-fodder. So Norma and her former boyfriend, Jack Garson--who in response to her letter pleading for help initially had termed her "mad" and "a soul disintegrated, a mind feeding on fantasia" (page 32), but of course he comes around, right?--must find a way to save themselves.
I confess to being a bit confused about the factions in this great war in time, occasionally their super-science, and even the underlying premise of time reproducing itself "approximately ten billion [times] a second," with all individuals "still there, each a separate body occupying its own space, completely unaware of the others" (page 31). That is, for this latter, it rather sounds like timelines are splitting off in alternate universes 10,000,000,000 times per second...and yet still people keep banging around in the same time stream rather than going off into branch after branch. Maybe. Like I say, I couldn't quite get a handle on it. Still, it's a decent story from the pulp era.
"The Changeling," however, seemed significantly better to me. Perhaps this is because the piece takes place in the understandable then-near future of 1972 rather than bouncing up and down the corridors of time with beings I never quite understood, and because the puzzle here, though of course pleasantly strange, is in a way more intriguing.
When big businessman Lesley Craig suddenly realizes that rather than having been "thirty-four years with the firm, not counting the war; twelve as general manager," perhaps somehow he has been there only four years (page 130), and that he thus needs to "find out what he had done during the first forty-six years of his life" (page 132), we know we are in for a very personal exploration of the nature of reality. "[H]ow," he wonders perplexedly, "had he got this excellent job with its pleasant salary, its exclusive clientele, its smoothly operating organization?" (page 132). And how is it that "it had never occurred to him that he was fifty," even though he of course must be, despite not "look[ing] a day over forty" (page 130)? The setup here is both amnesiac and soon paranoid, a delicious combination.
The surprises of the plot are enjoyable enough that here I actually will say no more. I should, though, at least mention that one main event moving from seeming background to foreground is the upcoming presidential election, in which a--gasp!--woman might win. First, of course, there is a thing called "the Equalizer--Makes you the Equal of a Man--drug treatment" (page 136). As to whether this equality is merely in physical strength or also in any other factors, the plot sayeth not, so we just have to let that slide. According to an opposing character,
"[S]ome thousands took the treatment. Unfortunately, it brought them to a dead end, left them futureless. Unequalized women dislike them, and men think they're 'queer', to use a colloquialism. Their existence did galvanize the women's clubs into undertaking a presidential campaign. But as to individuals, the amazons discovered that no employer would hire them , and no man would marry them." (page 138)
Wow. We have to remember, though, that this was written in 1944, when the conclusion about marriageability might have been true and when any employer could discriminate against just about any characteristic without the applicant having any recourse at all.
Worse, however, the author seems to suggest that the anti-women side is correct. On the one hand, the smug and slippery male politician tells a member of his "equalized" amazon Praetorian Guard, "If normal woman start running this country after a successful election, there will be chaos and riots, immense revulsions of feeling, rancor unprecedented--" (page 156). On the other hand, although this sounds like sort of preemptive male chauvinist pig sour grapes, later in the plot the uppity dames--"normal" rather than "equalized" ones--stage a big political march with not only such signs as "HURRAH FOR THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN" but also "A JUST ORDERLY PEACEFUL WORLD ADMINISTERED BY WOMEN" and even "IN THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE MEN WILL DO THE PHYSICAL WORK[,] WOMEN THE ADMINISTRATIVE." So...apparently men would be excluded from government completely? Hmm. As one Joe Six-Pack yells with some accuracy, "They're counting on us to respect them, while they make slaves of us," and thus begins a riot ending with "twenty-four women...dead, ninety-seven others...seriously injured, and more than our hundred requir[ing] hospital treatment" (page 196).
Now, does this actually make much sense, or reflect true human motivation? That is, jest as we occasionally might about overbearing wives and whatnot, did anyone ever think that women truly were out to enslave us poor plodding males? I don't think so. For some readers the ridiculous, perhaps even downright offensive, nature of the premise will be a deal-breaker in this story. For myself, I simply will shrug ruefully about the quaint ol' Forties and soldier on. As I say, the tale of confused Lesley Craig trying to figure out what in the hell is going on and who is doing it to him otherwise indeed is intriguing and enjoyable.
A.E. van Vogt's Masters of Time is a product of the early 1940s, comprised of two stories originally published in pulp magazines, and so long as the book is approached with an understanding of the literary and even social conventions of its time of writing, it will be an entertaining read of between 3.5 and 4 stars.
Now, first, a note on the reading-- Although the cover of the Fantasy Press first printing calls the book "A Science Novel," these stories actually, at least without any other works here tying them together, do not seem related. The first hinges on time travel and the second on a biological super-process, and I myself happened to see no commonality of these worlds. My recommendation, therefore, is that the package be read as a collection of disparate stories or novellas--similar to, say, Robert A. Heinlein's Waldo and Magic, Inc.--rather than something unified, since looking for unity would lead only to frustration.
In any event, "Masters of Time" begins with Norma Matheson on a park bench late at night, "coldly furious with her fear" (1950 Fantasy Press hardcover, page 11) as, after rejecting her college sweetheart upon graduation ten years earlier and instead spending the lonely time sunk in the "career [she] wanted," she "tr[ies] to get up the nerve for another attempt at [the] deadly waters" of the river (page 12) that will end it all. She is interrupted, however, by an approaching figure whose voice is "vaguely foreign in tone, yet modulated, cultured" (page 11).
The man calls her by her name, she realizes confusedly. "Yes, I know your name," he tells her. "I know your history and your fear!" (page 12). After only a little more palaver, some of which may strike us as more than a tad sexist, the stranger hires her on as the receptionist of a recruiting station for "the Calonian cause," presumably, considering the time of writing, that of some small nation struggling against the invading Nazis. Of course the work "is illegal," he explains, since "only the American government can enlist American citizens and operate recruiting stations. [They] exist on sufferance and sympathy, but at any time someone may lay a charge; and the police will have to act" (page 14).
The local flatfeet are the least of Norma's problems, though, for the "[d]ark men, blond men, young men, grim men, hard men, and veterans of other wars" she sends into the back room to the gloatingly sneering fellow who can read minds are headed not to Calonia but to "somewhere, in the future, [where] a great war [is] being fought; a war so great that all the ages [are] being ransacked for manpower" (page 33). To the requisite question of who or perhaps what he is, the self-declared "Dr. Lell," he of "that lean, strange, dark, finely chiseled, evil face with its glittering dark eyes," already has lifted his "strong chin...unconsciously" and then "in a cold, proud, ringing voice" he declares, "We are the masters of time. We live at the farthest frontier of time itself, and all the ages belong to us. No words could describe the vastness of our empire or the futility of opposing us" (page 28).
Yes, it is quite a stagey thing, but...well, the story originally was published in a pulp magazine, was it not? And anyway, someone must be opposing them, and opposing them pretty strongly, actually, if Lell and his fellows are "ransack[ing]" everywhen for blaster-fodder. So Norma and her former boyfriend, Jack Garson--who in response to her letter pleading for help initially had termed her "mad" and "a soul disintegrated, a mind feeding on fantasia" (page 32), but of course he comes around, right?--must find a way to save themselves.
I confess to being a bit confused about the factions in this great war in time, occasionally their super-science, and even the underlying premise of time reproducing itself "approximately ten billion [times] a second," with all individuals "still there, each a separate body occupying its own space, completely unaware of the others" (page 31). That is, for this latter, it rather sounds like timelines are splitting off in alternate universes 10,000,000,000 times per second...and yet still people keep banging around in the same time stream rather than going off into branch after branch. Maybe. Like I say, I couldn't quite get a handle on it. Still, it's a decent story from the pulp era.
"The Changeling," however, seemed significantly better to me. Perhaps this is because the piece takes place in the understandable then-near future of 1972 rather than bouncing up and down the corridors of time with beings I never quite understood, and because the puzzle here, though of course pleasantly strange, is in a way more intriguing.
When big businessman Lesley Craig suddenly realizes that rather than having been "thirty-four years with the firm, not counting the war; twelve as general manager," perhaps somehow he has been there only four years (page 130), and that he thus needs to "find out what he had done during the first forty-six years of his life" (page 132), we know we are in for a very personal exploration of the nature of reality. "[H]ow," he wonders perplexedly, "had he got this excellent job with its pleasant salary, its exclusive clientele, its smoothly operating organization?" (page 132). And how is it that "it had never occurred to him that he was fifty," even though he of course must be, despite not "look[ing] a day over forty" (page 130)? The setup here is both amnesiac and soon paranoid, a delicious combination.
The surprises of the plot are enjoyable enough that here I actually will say no more. I should, though, at least mention that one main event moving from seeming background to foreground is the upcoming presidential election, in which a--gasp!--woman might win. First, of course, there is a thing called "the Equalizer--Makes you the Equal of a Man--drug treatment" (page 136). As to whether this equality is merely in physical strength or also in any other factors, the plot sayeth not, so we just have to let that slide. According to an opposing character,
"[S]ome thousands took the treatment. Unfortunately, it brought them to a dead end, left them futureless. Unequalized women dislike them, and men think they're 'queer', to use a colloquialism. Their existence did galvanize the women's clubs into undertaking a presidential campaign. But as to individuals, the amazons discovered that no employer would hire them , and no man would marry them." (page 138)
Wow. We have to remember, though, that this was written in 1944, when the conclusion about marriageability might have been true and when any employer could discriminate against just about any characteristic without the applicant having any recourse at all.
Worse, however, the author seems to suggest that the anti-women side is correct. On the one hand, the smug and slippery male politician tells a member of his "equalized" amazon Praetorian Guard, "If normal woman start running this country after a successful election, there will be chaos and riots, immense revulsions of feeling, rancor unprecedented--" (page 156). On the other hand, although this sounds like sort of preemptive male chauvinist pig sour grapes, later in the plot the uppity dames--"normal" rather than "equalized" ones--stage a big political march with not only such signs as "HURRAH FOR THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN" but also "A JUST ORDERLY PEACEFUL WORLD ADMINISTERED BY WOMEN" and even "IN THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE MEN WILL DO THE PHYSICAL WORK[,] WOMEN THE ADMINISTRATIVE." So...apparently men would be excluded from government completely? Hmm. As one Joe Six-Pack yells with some accuracy, "They're counting on us to respect them, while they make slaves of us," and thus begins a riot ending with "twenty-four women...dead, ninety-seven others...seriously injured, and more than our hundred requir[ing] hospital treatment" (page 196).
Now, does this actually make much sense, or reflect true human motivation? That is, jest as we occasionally might about overbearing wives and whatnot, did anyone ever think that women truly were out to enslave us poor plodding males? I don't think so. For some readers the ridiculous, perhaps even downright offensive, nature of the premise will be a deal-breaker in this story. For myself, I simply will shrug ruefully about the quaint ol' Forties and soldier on. As I say, the tale of confused Lesley Craig trying to figure out what in the hell is going on and who is doing it to him otherwise indeed is intriguing and enjoyable.
A.E. van Vogt's Masters of Time is a product of the early 1940s, comprised of two stories originally published in pulp magazines, and so long as the book is approached with an understanding of the literary and even social conventions of its time of writing, it will be an entertaining read of between 3.5 and 4 stars.
April 6, 2021
N-avea curaj s-o facă! Dintr-o dată noaptea s-a transformat în ceva rece şi învăluitor. În apropierea malului, râul întunecat şi larg bolborosi la picioarele ei de parcă acum, când ea îşi schimbase hotărârea, ar fi vrut s-o înghită de vie.
Piciorul îi alunecă pe pământul ud şi înclinat, iar mintea îi fu cuprinsă de frica teribilă, de neexplicat, că ceva îşi va face apariţia din noapte, încercând s-o înece, de această dată împotriva voinţei sale. Reuşi să se îndepărteze de ţărm şi se prăbuşi cu răsuflarea tăiată pe prima bancă dintr-un parc din apropiere, furioasă pe frica ce pusese stăpânire pe ea. Privi indiferentă la bărbatul uscăţiv ce venea de-a lungul aleii, trecând prin faţa unui felinar. Mintea îi era atât de amorţită, încât nu fu deloc surprinsă văzându-l că se îndreaptă direct spre ea.
Lumina gălbuie, murdară, îi reflecta ciudat umbra în locul în care stătea. Vocea, atunci când i se adresă, avea un vag accent străin, deşi era melodioasă şi cultivată.
— Vă interesează cauza caloniană?
Norma se holbă la el. Deşi nu-şi revenise încă, începu dintr-o dată să râdă. Era nostim, oribil de nostim. Stătea acolo, încercând să-şi adune forţele pentru o nouă încercare de a se arunca în apele acestea ucigaşe şi apoi să se trezească cu un smintit care să-i…
— Vă amăgiţi singură, domnişoară Matheson, continuă cu răceală omul, nu sunteţi genul care se sinucide.
— Dar nici genul care se lasă agăţată, spuse ea automat. Şterge-o mai repede!
Piciorul îi alunecă pe pământul ud şi înclinat, iar mintea îi fu cuprinsă de frica teribilă, de neexplicat, că ceva îşi va face apariţia din noapte, încercând s-o înece, de această dată împotriva voinţei sale. Reuşi să se îndepărteze de ţărm şi se prăbuşi cu răsuflarea tăiată pe prima bancă dintr-un parc din apropiere, furioasă pe frica ce pusese stăpânire pe ea. Privi indiferentă la bărbatul uscăţiv ce venea de-a lungul aleii, trecând prin faţa unui felinar. Mintea îi era atât de amorţită, încât nu fu deloc surprinsă văzându-l că se îndreaptă direct spre ea.
Lumina gălbuie, murdară, îi reflecta ciudat umbra în locul în care stătea. Vocea, atunci când i se adresă, avea un vag accent străin, deşi era melodioasă şi cultivată.
— Vă interesează cauza caloniană?
Norma se holbă la el. Deşi nu-şi revenise încă, începu dintr-o dată să râdă. Era nostim, oribil de nostim. Stătea acolo, încercând să-şi adune forţele pentru o nouă încercare de a se arunca în apele acestea ucigaşe şi apoi să se trezească cu un smintit care să-i…
— Vă amăgiţi singură, domnişoară Matheson, continuă cu răceală omul, nu sunteţi genul care se sinucide.
— Dar nici genul care se lasă agăţată, spuse ea automat. Şterge-o mai repede!
September 6, 2022
Weird yet dull, SO badly written, mildly whack-job fodder, and intermittently offense on top of all of this. Bumped up from a one star review because this is literally the origin of the Timewar trope: the idea of two different future results of human evolution fighting over which future is allowed to happen at some point in the past or outside of time. Great idea! HORRIBLE book.
August 4, 2025
Just read the story without much thought, for the only explanation is that there's a great war being fought and the warriors are from the distant past as well as the distant future. Plus, there's a love story involved.
August 18, 2020
Interesting story from the golden age of SciFi.
Enjoyed read.
Enjoyed read.
August 21, 2015
‘Volunteers for the tomorrow front
It looked like a perfectly innocent store front, a volunteer enrollment office for young idealists who wanted to help the desperate forces of a young democracy overseas win their civil war. The young girl who sat at the desk inside was attractive, sympathetic, and would see that you got your passage safely.
But it was all a trap. It was indeed a recruiting station, but the war for which it brainwashed its deluded cannon fodder was out of this world — remote in time, remote in space, and nobody would ever return alive. As for the girl — she was as much a slave of that monstrous future-world machine as if she were chained to the desk.
Except for one thing that even the inhuman super-science of EARTH'S LAST FORTRESS did not suspect — that Norma was the secret lever that could shatter their universe!’
Blurb from the 1960 D-431 Ace Doubles paperback edition
Norma Mathieson, a young woman planning to commit suicide by jumping into a river, is approached by a dark stranger and offered a job. She is to be a receptionist in a recruiting station where they are recruiting young men to fight for the ‘Calonian Cause’.
She is given a key to an apartment above the station and told that all she has to do is get the young men to fill out and sign a form, then send them through to a back room for a medical examination.
Norma soon realises that all is not what it seems as no one ever returns from beyond the door. The stranger who offered her the job, the mysterious Dr Lell, is recruiting men from all the ages of Earth and shipping them off to fight in a far future war.
Despite the fact that she has been mentally conditioned, Norma manages to write to an ex-lover, now a Professor, Jack Garson. Garson writes back to her, thinking her delusional, but then arrives in person and is pressganged by Dr Lell and sent off to join the frontline troops in the far future.
The plot is suitably vanVogtian and once again demonstrates the author’s slightly contradictory view of female psychology.
Norma is, after all, a weak and feeble woman who can not possibly stand up to the masculine dominance of Dr Lell, and yet she does.
Garson discovers that he needs to get a message to one of the Planetarians (who are battling The Glorious) to tell them that the time barrier which is being created to end the war has to be destroyed before it, in its turn, destroys the universe. Norma discovers that she is in mental rapport with Dr Lell’s giant (and sentient) machine and can manipulate its power to a certain extent.
Between them they can try and avert universal disaster.
Originally published in 1942 as ‘The Recruiting Station’ it is by no means one of van Vogt’s best works although it does have the usual oddly compelling narrative with fantastic twists and turns.
There are vast machines and their mobile appendages, the ‘tentacles’, and a far future Earth where vast armies are being slaughtered daily in a senseless war of ideologies. It’s interesting but perhaps fruitless to speculate what effect the progress of World War II was having on van Vogt when he originally wrote this in 1942. There is an interesting correlation between the young men going through a door for a medical examination but never returning, and the situation in Hitler’s concentration camps although this I suspect may be merely a chilling coincidence.
It looked like a perfectly innocent store front, a volunteer enrollment office for young idealists who wanted to help the desperate forces of a young democracy overseas win their civil war. The young girl who sat at the desk inside was attractive, sympathetic, and would see that you got your passage safely.
But it was all a trap. It was indeed a recruiting station, but the war for which it brainwashed its deluded cannon fodder was out of this world — remote in time, remote in space, and nobody would ever return alive. As for the girl — she was as much a slave of that monstrous future-world machine as if she were chained to the desk.
Except for one thing that even the inhuman super-science of EARTH'S LAST FORTRESS did not suspect — that Norma was the secret lever that could shatter their universe!’
Blurb from the 1960 D-431 Ace Doubles paperback edition
Norma Mathieson, a young woman planning to commit suicide by jumping into a river, is approached by a dark stranger and offered a job. She is to be a receptionist in a recruiting station where they are recruiting young men to fight for the ‘Calonian Cause’.
She is given a key to an apartment above the station and told that all she has to do is get the young men to fill out and sign a form, then send them through to a back room for a medical examination.
Norma soon realises that all is not what it seems as no one ever returns from beyond the door. The stranger who offered her the job, the mysterious Dr Lell, is recruiting men from all the ages of Earth and shipping them off to fight in a far future war.
Despite the fact that she has been mentally conditioned, Norma manages to write to an ex-lover, now a Professor, Jack Garson. Garson writes back to her, thinking her delusional, but then arrives in person and is pressganged by Dr Lell and sent off to join the frontline troops in the far future.
The plot is suitably vanVogtian and once again demonstrates the author’s slightly contradictory view of female psychology.
Norma is, after all, a weak and feeble woman who can not possibly stand up to the masculine dominance of Dr Lell, and yet she does.
Garson discovers that he needs to get a message to one of the Planetarians (who are battling The Glorious) to tell them that the time barrier which is being created to end the war has to be destroyed before it, in its turn, destroys the universe. Norma discovers that she is in mental rapport with Dr Lell’s giant (and sentient) machine and can manipulate its power to a certain extent.
Between them they can try and avert universal disaster.
Originally published in 1942 as ‘The Recruiting Station’ it is by no means one of van Vogt’s best works although it does have the usual oddly compelling narrative with fantastic twists and turns.
There are vast machines and their mobile appendages, the ‘tentacles’, and a far future Earth where vast armies are being slaughtered daily in a senseless war of ideologies. It’s interesting but perhaps fruitless to speculate what effect the progress of World War II was having on van Vogt when he originally wrote this in 1942. There is an interesting correlation between the young men going through a door for a medical examination but never returning, and the situation in Hitler’s concentration camps although this I suspect may be merely a chilling coincidence.
January 22, 2014
Quando si è sull'orlo del suicidio, spesso si attende solo un motivo qualsiasi per riacquistare la voglia di vivere. Nel caso di Norma Matheson, questo motivo è una sfida impossibile. La scoperta che dal futuro si stanno reclutando soldati di ogni epoca per combattere una guerra titanica fra le opposte fazioni dei Gloriosi e dei Planetari, e la responsabilità di aver fatto cadere il proprio ex-fidanzato, Jack Garson, fra i micidiali ingranaggi di questa colossale macchinazione che non rispetta nulla e nessuno, sono sufficienti a farla lottare con tutte le sue forze. Nonostante la minaccia di un invecchiamento precoce e il pericolo rappresentato dai mortali Tentacoli che la circondano... e correndo perfino il rischio che la disperata battaglia intorno all'ultima Fortezza di questa Terra abbia risultati apocalittici anche per la
sua
Terra.
December 7, 2025
I’ve been rereading classic sci-fi this last few months as I have been unimpressed with the more modern approach to the genre as of late.
This is a typical twisted ride through plot from van Vogt. Still not sure why I like reading him so much. It’s got to be the expected unexpectedness of his work. He is unhinged without being outrageous. Still trying to figure it out, but in the meantime, I keep returning to the well.
This is a typical twisted ride through plot from van Vogt. Still not sure why I like reading him so much. It’s got to be the expected unexpectedness of his work. He is unhinged without being outrageous. Still trying to figure it out, but in the meantime, I keep returning to the well.
October 13, 2014
I really wish we had a half-star ability, or a 10 star rating system. I have so many books I've listed in 3-stars, but it seems unfair to place them all together, but I felt that they didn't deserve the 2 or 4 star rating, so here they get stuck in limbo, in the I liked it, but not enough, or I didn't really care for it, but I didn't hate it either. This was the "I didn't hate it" category, but it was certainly nothing special either.
April 15, 2015
It was okay. I was excepting it to be a different kind of read than a sci fi book of today, and it was, but it was still lacking. Sort of. The book felt a little rushed at times and some things were drawn out while others didn't have enough spoken about them.
Overall, don't expect anything too grand, but if you want an entertaining read, I say pick it up.
Overall, don't expect anything too grand, but if you want an entertaining read, I say pick it up.
Want to read
January 11, 2013Looks like fun.
May 24, 2014
Interesting if you like different ways of considering reality. A bit dated, but I could see how it influenced writers since.
June 7, 2014
dafuq is dis ?
June 1, 2015
1981 grade B
November 14, 2015
A tedious slog through a miserable story told in overwrought prose. The first half is restrained and atmospheric; the second is bizarre. Its best quality is its brevity.
August 1, 2009
One of my least favorite of Van Vogt's books I've read but still worthwhile.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews