The Mating Cry

by A.E. van Vogt

Super Sci-Fi Sleazer

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Classics, Aliens, Horror, Novels

Paperback

Published January 1, 1960

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 edition of the popular Astounding Science Fiction magazine.

Reviews

[Иван Величков · Rating 3 out of 5]

Доста интересна книга за любителите на автора. Тук нямаме по-късните му сциентоложки залитания, нито така любимата му тема за свръхчовека регулатор. Вместо това "Къщата" е класическа пълп фантастика с криминален сюжет, достатъчно приятно усукана развръзка и щипка романтика за цвят.
Стивънс е нает за адвокат на наследник на огромно богатство, изгубил чичо си и паметта си почти в един и същи момент. За нещастие в имението е извършено убийство, а скоро и още едно, а в сградата в която е поместен адвокатския кабинет (също собственост на клиента) странен ацтекски култ извършва бичуване на един от членовете си. Как са свързани всички тези неща? Какво общо има голямото имение на над две хиляди години? Възможно ли е култистите да са дълговечни и да притежават напреднали технологии?
Интересно - имаше един иглен лъч, който подозрително напомня лазер, при положение, че още не е открит по времето на написването на книгата, но това са приятните моменти в добрата стара фантастика.
Концепцията с безсмъртието и ограничена група хора, които го притежават не е нещо ново, но концепцията тук много напомня на "Куца съдба" от братя стругацки, по-точно на онази част, която е послужила за сценария "Пет лъжички елексир."
Образът на Мистра също е доста интересен, пердвид годината на писане на романа - 1950. Не съм наясно защо повечето хора го определят като сексизъм, при положение, че - вие чели ли сте каквото и да е от периода? Тук даже има наченки на една опасна и пресметлива фем фатал, макар чисто женската страна да надделява по някое време. Или е шокиращо, че във фантастиката се говори за секс десет години преди да излезе "Плът" на Фармър, или айде - 12 преди "Странник в странна страна", щото нали той Хайнлайн... отнесох се.
Като цяло не е от най-добрите неща на Ван Вогт, но пък е голям кеф за четене.

[Zeke171 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have fond memories of A E Van Vogt stories I had read as a young adult (particularly Slan and The Weapon Shops of Isher), so I was thrilled when I came across this novel at a local book sale. Unfortunately my joy didn't last long once I began reading it. I felt the book suffered from a variety of problems. The characters were wooden with almost no development. If you read a book and don't care about any of the people in the story then what's the point? Now, I understand that this was written almost 70 yrs ago, so style and lingo may be dated but this was as if a high schooler was trying to impress his teacher with overly descriptive sentences (I started pencilling sentences about halfway through the book). Ex: The sun was shining slantingly down onto a vast body of water....
Stephen's headed pessimistically for her apartment...
Stephen's bought a paper with fingers that shook...
Pathetic! I don't care what date that was written, it's atrocious and it makes reading a chore, which removes any possible enjoyment. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent being but there were points in the book that I found confusing. It was like when one of your friends finishes a long phone conversation with another person then hangs up and turns to you and begins talking to you as if you had been in on the phone call and could follow right along. That just ends up with you having to stop him and say "whoa, what the hell are you talking about" (not a good thing to happen in a book). I understand it if a writer holds things back so that he can surprise the readers later on but this was more like Van Vogt not making his story and ideas clear enough. The book had some neat ideas that had some promise but overall just didn't come together for me. Not time well spent...

[Tom Britz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The good SF novels with a terrible name. This novel is not one of Van Voght's best, but it isn't his worst either. It's about a spacecraft that crash-landed over a thousand years ago and the radiation that it gave off turned a group of Toltecs willing to help the robotic craft repair itself, immortality. However they rendered the craft unable to return to the stars, to take advantage of the knowledge they received and the immortality. It begins and maintains a murder mystery feel throughout, but then throws in an unnecessary war with a fictional country in order to thwart a nuclear war.

This novel was steamy as to its sexual content, compared to its time.

[Glenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved A.E. van Vogt in my younger years and still enjoy his works - but not this one. Van Vogt's writing style appeals to me and that is maintained here. But the story is confusing and even silly. So much remains unexplained that I wonder if he planned a sequel. Also this story plays out mostly as a mystery and not much as science fiction.

[The Frahorus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Allison Stephens scopre una strana setta antica, forse di origine Azteca, composta da enigmatici personaggi che nascondono tutti lo stesso segreto: vivere per sempre!
Si sente il peso della storia, molto statico e arruginito nella narrazione, ma l'idea di una casa che rende le persone che la abitano immortali (e viene spiegato il perché) è certamente affascinante.

[Bill]

Their should be a Did Not Finish (DNF) rating for books on Goodreads. Anyway, suffice it to say that I did not finish The House That Stood Still by A.E. van Vogt, my first attempt at his Sci-Fi work. Sometimes Sci-Fi is too silly for words.

Brief synopses (noting I only read 77 pages of this 192 page effort. Lawyer Allison Stephens is the local rep of another law firm, representing the business affairs of rich Mr. Tannahill, which includes his estate, yup, the Tannahill Estate. It's a mysterious place, seems to back even before the first Spanish conquistadors arrived their when their ship crashed ashore.

Stephens hears strange goings on in his office building (after hours), a woman is being whipped by adherents to some society??? Ancient Toltec? Martian????? Who knows. What else... Immortality?? Maybe. A Martian invasion of Earth?? Sorry, I just gave up and you'll have to try yourself to find out. I do have one more van Vogt book on my shelves, The Anarchist Colossus... I may give it a try in case it's more interesting. So there you go, folks. DNF, and No rating (NR).

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

On a hilltop in Almirante in California is a marble house that has stood there for centuries. When Stephens, an attorney, is called out of the blue to work for Tannahill, the owner of the house, it precipitates the unravelling of a conspiracy that had been millennia in the making. Gradually Stephens is drawn into a web of intrigue involving beautiful women and men who wear masks that look like other people, and a series of murders that point towards the residents of the ancient house. A. E. van Vogt has drunk the 1950s Kool-Aid of nuclear radiation causing positive benefits - in this case immortality - but despite this maguffin he has written an easy-to-read murder mystery. The revelation of the origin of the people in the house is surprisingly not spoiled by the rather unfortunate UK printing title, compared to the original 1950 title, The House That Stood Still.

[Yvensong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pulp science fiction that read more like a pulp mystery from the early 1950's. Allison Stephens, our protagonist, is a lawyer who is more of a Sam Spade type of private eye. He is investigating the mysteries revolving around a house, immortality, murder and possibly aliens. There is also a beautiful woman, who may or may not be leading him to his doom. Like most pulp fiction, there is some light character development and I found myself questioning why Stephens reacted to situations the way he did. He seemed to always tense up whenever anyone was around, then would relax a sentence or two later, even if he was in more danger. He never was very bothered about being knocked out, drugged, etc. and would continue with his mission as though these were pretty much every day occurrences.

Keeping in mind when this story was published, some of the concepts are rather poignant. Cold War fears of being attacked with atomic weapons, secretive groups that don't necessarily have the best interests of anyone else other than themselves, alien domination and other issues such as women's roles, sexual freedom.

[Stefaan Van ryssen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first Van Vogt I read, in the seventies (ca 1975-1977). Didn't understand a word of it. I apologise.
Anyway, it was sufficiently intriguing to entice me to read more Van Vogt. I remember a book (title forgotten) where the characters had Dutch names like Ganze, Eent, Swaan - jeez it comes back to me: "The man who was a thousand". Very funny, a bon vivant wreaks havoc and exploits all and everyone and in the end gets banned to a far-off planet where he will die after one day. During that day he has access to food, drink, girls (gorgeous, of course, and it is they who are so called) whatever he likes. A dead man's bane? Not at all, since a day on that planet lasts a few hundred earth years. Extremely sexist, extremely wrong in all respects but also extremely hilarious.
And maybe I should move this review to the appropriate place but I can't be bothered, Ganze is waiting.

[Pickle · Rating 3 out of 5]

i would have liked to give this a 3.5 out of 5, feel its closer to a 3 than a 4.

This was one of these books were the front cover had no bearing whatsoever on the story contained within, i'm not sure if i like that or not but who cares when its such groovy front cover.

This reminded more of a crime, who dunnit, noir story which involved aztecs, indians, face masks, spaceships, atomic war, imortality, etc all within 172 pages.

Maybe im being unfair and should score this a 4?

[Kristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book by a famous Golden Age science-fiction writer reads a lot more like a noir-y California detective novel. Which is just fine, in my book. Involves immortality, really old houses, and a robotic space ship.

[Jim Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt that this was a poorly written novel for van Vogt. It was confusing and disjointed and didn't know if it wanted to be a SF story or an amateur detective story. It didn't do a good job at either genre. The SF story was muddled and never really gave you a good idea who the "immortal" people were or what they were trying to accomplish. They seemed jaded and content to keep a low profile and live a relatively wealthy life with control over a small part of California. The writing never allowed me to form a good mental picture of the people, places or events being described.

It's ironic that it was the "amateur detective", an attorney being used by the "immortals" for their own purposes who uncovered the back story concerning the origin of the house. But how he got that information wasn't very convincing. I could see some of van Vogt's "Null-A" General Semantics thinking in Stephens reaction to, what should have been, strange and difficult to believe events. In each case he is unemotional and methodically thinks his way through. This helps him resolve all the dangerous issues and end up in a very good position. Unfortunately I don't know anyone who is going to actually act this way consistently except for van Vogt's "Null-A" hero, Gosseyn. Even the sex scenes were mechanical and unemotional.

I doggedly keep reading hoping for a good finish but instead I got a "happy ending". I can't recommend this book if you are interested in van Vogt. Instead try the collection "Voyage of the Space Beagle" where you will find one of his best stories, "Black Destroyer".

[Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

(FYI I tend to only review one book per series, unless I want to change my scoring by 0.50 or more of a star. -- I tend not to read reviews until after I read a book, so I go in with an open mind.)

I'm finally going through my physical tv, film etc. tie in library owned book list, to add more older basic reviews. If I liked a book enough to keep then they are at the least a 3 star.

I'm only adding one book per author and I'm not going to re-read every book to be more accurate, not when I have 1000s of new to me authors to try (I can't say no to free books....)





First time read the author's work?: No

Will you be reading more?: Yes

Would you recommend?: Yes


------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)

All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked

Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Îşi recăpătase cunoştinţa şi primele impresii se asociau cu vocea unui bărbat, din întuneric:
— Am auzit de asemenea răni, doctore, dar e prima pe care am ocazia să o şi văd.
Apoi a înţeles că glonţul, venit dintr-o alee laterală – şi-şi amintea bine asta – îl rănise doar. Era încă în viaţă. Mai trăia! Bucuria i se topi însă ca gelatina în apă fierbinte, în timp ce recădea într-un somn adânc.
Când s-a trezit din nou, a auzit o voce de femeie:
— Tannahill… Arthur Tannahill din Almirante, California…
— Sunteţi sigură?
— Sunt secretara unchiului lui. L-aş recunoaşte oricum.
Pentru prima dată îşi aminti că are un nume şi că vine dintr-un anumit loc.
Prinse putere. Şi apoi, brusc, o mişcare.
— Bine – şopti cineva – daţi-i drumul uşor pe fereastră.
Întuneric, senzaţie de legănare…
Un bărbat râse scurt şi o femeie spuse:
— Dacă nava nu vine la timp, o să…
Apoi simţi o mişcare puternică înainte, însoţită de un zgomot vibrând intens, undeva în spate. Totul se pierdu în întuneric… o voce de bărbat:
— Sigur că va fi multă lume la înmormântare. E important să pară că a murit la datorie.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the blithering complexity that characterizes a lot of Van Vogt's stuff...but complex enough. The masks business though came off a bit cheap; as the protagonist himself says, "Damn those perfect masks of yours! They make it possible for anyone to be anyone." And the sudden plunge into domesticity on the last page definitely has a tacked-on feel to it. For that matter, all the sex stuff failed to be entirely convincing. Oddly enough, this production doesn't seem to be woven from several disparate stories sewn together somehow or other with the thinnest and most unlikely of threads, but one actual entire complete novel standing by itself. A rarity for A E! :D

[Rod Zinkel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is a rather standard mystery with science fiction dressing. The protagonist, Allison Stephens, is hired as an administrator for an old estate in California, the titular house. As he investigates it, and the owner, he gets deeper into the mysteries of the cult that surrounds the house, the immortality of certain figures, the life-like masks that some are able to wear to appear as other people, a space ship, a mind-reader. He handles learning of these supernatural phenomena with the coolness of a detective in 40’s noir films. He also gets the amorous woman.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not great literature and not A. E. Van Vogt's best--but a fun read. From what i gather this was originally serialized in Galaxy or one of its associated magazines in 1950. The plot is less than linear, but it essentially focuses on Stephen's quest to solve the mystery of Tannahill Estate and two murders associated with it. Throw in some immortal humans with space ships, a mysterious femme fatale, links to the Mayas and Toltecs, a robot rocket ship, and let the fun and mystery begin.

[Sterling Wesson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished it fast but still found the plot to be both confusing and dull. Not to mention the older perspective in writing of women being used as basically just sex objects gets very annoying in this book when you have an immortal woman falling for an average guy and saying he’s amazing at sex. Snooze fest even at the end when things are supposed to be interesting.

[alan douglas dalrymple · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good Babbitt!

Unusual style of novel for the author! A mystery mostly. But fairly easy to see how it would end. Has all the usual aspects in his books extreme intelligence, mind reading, etc.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

It shows it age more than a bit with sexist and chauvinistic attitudes. Yet, in the first few pages we have casual nudity and casual sex which made it seem thriller movie modern. The plot is a tad thin but points for happy ending.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story that reads as much like a mystery as it does a science fiction novel.

[Esther · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusing, uninteresting space mystery.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

What more can you expect from a penny dreadful?

[Jack Youd · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the more favourites ‘classic’ sci fi books I have read. Really enjoyable. Great read.

[Lee Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book just casually dropped revelations to the plot, to the point it was tough to tell if I should take anything seriously.

[Kurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
Completely unremarkable, but not especially bad.

[Roddy Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘THE HOUSE OF THE IMMORTALS

A scream of agony in a darkened office… an oddly constructed mansion high on a hill which had been there far longer than memory or history could reach… extraterrestrial intervention in the slow build-up of the last devastating war Mankind could suffer… murder… a young lawyer, Stephens, who finds himself inextricably involved in a brutal pre-Aztec cult, a group of people who origins are shrouded in mystery, and who have one thing in common – that ancient house on the hill….

These are the spell-binding ingredients in AE Van Vogt’s brilliant novel, combining the tension of a whodunnit and the tantalising mind-expansion of great science fiction.

Blurb from the 1976 Panther paperback edition

This oddly noir-ish piece features a young lawyer, Allison Stephens, engaged to assist a Mr Tannahill with the inheritance of his late uncle’s house and business affairs.
Tannahill however bears a more than suspicious resemblance to the uncle and confesses that he has memories of being buried alive and subsequently exhumed.
His uncle’s house is an old Aztec style construction which is apparently at least two thousand years old and which has the power to rejuvenate those who live within its walls.
Stephens slowly uncovers a conspiracy involving some fifty immortals and an alien robot trapped in a ship below the house, but not before he is rendered unconsciousness several times, on each occasion waking up in a different location.
Though readable enough, Van Vogt’s convoluted style of make-it-up-as-you-go-along plotting, combined with a lack of characterisation, creates a confusing denouement and one is left with a feeling of perplexity.
It lacks the colour and excitement of earlier work, and reads as if Van Vogt were attempting a sci-fi thriller, complete with secret organisations, femme-fatales and the unsolved murders of two men.
The major female protagonist, Mistra Lanett (once the secretary of the late Mr Tannahill) is discovered to be at least two thousand years old but, like many of Van Vogt’s female characters, succumbs to the superior masculine attractions of Stephens. After the many sexual conquests of her long life she wishes to be a mother and has chosen Stephens to be the father of her child.
Originally published as ‘The House That Stood Still’ it was reissued as ‘The Undercover Aliens’ despite the fact that no aliens – apart from the robot who only wished to extend human life in order that it could teach humans to repair his ship – appear anywhere in the novel.

[Kurgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's an ok book. The author's use of fragmented sentences is nearly unbearable.There is a place mentioned in the book a few times, and it's supposedly rather important to the plot, yet there's no development behind it; we're not told where this place is nor are we told why the people of that place are a threat. The book definitely reads like a detective story rather than science fiction, though there is a little science in it. I don't regret reading it because it was interesting, for the most part. The end was a let down, though; it seemed a bit underdeveloped and not fleshed out.

After having read the book and comparing it to the description on the back cover, the description is misleading. Stephens didn't 'stumble onto the spaceship and learned of the catastrophe', it's my understanding that Mistra told him of the impending catastrophe. The catastrophe also wasn't something that would 'obliterate the universe from the heavens', it was some people who wanted to nuke the United States. At least that is what Mistra talks about a couple of times. I wouldn't call the immortal who wanted to rule the world a catastrophe so the description surely can't be referring to him. The description also says that Mistra 'agreed to help save the world' when it was her idea from the very beginning and she was trying to get Stephens to help her. I'm also not sure who the 'indestructible aliens' they had to 'defeat' are. The immortals are not aliens and the Lorillians, well, it's never said who they are but I also don't really consider them defeated because all that happened was some factories were destroyed. So yeah, I find the description isn't indicative of the content of the book; but it is that description that made me hold on to this book instead of getting rid of it years ago.

[Steve]

I was very pleasantly surprised that this was not one of the, what I thought was a new book or story only to find that names had been changed on one of the stories I had already read. No, a book I had not heard of before! So I am very pleased to have found this community which has allowed myself to read a completely new (for me) story from one of the all time great masters of SF. This man was really one of the first to get me into this SciFi stuff with a wonderful story, (in a volume of short stories by various authors I found at school back in 1971) called "The Monster". I was blown away by the concept. Then I had the good fortune to stumble across a copy of "The voyage of the Space Beagle" in a second hand book stall in the market and I was totally hooked. So now I have again got something new from the man.
On another note I recently discovered he was born in Canada, this is my wifes secret, "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh don't tell anyone, we are taking over!" She is from Toronto and everywhere I look there is a Canadian that myself and probably 99% of the UK thought was American, but nooooooo!
I shall have to check if there are anymore of A.E.'s books that I have yet to read.
Happy Reading all
Steve

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been a fan of van Vogt's writing for years, and stumbled upon this paperback, a 1960 reprint of an earlier work. Amazingly enough, the cover is a toned-down version of a scene from the book, rather than making it spicier than the text. In fact, the woman on the cover is more covered than in the actual scene, which would have gotten the book removed from most paperback racks...but I digress.
While written with a lot of skill, the story itself is quite peculiar. For instance, part of the story is based on weird versions of both Native American history and Spanish exploration. The author has Aztecs and/or Toltecs wandering as far as what is now California, for plot reasons that don't quite make sense, and seemingly ignoring the real Native Americans who really were there. The mysterious house, with its odd biological effects on those who spend time there, just doesn't hang together, and neither does the way in which the "users" of the house were defeated.
Still, there were some good points to the story, and some interesting twists to the plot, so it wasn't bad, just not as good as A. E. van Vogt's better stories.