The Weapon Shops of Isher

The Empire of Isher #1

by A.E. van Vogt

With the publication, in the July 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, of the story Seesaw, van Vogt began unfolding the complex tale of the oppressive Empire of Isher and the mysterious Weapon Shops. This volume, The Weapon Shops of Isher, includes the first three parts of the saga and introduces perhaps the most famous political slogan of science fiction: The Right to Buy Weapons is the Right to Be Free. Born at the height of Nazi conquest, the Isher stories suggested that an oppressive government could never completely subjugate its own citizens if they were well armed. The audience appeal was immediate and has endured long beyond other stories of alien invasion, global conflict and post war nuclear angst.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Time Travel, Short Stories, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy, Classics

191 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

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 edtion of the popular "Astounding Science Fiction" magazine.

Reviews

[Henry Avila · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fix- up novel, The Weapon Shops of Isher, from the golden age of science fiction in 1951, three short stories of the 40s melted together by the acclaimed Canadian writer A. E. (Alfred Elton) van Vogt, set 7,000 years in the future on Earth . Ruled by the pretty , young, insecure Empress Innelda who needs to act tough in order to continue the ten century long Isher dynasty on the world now called you guessed it Isher. Her absolute rather tyrannical authority is only challenged by a vast string of gun shops, mysterious, impregnable with advanced weapons their controversial motto is " The Right to Buy Weapons is the Right to Be Free." Mr. Chris McAllister a curious reporter enters one of these shops and promptly vanishes, never seen again, but not before talking to clerks inside, telling weird, fascinating tales, if you can believe them, as he obeys and sadly opens the side door. We the reader next arrive in the dull village of Glay , remote, obscure, then presto a Weapon Shop appears... the locals are stunned, what to do? Fara Clark does, urging villagers to attack the ominous building... but can't open the door, the angry man looks foolish, inept, the result, a determination to succeed, wife Creel tries to calm the hot -head and bored son Cayle 23, lacks interest, who cares. And the son soon flees to celebrated Imperial City embarrassed by his father, wanting magic, stimulation... to his detriment. Then the plot begins in earnest as he meets a captivating girl Lucy, sparks rise in the flying craft, she knows secrets but keeps them.......
Others treat Cayle not so nice, bruising the body and soul. Meeting the Empress she is attractive so is Cayle, her uneasy soldiers notice the intelligent boy with a gift for winning, a gambling genius but not a good fighter, they need, you will not be surprised by the results, war, some people are soar losers still. A strange narrative which is not always clear or what is the point if any, just good entertainment, however it is quite well written. An early classic of sci-fi very influential to later authors of this type of book. You the reader probably, indeed I believe will like and enjoy the novel even if not an ardent fan of this type. And what about poor Mr. McAllister ? If you read this that mystery can be solved...until the sequel... business is business after all. Second thoughts ; I search for hidden treasure from the past and frequently uncover gold.

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A science fiction classic from 1951, or from the 1940s, depending on how you slice it. :) Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:

I first came across the 1942 short story “The Weapon Shop” by A.E. van Vogt in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964, a fantastic collection of some of the best short fiction from the pre-Nebula years that was instrumental in shaping my taste for science fiction when I was an impressionable teen. A few years later I came across the full-length novel The Weapon Shops of Isher in the two-volume collection A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, edited by Anthony Boucher, and was surprised to see that the short story I’d enjoyed was actually part of a much longer work that was far more complex and appealing to me.

What had actually happened, though I didn’t know it at the time, was that van Vogt had taken three of his shorter works that had been published in science fiction magazines in the 1940s ― the above-mentioned “The Weapon Shop,” “The Seesaw” from 1941, and “The Weapon Shops of Isher” from 1949 ― and combined them into the “fix-up” novel The Weapon Shops of Isher. (Reportedly, van Vogt even coined the term “fix-up”; certainly he was enthusiastic about the process of combining and reworking his earlier stories.)

As a result, The Weapon Shops of Isher is a wide-ranging novel with multiple plot threads and characters. Seven thousand years in the future, Earth is ruled by the Empress Innelda, an intelligent, rather despotic young ruler who is the latest descendant of the long-reigning House of Isher. For the last couple of thousand years, the monarchy’s tendency toward tyranny has been checked by the Weapon Shops, where anyone (except government agents) can get a super-high-tech weapon to use for self-defense.

In this setting there are three interlocking plotlines, logically enough, since this novel is composed of three shorter works. In the first, Chris McAllister, a reporter, enters a weapon shop that suddenly appeared in his town in the year 1951 and is instantly transported to the time period that the shop came from, some 7,000 years in the future. The weapon shop’s owner and his daughter soon realize that McAllister and the shop are seesawing in time because of an energy weapon being turned on the shop by the Empress. Because of the huge mass differential, McAllister is swinging back and forth far further in time than the shop … and it’s only getting worse. Not to mention he’s building up a massive charge of energy in his body, with no safe way to discharge it.

The second plot thread follows Fara Clark, an older man who’s extremely set in his authoritarian attitudes toward his family and his devotion to the Empress. His harshness has alienated his 23-year-old son Cayle. Fara despises the weapon shops and their philosophical views that set them in opposition to the Empress, but when Fara’s repair shop business and livelihood are ruined by a ruthless corporation, he may have nowhere else to turn.

The third (and most interesting, at least to me) plotline follows Cayle Clark as he escapes his village, intent on making it in the big city, Imperial City. He’s hampered by his small-town habits and lack of sophistication, but on the plus side he has immense “callidetic” (PSI) mental powers and has gained the interest of Lucy Rall, a young woman who works at the weapon shop and has Connections. But Cayle’s mental powers may cause him trouble as well as helping him out, especially when he gets carried away with his lucky streak and wins far too much money in a gambling palace. The owners of the establishment are not at all amused, and they have ways of making people like him pay.

One of the secondary characters is a man named Robert Hedrock who, through an accident of some kind about 2500 years earlier, is now Earth’s sole immortal man (something he keeps secret), and who is a key executive within the weapon shops organization. Hedrock’s immortality is oddly handwaved in The Weapon Shops of Isher, but he takes center stage in its sequel, The Weapon Makers, which was first published in serialized form in Astounding magazine in 1943, but is set several years later than this novel.

I originally read back The Weapon Shops of Isher in the 80s and enjoyed it hugely. It has some strikingly imaginative ideas and ― what is more surprising ― characters who are actually memorable (something that can’t be taken for granted in classic SF). On reread, I can see that some aspects of it are dated: Fara Clark’s dismissive treatment of his wife and adult son seem very mid-20th century, though arguably it could remain a small-town attitude in the far future. Though most of the power players in this world are men, the Empress wields impressive power and Lucy Rall takes a fairly active role in directing her own and Cayle’s lives. Van Vogt is also patently enthused about the Second Amendment; the weapon shops’ slogan is “The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.” It’s a measured take on the right to bear arms, however: the shops’ high-tech weapons can only be used only by the buyer, and only for self-defense and approved hunting.

You can see the seams where van Vogt melded together the three novellas, but the plot threads all weave together fairly well in the end. The Weapon Shops of Isher is one of the better science fiction novels from its era; I recommend it to readers who are fond of Golden Age SF. Both this novel and its sequel, the Retro Hugo-nominated The Weapon Makers, are available on Kindle for a reasonable price (currently $3.99 each).

[Paul Weiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusing and disjointed!

In THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER, AE van Vogt deals with libertarian philosophy that is best summarized by the slogan he attributes to the weapon shops, "The right to buy weapons is the right to be free". Unlike what many potential readers might imagine, this is not a manifesto for the National Rifle Association. It's a much more soft pedalled carefully considered cautionary tale that is a warning to citizens to be sure they retain the ability to limit the potential power of any government regardless of the form it might take.

Time travel, immortality, the limitation of government power, corruption, invisibility, loyalty, naivete, love, courage, freedom, rebellion, powerful weaponry - all these themes and more are touched on in what many people call a fine example of the golden age of science fiction. But - and I'm willing to admit that perhaps the shortcoming is my own - I frankly failed to understand the charm and I didn't really catch the message. It bothers me to no end when I get to the end of a story and my sole reaction is "Huh ... what just happened?"

Certainly I understood the basic themes but I felt that van Vogt missed the mark. The story line was difficult to follow and consisted of a hodge-podge of disconnected outrageous scientific conjectures, stilted dialogue far worse than sub-title translations of Japanese B-movies, blinding plot jumps and the use of plot devices that seemed arbitrary and pointless (Hedrock's immortality and a gambler with luck that defies all imagination, for example).

In VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE, van Vogt wrote a series of stories that were clearly the predecessors of today's much loved Star Trek series. As a fan of classic science fiction, a lover of Star Trek in all its incarnations and a reader who has enjoyed van Vogt's other works, I wanted very much to like THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER. A cynical world-weary friend of mine put it well, "Vast ideas, but only half-vast execution!" Four stars for the ideas, two stars for the writing and the story to support it - call it three stars and suggest that this is a book which would be enjoyed only by hard core classic sci-fi lovers.

Paul Weiss

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now i first read this book, some time back in the late 70s when I was on a big A.E. van Vogt kick. I thoroughly enjoyed it then, thoroughly enjoyed it over the intervening years, and thoroughly enjoyed it again over the last few days.

Its a great story, in the golden age style. Hey you've probably gathered I really liked it, and yes I did. I love van Vogt's writing style and this book epitomises his mastery of the classic space opera tale. Given the chance I would love to rekindle my love affair with vV and head off on another vV book fest, maybe soon eh ?

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 to 4.5 stars. This is a great example of the "big idea" science fiction classic. Set thousands of years in the future, the story revolves around the struggle between a corrupt empire and the mysterious "weapon shops" that provide the population with a means to insure that the government can never become all powerful. Libertarian SF at its best and arguably Van Vogt's best book ever.

[J.G. Keely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another dystopian outing by Van Vogt, and one which demonstrates moments of depth and subtlety surpassing his other work. Yet, at its heart, it suffers from the same ridiculous problems as most of his stories.

What may be most interesting about this book is how it feels like a prototype for the dark, socio-political sci fi of Philip K. Dick and the Cyberpunk authors. The characters try to move through complex, corrupt bureaucratic systems, and often end up beaten and weaker for it as they seek to uncover some obscure conspiracy.

In this regard, the book takes as many cues from noir as it does from dystopian sci fi. And occasionally, this noir sentiment results in moments of wry introspection, or in terse, almost existential conversation. There are some moments of dialogue which begin to uncover the sort of small, vivid pain which was so central to Chekhov's masterful exploration of the human condition.

But there is also much in the book which is overblown and rather silly. As usual, the technology is absurdly powerful, held by a privileged few, and obeys somewhat inexplicable rules. There are the guns which can only be shot in self-defense, the impermeable energy walls, and a side-plot about time travel which grows rather obscure. Yet these strange, almost magical scientific concepts are at least interesting, and begin to foreshadow the hallucinogenic technology of Dick or Vonnegut.

As usual, our 'hero' is a man of many unique talents so powerful that they elevate him above any problem, so that no single plot conflict is able to withstand him for more than a chapter. In fact we have two such characters, as we do in Slan--one the hero and the other working behind the scenes to create the plot, itself.

And in the vein of such characters, they are so morally upright that they resolve never to use these powers for any nefarious purpose, instead making it their goal to better all of mankind--which is lucky, since they could clearly take over the whole government tomorrow, if they so desired.

This irresistible force tends to undermine the story's conflict, but of the Van Vogt stories I have read, it is least problematic here, since at least the hero suffers the robberies, cheating, and kidnapping which any good noir hero must survive. There is a similar kind of personal hardship in Voyage of the Space Beagle (the prototype for 'Star Trek'), but most of that is just the result of the hero deciding not to use his full force, rather than actually ever being helpless.

In the end, his politics are not transformative, since they rely on an all-powerful beneficent organization and self-defense guns, so his dystopic message falls flat. The epilogue provides a rather amusing bit of time-travel paradox, tackling the same idea as Asimov's famous short story 'The Last Question', written a few years later.

Van Vogt certainly had imagination, and several sources of inspiration to draw on, and it's undeniable that here, as elsewhere, his visions have proven very influential on later writers, but he has not aged all that well, himself. His plots and characters tended to be rather simple, particularly the conflicts that drove them, and yet his worlds and ideas were too unusual for him to write anything straightforward. His ideas have lived on, taken up by other authors, but his own flawed approach means that he tends to pale in comparison with his more polished followers.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The right to own weapons is the right to be free"


I own an omnibus edition of The Weapons Shop of Isher and The Weapons Makers now as the old paper backs are long gone. The only thing that keeps these from 5 star ratings is that they are not quite as "enthralling" as some reads. Still these are wonderful books and of course they will provoke thought and debate.

The weapons shops exist basically to keep the totalitarian government of the Empress Isher from being able to take the last step to complete totalitarianism. That is they exist to provide individual citizens with weapons for self defense. The attitude behind the Weapons Shops is that of very minimalist government. They are not participating in trying to overthrow the oppressive government but to provide individuals the right to defend themselves. The idea is expressed that even a totalitarian government can't exist without at least the tacit consent of the people. The weapons allow individuals certain freedom. The Shops also provide an alternate court system for some things and prevent the complete domination of the despotic government. The weapons shops moto, repeated often in the book is: "The right to own weapons is the right to be free".

No spoilers here but these are classic....classic books.

[Oscar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pues no me he enterado muy bien, así que la he dejado por la mitad. La novela, o más bien fix-up, ya que se compone de un par de relatos y una novela escritos entre 1941 y 1951, empieza muy bien, con un periodista del siglo XX que entra en un extraño edificio, una Armería, y desaparece viajando al futuro lejano. Esto supone un gran problema, ya que el individuo está cargado de materia temporal, o algo así, que podría acabar con un buen pedazo de la Tierra. Muy interesante, pero después se cambia de personajes, siempre en el mismo entorno, y todo se vuelve caótico.
Sinceramente, y aunque a mucha gente le pese, he disfrutado más con algún bolsilibro de ciencia ficción escrito en los 50 escrito en España, a veces en 4 días, con sus ideas, sus personajes y su, por qué no, dosis de locurón, que con este ‘Las armerías de Isher’, considerado una obra maestra por muchos críticos y lectores. Cuándo se verá reivindicada la labor realizada por aquellos héroes de las letras españolas que únicamente deseaban entretener, honestamente, y que hoy en día, se han convertido en nuestro pulp, nuestros clásicos y precursores de la ciencia ficción, por mucho que a alguien le escueza.

[Graham P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foundational socio-political SF with the veneer of Flash Gordon's codpiece and the unstitched logic of a Boy Scout's sermon on gun training circa 1948. This is pure juvenile getaway escape with a lower-case PG rating. For a book about weapons, nobody is harmed in the entire novel besides a hilarious bit where the protagonist's father is strongly encouraged to kill himself after he's mistakenly declared bankrupt, and Vogt surely doesn't want to ruffle any feathers with any lurid or lowly pulp -- no green-skinned cleavage, and no melting limbs by laser here.

Yeah, there's a lot of foundational work to ponder in WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER regarding this being such an influential work on PKD's overlay, as well as a message for the Libertarian locked and loaded freedoms, but when nostalgia can't carry the weight, there's moments where it's like trying to find importance in the hieroglyphs of a Hardy Boys novel. Don't get me wrong, this is an enjoyable piece of pulp where everybody seems at half-speed logically and politically, especially in the board meetings that seem to clutter the climax with little or no intention, and like the time-mirror dilemma presented in the novel, I couldn't tell whether to approach this novel as 1950s kid or 2020s middle-ager. Either way, an important work historically, but if you're reading for the pyrotechnics of what was to come later in the genre, then surely it won't impress too deeply. However if you want to be 10 years old again, put on a tin foil space cap and have a ride with the mad Canuck, then nobody's stopping you. Just don't do what I did and try to follow this up with reading a Piers Anthony novel, or even one from Doris Piserchia. A human brain can only handle so much soft and questionable candy.

My 1973 Ace edition cover art is phenomenal. Illustrator: Bart Forbes.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The right to buy weapons is the right to be free."

One of the starting points for van Vogt’s The Weapon Shops of Isher series of stories and novels, this is one of the most political and ideological of his golden-age stories. It comprises several chapters in his fixup novel The Weapon Shops of Isher. The basic theme throughout being an on-going conflict, some 7,000 years in the future, between the 4000-year-old autocratic and hereditary “Isher” regime, and a powerful, scientifically advanced opposition organization called The Weapon Shops who are dedicated to preserving justice and basic rights for individuals through means including their own judicial system, as well as by arming citizens with high tech firearms.

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

World War 2 ended ten years before I was born, but its effect on American culture persisted into my childhood. This story series was started by Van Vogt during that war, and I can easily imagine that its intended audience was made up of US Army soldiers. Can it really be 80 years ago? I guess so, the three stories that make up this fix-up novel are The Seesaw (1941), The Weapon Shop (1942), and The Weapon Shops of Isher (1949). The novel as a whole was released in 1951. It is not difficult to imagine some G.I. in a barracks somewhere reading and pondering all the jagged plot twists, especially that whole business with the House of Illusion.

It was a time when technology was imagined to be primarily electromechanical but limitless, and artificial intelligence was not even imagined meaningfully. And so, SF speculations take the form of guns that can sense the intent of their owner and prevent their use except in self-defense, doors that only open for people who are not supporters of the Imperial Throne, and a secret Pp machine that numerically assesses the strength of character of all humans. By modern sensibilities, it is all plot-driven fantastic gobbledygook. But still there is something, and it is perhaps due to when and where I grew up, that is charming about a naïve and earnest young man with undeveloped exceptional abilities who rises through the system and opposes all its wrongs.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a totalitarian galactic empire in the year 4784, the Empire of Isher, to which the Weapon Shops provide the means of resistance. And a man from the 1950's is hurled into this period.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

During my teen years, when I thought that A.E. van Vogt could do no wrong, I somehow missed reading The Weapon Shops of Isher. I have finally closed that particular gap on this rather odd book -- one that the National Rifle Association would heartily sanction.

Isher is an incredibly corrupt empire ruled by a young empress whose heart is in the right place, though she is surrounded by cynical self-serving courtiers. Van Vogt writes:

When a people lose the courage to resist encroachment on their rights, then they can't be saved by an outside force. Our belief is that people always have the kind of government they want and that individuals must bear the risks of freedom, even to the extent of giving their lives.

The force arrayed against the empire consists of weapon shops that make available to people low-cost, effective weapons that can be used for defensive purposes only. The weapon shops are able to divine intent, and law enforcers from the empire cannot even get past the front door.

The hero of the novel is one Cayle Clark who is at the same time a protege of the empire and of the weapon shops, whose divergent aims he attempts to reconcile. He falls in love with a beautiful young woman of the weapon shops and seeks her hand in marriage.

It took a while for the novel to get started, but once it did, it manged its way around the rather intricate plot rather well. I still don't quite get the character of McAllister, a journalist from 1951 who is stuck in some sort of time pendulum stretching from the past to the future -- but he does provide a rather striking image.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Whoa. Not at all what I was expecting from my Golden Age era sci-fi. This is some weird, topsy turvy stuff. And I like it! Yet I can see how some might not. It's confusing, and like an old jigsaw puzzle the pieces don't always fit together seamlessly. There are plot holes, characters with weird psychological motivations, time travel, and a smattering of odd psychic abilities (which seems to be one of van Vogt's go-to sci-fi motifs). All this adds up to something refreshing and wholly original that was a blast, despite the frequent need to go back and re-read sections that just didn't want to settle into place neatly the first time through.

[David Agranoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Next episode of SF hall of podcast series…

[Roddy Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘In the year 4784, the Universe is contained within the empire of Isher ruled by the Empress Innelda.

‘Dedicated to pleasure, Innelda’s dictatorship has driven Isher to the brink of cosmic disaster. For against her stand the impregnable Weapon Shops, their immortal leader Robert Hedrock and a man from the 20th century with terrifying power.’

Blurb from the 1974 New English Library paperback edition

Van Vogt had a definite talent for writing narratives which had that David Lynch quality of abstracted weirdness; elements which didn’t really belong but seemed to fit nevertheless.
Here we are in the year 4784 AD. Humanity is under the control of the Empress Illenda, a young girl in charge of an Empire which covers Earth, Mars and Venus. However, an organisation exists independently of the Empress’ control; the Weapon Shops. The shops appear at random and offer extraordinary personally-attuned weapons which can only be used defensively and which will leap into the hand when needed. the shops all sport a 3D display sign which reads:-

FINE WEAPONS
THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS
IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE

The Weapon Shops are engaged in an ongoing battle with the Empress’ authorities who are seeking to shut them down.
Part of The Weapon Shops’ plan (masterminded by an immortal human named Robert Hedrock) is to send a man through time as a kind of temporal counterweight to a vast building which is swinging back and forward in time and destined to appear beside the Empress’ home at a certain point, where it will explode.
The luckless human is McAllister, a reporter who entered a Weapon Shop in ‘Middle City’.
He was taken to the far future, ‘charged’ with the energy picked up by travelling through time in such a manner, and was sent on his pendulum journey to the far past.
Meanwhile in 4784 AD, the Weapon Shop scientists have discovered Cayle Clark, a young man with an exceptionally high ‘callidity’ rating (van Vogt is vague about what callidity actually is, although we get the idea that it’s Very Important), and have assigned Lucy, a female Weapons Shop agent, to make his acquaintance and keep an eye on him.
Cayle discovers he has a talent for gambling but after getting too greedy, is held by the gambling house and sent to a ‘House of Illusion’ where men become slave playthings for female clients in a virtual reality environment.
The House is consequently raided and Cayle ends up on Mars.
This seems to be the point where Cayle’s callidity kicks in. he manages to return to Earth where he enrols in The Empire’s armed forces and gains access to the time-swinging building-bomb of the Weapon Shops.
He hitches a lift back in time and helps ‘himself’ to amass a fortune, an action which forces the Empress to halt her war against the Weapon Shops for fear of a similar incident wrecking the financial stability of the Empire. This explanation, it has to be said, does not bear close examination.
The familiar van Vogt hallmarks are here; the giant building, the logical alpha male (Robert Hedrock), the feudalistic society existing alongside fantastic technology, the esoteric organisation operating inside exoteric society, the young man with superior powers.
One can almost pick out the elements which Philip K Dick (self-confessedly influenced by Van Vogt) employed in his own work. The Shops themselves are almost a pure Dickism; incongruous elements appearing in a normal suburban setting, in this case a Weapon Shop with a Dick-esque cheesy cheerful sign with slogan which can be viewed from all angles without distortion, a slogan which of course echoes the American constitution on the right to bear arms.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another of his fix-up novels, like The Voyage of the Space Beagle although unlike that book, why the short stories were brought together and reworked into this novel is a mystery to me. There just seems to be two unrelated story lines spliced together in order to bulk out and produce a novel. In "The Voyage of the Space Beagle", the stories fitted together in sequence well in an episodic way. In this book they are essentially parallel narrative strands that are never brought together.

Still only a short novel, the plot lurches from scene to scene, the characters are picked up and dropped haphazardly along the way giving the reader little chance to engage with them in any way. Infact, the most important character of the story, the one whom you end up feeling the book is really about (and who I understand the sequel is about) is only really introduced quite late in the story.

As usual, A.E. Van Vogt has many interesting ideas, such as a future uptopian/dystopian society in which a tyrannical regime is held in check by an independent organisation of weapon shops that are intent on supplying the populace with weapons (that can only be used defensively) and an alternative justice system (for those failed by the regime's justice). The problem though is the kinds of technology that Van Vogt envisages to exist in order to sustain this idealistic social setup are quite far fetched to say the least. Drawn from pure fantasy in order to do the job he needs it to do. And then we have the crackpot idea that comes from the story "The Seesaw" which just sounds like pure nonsense although the solution to the problem it poses throughout the book is quite interesting.

I haven't read the short stories on which this novel is based but I get the feeling that I would have preferred reading them to the novel. Infact, that is precisely what I want to do next with this author, find a short story collection. A form in which this author will undoubtedly excel.

[Martin Doychinov · Rating 4 out of 5]

За съжаление, първото произведение от дилогията "Isher Empire" го няма на майчин език, за разлика от второто - "Оръжейните майстори".
Имайки предвид, че е издадена за първи път през 1951-а, е остаряла добре - почти не й личи.
Единственото, което стои межди императрица Инелда и неограничената власт, са оръжейните магазини, които съществуват почти откакто съществува и Империята.
В тези магазини може да влезе всеки (който не таи планове да им навреди) и да се сдобие с подходящо за нуждите му високотехнологично оръжие, което обаче ще стреля само при самозащита и не може да се препродаде. "Правото да си купиш оръжие е правото да бъдеш свободен" е слоганът на магазините, който (поне на теория) звучи толкова американски, колкото е възможно. На практика, т.нар. оръжейни майстори са единствената неподчиняваща се на Империята организация.
Крис МакАлистър е журналист от съвремието на писателя, който ще бъде запратен в бъдещето, а после - в миналото, само защото е искал да си свърши работата.
Кайл Кларк е мъж с уникален интелект, който успява да промени световния баланс, а баща му Фара изживява своя катарзис, преоткривайки, отделно от сина си, света в който живее.
Робърт Хедрок пък е единственият безсмъртен човек и се опитва да спре напъващата война.
Интересно изграден свят, харесаха ми събитията от типа "дгд системата" и 1-2 изненади, които поднесе. Особено за 51-а година, описаното е било безумно оригинално, но това е норма за Ван Вогт. Разбира се, стилът на писане е прекрасен - за първи път го чета в оригинал и от време на време ми идваше малко тегав с уж нелошия ми ингилизки. :)
Не ми харесаха някои части от структурата на книгата, където резултатът от събития в една сюжетна линия е описан в друга такава, преди описанието на самите събития. Това ми дойде объркващо и развалящо частите, описващи споменатите случки, чиито край ми вече бе известен. Друг минус е персонажът на Хедрок, който е направо божествен по добродетел и сила. Не на последно място поставям и не особено интересния завършек.
Общо взето, класно произведение, с някои трески. Малко прилича на прелюдия, отколкото на съвсем самостоятелно произведение. Вероятно "Оръжейните майстори" ще е дори по-добър!

[Mouldy Squid · Rating 4 out of 5]

A blast from the past, literally. The Weapon Shops of Isher is classic golden age adventure science fiction the likes of which is no longer seen today. Van Vogt fills the work with catchy prose, sly humour and understated profundity. Reduced to its most basic essence, The Weapon Shops… is a somewhat tongue in cheek libertarian critique masquerading as serious libertarian literature. While the philosophies on display are commonly read as totalitarianism versus personal freedom, the more complex subtext is often overlooked completely. But there is more going on than socio-political discussion; there is adventure, reversals of fortune, surprising turns of plot and good old fashioned fun.

The text stands up fairly well, considering its age, but the reader must always keep in mind the book's context. The only bit that stands out as really dated is the role of women. Like all golden age science fiction, they are limited to being wives, harpies or damsels in distress. Hard core feminists will declare misogyny, but that is not actually the case; Van Vogt was writing in a time when the role of women was never seen as something that would change, or if it did, change only in ways that complemented the wife/housemaker/mother paradigm.

If one can overlook the flaws The Weapon Shops of Isher provides a fairly pleasant and strangely exciting distraction and puts on display Van Vogt's considerable talent at prose. This is a book that should be added to Literature of Science Fiction courses. It outshines even Asimov's work from this particular period.

[Steve Poling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is '40s vintage pulp science fiction at its best. The plot is something of a mess with threads going off in all directions. But darned if I don't love it as much today as when I was a kid. Could Van Vogt have done better? Probably. But think of the times and what was expected of him. Besides, if it wasn't for the writers of the Golden Age, I would neither read nor write SF today. So, three cheers for A. E. Van Vogt and this wonderful little gem of writing.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

-Read in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One-

Here’s a dizzying string of statements: I really liked this story; it’s about a shop that sells guns to help protect citizens against a tyrannical government; it might be the most American science fiction story ever written; it was written by a Canadian; I think guns are stupid. Good luck trying to make sense of that.

[Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read “The Weapon Shops of Isher” as a teenager, fifty-odd year's ago, and I have remembered it all this time. It's as good now as it was then, too; it's unforgettable.

[Toviel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Big ideas and big philosophies: THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER provides a rich, if dated, reading experience from the heart of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Even so, it is a difficult book to recommend.

Of the three stories interwoven into the novel's narrative, Fara Clark's story is easily the best. As father with unwavering government loyalty, his life is turned completely upside-down when an ominous "Weapon Shop" appears within his small town. His story is of disillusionment and discovery, and contains the fewest pacing problems and incomprehensible plot twists. At the same time, the pro-gun philosophies that he's supposed to embrace are hard to swallow in an era where gun violence is a hot button issue. It's one of the few instances in the story where the 1940s sensibilities and the futuristic scifi setting hampers the enjoyment of the novel; there are so many technological and cultural differences between the world Isher and ours that the Weapon Shops and their message cannot feasibly apply to real life. As a significant amount time is spent explaining the Weapon Shops and their purpose, it's impossible to overlook.

Fara's son, Cayle Clark, thankfully abandons the questionable logic of the Weapon Shops very early on. His story is also one of disillusionment, and provides an interesting parallel to his father's story. Unlike Fara, whose experiences with crime are very white-collar, Cayle manages to stumble into just about every shady and corrupt situation in the solar system. His narrative also provides one of the few well-written female characters in classic science fiction, in the form of Lucy. While her characterization is a bit dated and sexist, the narrative genuinely explores her struggles, thoughts, and feelings far better than I would have expected from a book written over fifty years ago. Unfortunately, the pacing of Cayle's story suffers towards the end, and the conclusion is a little too convoluted for my liking.

There is one other minor problem Cayle's story, which is only exacerbated in the final story: the over-explanation of futuristic concepts. McAllister's tale is about a poor schmuck forced into a terrible situation. He is the pinnacle of van Vogt's "big idea" storytelling, where the idea behind the plot is more impressive than the actual execution. Between McAllister's unique situation and the war brewing war between the Queen of Isher and the Weapon Shops, very little time is devoted to the character himself. I frequently forgot what was going on whenever the narrative switched back to him, because he is such a minor character within his own story. Furthermore, it wrecks the pacing of the already complicated stories of Fara and Cayle.

Despite its flaws and questionable philosophies, THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER is a solid book, and definitely one of the most approachable of high-concept classic science fiction. Recommended to anyone looking for an easy entrance to the world of classic scifi, but keep in mind that it is far from perfect.

[SciFiOne · Rating 5 out of 5]

1980 grade A
2015 grade A

Series book WS2

The book has odd POV transitions in that it is not always obvious that the POV has changed. Content wise, in the beginning chapters, all the characters seem to be losers. But stick with it. It is a pretty easy but intelligent read and gets immensely better.

(Note: My edition is the 1973 fourth printing of the Ace edition pictured above - condition "Very Good." That edition is not listed in the owned books section and I do not feel like dealing with Goodreads problematic edition editor.)

[Matt Parker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wish I had abandoned this one, but I kept waiting for it to turn around. The whole story is predicated on a series of inventions of incredible power that somehow haven't affected any other part of society. Guns with AI so sophisticated that they only fire in self-defense, but somehow there are still office buildings full of clerks? A machine that unerringly identifies morally upstanding people but the world government is run by a hereditary monarchy? It's entirely too ludicrous.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Job, Fara is suddenly plagued with trials and hardships. Unlike Job, it is not his faith in God being tested. He is simply being destroyed for the financial benefit of the ruling elite. Fara is completely loyal to the Empress and the Empire. He believes that the injustice done to him will be corrected by the Empress. When this fails to happen and he is at the end of his endurance, he turns to The Weapon Shop to end it all. It is through the power of The Weapon Shop he learns the truth and is given the ability to fight the system.

[Samichtime · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story and cover both remind me of kotor 🚀(knights of the old republic). The ending was lackluster but everything else was good.

Just like in kotor, there is space travel, humanoids, “credits” are the money system, they have casinos, and pretty ladies… and both casinos ban you if you win too much! Plasma guns called “blasters”, planetary imperialism, etc. Very Star Warsy.

[Artem Gavrishev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ван Вогт учит, что в борьбе за личную свободу человеку не обойтись без супер героя. Даже если он выглядит, как ООО "Волшебный магазин пушек".

[Rindis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, The Weapon Shops of Isher was enjoyable, but it has a number of problems. Some of this is structural leftovers from being a combination of three short stories, but some run deeper.

The novel starts with a prologue that's as long as any three chapters of the book put together. In it a 1951 reporter is transported approximately 7000 years into the future as an accidental side effect of a struggle happening there. From there, the rest of the novel is concerned with events in that far-distant date, and our reporter doesn't even come up again for half the book. He becomes a background element for bits of the second half, before getting resolved in a one-page epilogue. That, at least, is big idea SF at its best, and the original consolidated story might have had a lot more punch.

The bulk of the novel actually has three different viewpoint characters, two of which have complete arcs. The third is a typical plot-destroying superman, and is thus immune to having any real character development. He is 'Earth's one immortal man', and has the usual bevy of abilities that a millennias-long life might be expected to convey. Of course, how or why he's immortal is not gone into at all, nor any real background on him.

Overall, the central conceit of the book is the necessity of an armed (or at least potentially armed) populace to resist tyrannical governmental power. However, it undermines its own message by the use of near-magic guns. They are also themselves capable of protecting their possessor from most things, and can only be used in self-defense (the psionic technology needed for such a feat is not gone into, nor if you could use one to blast open the door of a room you've been locked into; not being able to just shoot up the countryside seems to be assumed).

But still, the actual writing is fairly good, and while the main plot has a twist that's not hard to figure out as it happen at the end, it then has another nice twist to resolve the overall conflict.

[astaliegurec · Rating 4 out of 5]

A.E. van Vogt's "The Weapon Shops of Isher" is a 1951 book he formed from three of his 1940s era short stories. So, you have to keep several things in mind about it. First, since its source stories were initially published in the magazines of the time, the prose tends to be a bit terse and abrupt. There's no subtlety in what it's trying to get across or in how it does it. Second, since it's a story originating during the 1940s (The Golden Age of Science Fiction), it's old and the world has changed drastically since then. The most obvious changes are probably the on-going World War II at the time the first two parts were published and the social roles of women during the time. With that in mind, van Vogt has done a pretty amazing job here. I first (and before this Kindle version, last) read this book darn near 40 years ago in my youth. Yet, as I re-read it today, I realized that I remembered almost everything about it. It made that much of an impression on me. If I were to rate the book solely by today's standards, I might say it was OK. But, because it seems to have weathered the intervening 60 or so years pretty decently, and because it's so memorable, I'm raising my rating to a Very Good 4 stars out of 5.

The two novels in A.E. van Vogt's "Isher" series are:

1. The Weapon Shops of Isher
2. The Weapon Makers (Isher)