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Slan A E van Vogt Kevin J Anderson 9780312852368 Books

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Slan A E van Vogt Kevin J Anderson 9780312852368 Books

I really enjoyed this book. I've been reading Sci-fi for 63 years, believe it or not and I've read Van Vogt before. But never "Slan". The difference in character development compared to modern writing was the first thing I noticed. We've progressed. But Vogt lacked nothing in imagination or twists in the plot.

There's another progression I noticed. I don't read crude or vile books. In the past year I've submitted Kindle reviews that Amazon rejected - because I quoted the vulgar language. In "Slan" I can see the beginnings if such changes that 'progressed' to what we read today - that I could not quote for you to know.

Vogt wrote appropriately to standards of our society of the '40s and '50s. Then, some people who lacked values and morals ridiculed such standards as prudish or Victorian. If we had been foresighted perhaps we could have been more agressive in protecting our culture of respect and dignity. We weren't. In 2017, from Hollywood to Congress you see what was allowed to happen.

Vogt gave us a classic I'm glad to have read.


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Slan A E van Vogt Kevin J Anderson 9780312852368 Books Reviews

I first read "Slan" over 40 years ago and wanted to reread it. I was very happy to discover that "Slan" was now available as a book, and at a very reasonable price. However, by chance, I decided to look at the end of Chapter 8 in my 1975 paperback and was surprised to see a much different ending to that chapter.
After further investigation, I've decided that the book is the original version of the book (pure space opera). This is not such a terrible thing, however, I must recommend reading the 1968 version over reading the version because IMHO it's a much better book. There are only a few changes in the newer version, mainly to the characters of Davy Dinsmore & Jem Lorry, but they definitely make the book a much better read!
The story of a persecuted racial minority (with super-human strength and telepathic powers) in a dystopian future was groundbreaking in many ways for science fiction. Originally written in a serialized format for Astounding magazine, SLAN is an important early work of the genre. That being said, Vogt did not script the story carefully and it hasn’t held up well over the years. Extremely unlikely encounters are the norm, the characters are almost universally unsympathetic and under-developed, and the technologies are unrealistic to the extreme. The protagonist masters Science seemingly overnight all on his own and the plot leans on a glaring misrepresentation of evolution as a driver to particular traits. The hints of eugenics, race-based thinking, and outdated gender roles means that this book is sometimes not well-received by today’s audience.

The characters are an interesting bunch, although I found myself drawn more to the fuller personalities of the antagonists than to the protagonists. I couldn’t stand Jommy Cross or Kathleen Layton both of whom irritated me with one-dimensional and simple thinking. I thought the best characters were the mysterious Kier Gray and the scheming John Petty. Even Granny was interesting if simple. The end of the book caught me by surprise and I thought it was a cool twist.

Despite my criticism here, this is certainly a book worth reading and one to recognize as having an important role in the emergence of science fiction as a thinker’s genre.
I remember reading and enjoying this novel in my early teens. Back then the stilted dialog, handwaving "science" explanations, & "Guess what?, I own a Thesaurus" prose didn't bother me.

Not to mention the "Tom Swift & his wonderful phallic car/plane/spaceship" plot point. Made of unobtainium no less.

Today the story seems trite, but at the time it was written it was breaking new ground in speculation of the capabilities of the mind.

This was about the time L Ron Hubbard started down the road that led to Dianetics.

The novel was originally serialized in Astounding magazine during the John W. Campbell years. JWC was fascinated by "psi" and other pseudo science and encouraged his stable of writers, including Van Vogt, Asimov, Heinlein, Sturgeon, Arthur C. Clarke, etc. to write speculative fiction about it.

I suspect this tale was born from that encouragement. The juvenile motivations and actions of the characters is probably due to the fact that the primary audience for "pulps" like Astounding was males in their teens and early 20s, the geeks & nerds of the time.

So I give it three stars from the point of view of someone who has been reading and enjoying Science Fiction since age 11, around 1960 or so.
I really enjoyed this book. I've been reading Sci-fi for 63 years, believe it or not and I've read Van Vogt before. But never "Slan". The difference in character development compared to modern writing was the first thing I noticed. We've progressed. But Vogt lacked nothing in imagination or twists in the plot.

There's another progression I noticed. I don't read crude or vile books. In the past year I've submitted reviews that rejected - because I quoted the vulgar language. In "Slan" I can see the beginnings if such changes that 'progressed' to what we read today - that I could not quote for you to know.

Vogt wrote appropriately to standards of our society of the '40s and '50s. Then, some people who lacked values and morals ridiculed such standards as prudish or Victorian. If we had been foresighted perhaps we could have been more agressive in protecting our culture of respect and dignity. We weren't. In 2017, from Hollywood to Congress you see what was allowed to happen.

Vogt gave us a classic I'm glad to have read.