Empire of the Atom/the First Book of the Mutant Mage (Collier Nucleus Science Fiction Classic)

Rating:
Summary: van Vogts greatest?
Review: A. E. van Vogt used to be up there with Heinlein and Asimov during the 1940s and early 50s - and now he's not in print. In my wiew, he was a better and much more ORIGINAL scifi-storyteller than all of them - and Clarke too. But, on the other hand: Without a doubt, he was much more crazy.... Ok, this is maybe his best novel, from a purely litterary wievpoint, with a great central personality, a (relatively) logical story-line, but incorporating the same great van Vogtian sense of wonder that shines in his more crazy novels (like the Null-A and the Wheapon Shops series. Sad that it is not available!.

Rating:
Summary: What is the sequel
Review: For thirty years I have remembered this as the best book I ever read, but now I have reread it and realize that my favorite was the sequel to this, where Lord Clane fights the aliens, but I can't remember the name of the sequel. They are both great books.

Rating:
Summary: As always, Van-Vogt shows he's a genius-madman.
Review: I won't write you about the plot or anything like it. I'm 20 years old and i've been reading sci-fi for 12 years. From Orson scot card to Phillip hoze farmer, From ROGER ZEALAZNEY to LARRY NIVEN, From Frank herbert to Robert heinlein etc,Iv'e realy read alot. In the last year i've been exploring the early sci-fi, the writers thet wrote in a style thet can be described as pre-Campbellian. Allthough I admire the minds of contemporery giants such as CHARLES SHEFFILD for exemple, There's magic in the writings of Van-Vogt. Pre-Campbellian, free from constricting patterns of sci-fi as opposed to Fantasy, and derived from Super-science, almost all the books of A.E.VAN-VOGT are pure pleasure and delight to serius science fiction reader.

Rating:
Summary: As always, Van-Vogt shows he's a genius-madman.
Review: I won't write you about the plot or anything like it. I'm 20 years old and i've been reading sci-fi for 12 years. From Orson scot card to Phillip hoze farmer, From ROGER ZEALAZNEY to LARRY NIVEN, From Frank herbert to Robert heinlein etc,Iv'e realy read alot. In the last year i've been exploring the early sci-fi, the writers thet wrote in a style thet can be described as pre-Campbellian. Allthough I admire the minds of contemporery giants such as CHARLES SHEFFILD for exemple, There's magic in the writings of Van-Vogt. Pre-Campbellian, free from constricting patterns of sci-fi as opposed to Fantasy, and derived from Super-science, almost all the books of A.E.VAN-VOGT are pure pleasure and delight to serius science fiction reader.

Rating:
Summary: Typical Van Vogt: fascinating ideas bordering on fantasy
Review: This novel concerns a far-future Earth, thousands of years after civilization has been destroyed in a catastrophe of unknown origin. Aspects of advanced science remain (spaceships) simultaneously with primitive features (bows and arrows), and Earth is carrying on longstanding wars of subjugation with human cultures on Mars and Venus. This is the story of a mutant, Lord Clane, of noble birth, but with a body warped by radiation, and his efforts to raise society to a higher plane. The characters are mostly flat, but Van Vogt ladles out the imaginative concepts as skilfully as ever, and never fails to hold the reader.

Rating:
Summary: Typical Van Vogt: fascinating ideas bordering on fantasy
Review: This novel concerns a far-future Earth, thousands of years after civilization has been destroyed in a catastrophe of unknown origin. Aspects of advanced science remain (spaceships) simultaneously with primitive features (bows and arrows), and Earth is carrying on longstanding wars of subjugation with human cultures on Mars and Venus. This is the story of a mutant, Lord Clane, of noble birth, but with a body warped by radiation, and his efforts to raise society to a higher plane. The characters are mostly flat, but Van Vogt ladles out the imaginative concepts as skilfully as ever, and never fails to hold the reader.