TRANSFINITE The essential Van Vogt

TRANSFINITE, correctly called a collection of the essential Van Vogt stories has been published by NESFA Press, publishing division of the New England Science Fiction Association, Inc. All the science fiction reading world should bow and thank them for this peerless edition. They have selected the Van Vogt stories that were and are essential to understanding the grandest of the Grand Dreamers of SF, and which give the lucky reader unfamiliar with this giant’s work a perfect grasp of how great an impact Van Vogt had on the field, now lamentably unrecognized. Readers! If there is a great idea in SF, and it was not invented by Wells or Verne, Heinlein or Asimov, Bradbury or Clarke, chances are that Van Vogt was the first person to put the thought in print.

I am very well read when it comes to Van Vogt. I think the only things of his I have not read are his nonfiction work on Hypnosis, his true confession stories he wrote in the early days for magazines, and his one chapter contribution to a Howard pastiche. I also recognize short stories I originally read as chapters of his ‘fix-up’ novels. Van Vogt is the only author who can pull off writing a fix-up, a term he invented to describe taking three short stories and adding linking material: and this is because his tales have a dreamlike, half-illogical wildness to them—he was found of paranoia conspiracy type books where the hero turns out to be the villain with amnesia or something—so practically any plot could be linked into practically any other plot without any gain or loss. His characters were interchangeable enough that one could turn into another with no loss. While this does not speak well of his talents as a plot-weaver or character developer, it speaks volumes about the narrative power of his headlong flow of astonishing, phenomenal, glittering ideas.

Here is a mini-review of the tales of wonder appearing in this volume. Since each Van Vogt story consists of little more than Hitchcockian plot-twists, no story can be discussed without giving away at least some surprises. WARNING SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT!

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Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.