Null-A Continuum Reviewed on Sci-Fi.com
May 9th, 2008
Paul Di Filippo, one of Sci-Fi.com's regular reviewers, has written a review of John C. Wright's Null-A Continuum, which is to be released this coming Tuesday. It has also been featured as a Sci-Fi Essential.
Once I get my copy (probably the end of next week) I'll spend a week or two writing my own review, so that should be online by the first of June. As I'm working on that, I recommend all you sci-fi and van Vogt fans out there get your own copy and read it too!
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John C. Wright To Be Interviewed
April 16th, 2008
John C. Wright, author of the upcoming Null-A Continuum, has generously agreed to do an interview for the Icshi website.
At the end of the normal interview section, I'd like to add something out of the ordinary. I can't count the number of times I've read or listened to an interview and at the end am flabbergasted that the interviewer didn't ask this question or that question, so I'd like to give that opportunity to all of your reading this. I'm therefore asking any visitor to this website to submit questions of their own. So if there's anything you'd like to ask Wright — on van Vogt or any other topic — send it to my email address at icshi@earthlink.net. You can submit more than one question to me, but I'll only ask Wright a maximum of one question per person so as to give everyone a chance. I intend to present him with at least 5 of the best questions I receive (maybe more depending on the quantity and quality of turnout). And don't be shy about what you ask — if his blog is anything to go by, he enjoys answering difficult questions! And if you'd prefer to remain anonymous, just mention that in your email and I'll include your first name only when I submit your question to Mr. Wright.
My plans are to release the interview in late June, over a month after Continuum is published (on May 13th), so people will have a chance to read it first. This way we'll feel freer to discuss the ins and outs of the entire series as part of our discussion. So if you'd like to submit a question, please do so before June 15th.
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Voyage of the Space Beagle To Be Reprinted
April 10th, 2008
Tor / Orb are scheduled to reprint van Vogt's 1950 novel Voyage of the Space Beagle in early July. It's available for pre-order at Amazon.com. And it looks like there's another good painting by Bruce Jensen on the cover.
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Null-A Continuum: Chapter Four
April 1st, 2008
John C. Wright has posted the fourth chapter of his upcoming Null-A Continuum on his blog.
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Null-A Continuum: Chapter Three
March 14th, 2008
John C. Wright has posted the third chapter of his upcoming Null-A Continuum on his blog. At this rate the whole novel should be available for free online by mid-2016. Seriously though, you should just buy it when it comes out in May.
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Long-Neglected Updates
March 6th, 2008
I have quite a backlog of news items to catch up on, and I apologize for taking so long to get around to posting any of them. Still, as they say, old news is good news. Or is it that there's no news like old news? I don't know. Anyway, here it is, better late than never.
Back in October John C. Wright posted the first chapter of Null-A Continuum. In December he also posted chapter two. Last month he posted information on the book's upcoming release in May. (The book can now be pre-ordered at Amazon.com.) And finally, just a few days ago Wright posted news about the novel receiving a favorable review at Kirkus. Please note that the full review features some spoilers. Fortunately it costs a packet to become a Kirkus subscriber to actually read the full review, so the temptation to look is offset by more practical considerations.
Also, in a bit of sad news Magnus Axelsson, creator of the superb Weird Worlds of A.E. van Vogt and originator of the Yahoo group dedicated to van Vogt, will no longer be updating the site as he has moved on to other pursuits, namely a career in pop music (see www.mmedia.is/dyrdin and twolittledogs.co.uk/). I'd like to thank Magnus for having created the Weird Worlds website all those years ago. When I first came across the site while at college way back in 1999, it was the first time I was able to really learn more about my favorite author and to connect with other van Vogt fans. It is not an exaggeration to say that were it not for his website and his inspiring example, I would never have become as deeply involved in all things van Vogtian as I have, and my life — which has been quite difficult in recent years due to long-standing health problems — would have been far less interesting and less rewarding. I owe Magnus a huge debt of gratitude, as do van Vogt and SF fans everywhere. I am sure you will all join with me in wishing him the best in his future endeavors.
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Opening Chapter of Null-A Continuum Available Online
October 24th, 2007
John C. Wright has posted the first chapter of his upcoming Null-A sequel, Null-A Continuum.
Also, the book is available for pre-order on Amazon's Canadian site, and for the moment seems to be scheduled for a May, 2008 release.
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Cover Art for Null-A Continuum
October 21st, 2007
John C. Wright has updated his blog to include the cover art for the upcoming Null-A Continuum. Bruce Jensen, who did the marvellous cover for the recent Slan Hunter, has produced another stunning work of art.
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Null-A Continuum Update
August 31st, 2007
According to John C. Wright's blog, the manuscript for Null-A Continuum has been sent to his publisher. This appears to be the final draft of the work. You can read more about this here.
Null-A Continuum, Wright's sequel to van Vogt's Null-A trilogy authorized by the late author's estate, was announced in December 2005 and has been delayed since then for one reason or another. Although the publication date has yet to be announced, I'm sure those eager to read the novel will be pleased to hear that things are moving forward once again.
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Slan Hunter Update
July 12th, 2007
Slan Hunter was officially released on Tuesday, so is now for sale from a slew of local book dealers as well as from Amazon.com.
Also, here are links to three more reviews of the novel:
Sci-Fi Weekly — reviewed by Paul Di FilippoOnce the book has been out for a few months, the Amazon.com product page will be a good place to watch for more reviews.
Publishers Weekly (about 3/4 of the way down the page)
A review by Harriet Klausner
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Guide to Slan Published by BookLocker
June 18th, 2007
I'm excited and proud to announce that BookLocker.com has just released Slanology: An In-Depth Guide to A.E. van Vogt's Most Famous Novel, which is available only as a ebook download priced at $5.95. This is a booklet I've been working on since January, and is designed to be read as a companion to the novel. Slanology is an offshoot of a major new project I'm working on, which is discussed in more detail in the introduction.
To learn more about Slanology — and even buy it! — go to the book's purchase page. As with all the other works sold through BookLocker, a free excerpt is available.
Many of you will remember BookLocker as the publisher who released H.L. Drake's book A.E. van Vogt: Science Fantasy's Icon at the end of 2001.
I'd like to extend a special "thank you" to Mark McSherry. Without his excellent advice and encouraging words over the last few months, Slanology would be sitting as an incomplete and abandoned file on my hard drive instead of being my very first published work!
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Slan & Slan Hunter Slated for 2-in-1 Hardcover Volume
May 31, 2007
Mark McSherry has passed along some new information on the Science Fiction Book Club's upcoming release of Slan and Slan Hunter in a single hardcover volume:
The Science Fiction Book Club has posted info on their exclusive 2-1 edition. And they are taking orders though a shipping date has yet to be determined. The volume is priced at $13.99. Their blurb reads---
SLAN & SLAN Hunter
SFBC Edition - $13.99
"In an unspecified North American future, humans carry on an unceasing campaign of extermination against the slans, a mutant race created with extraordinary strength, intelligence, healing power, and the ability to read minds. Centuries ago, the first slans had been ruthlessly ambitious, striving to dominate the world and to create more of their kind through human babies—yet they fell to the victors after a terrible genocidal war. Now, centuries later, they have been hunted almost to extinction, but rumor has it that many more are hiding within the cities. And so the hunt continues....
"Using his superior abilities, young Jommy Cross escapes the police who killed his mother and vanishes into the streets of Centropolis, the capital of the world. He has a mission to accomplish, and when he is old enough, an internal trigger will spur him to find the secret cache of weapons his father invented. With them, he will take command of his destiny—to save the slans by killing the absolute dictator of the world—only to discover a hidden slan race with plans of their own...
"In the great palace at the hub of Centropolis, slan Kathleen Layton lives at the center of scientific scrutiny, a political pawn under the uneasy protection of dictator Kier Gray. There, she hears the intrigues of the men in power as they jockey for position and plot a murderously cynical scheme against the slan, who have sent a message of peace. But Kathleen, who has spent the last six years fighting for her life against those who want her dead, will find herself in a far greater struggle—with a heroic young man who intends to change the world... Jacket art by Vincent di Fate. (Approx. 384 pp.) 1946-2007."
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Another Slan Hunter Review
April 3rd, 2007
When I posted the two reviews of Slan Hunter in early March, I inivited others to share with me information about other reviews of the novel, which I would link to from here. Michael McKinney recently shared such a link with the van Vogt group on Yahoo leading to Don D'Ammassa's review of Slan and Slan Hunter.
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Slan Hunter Reviewed
March 6th, 2007
The two reviews of Slan Hunter that were announced in January are now available. Both can be found via the new Reviews Index Page. And please note that owing to the nature of the reviews, Mark's is free of spoilers while Isaac's contains many.
As far as I know these are the first full reviews of the novel — if anyone knows of any others, please drop me a line and I'll link to it here from the News page.
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John C. Wright Interview
February 25th, 2007
Author John C. Wright was recently interviewed by SciFi Weekly. Apart from being interesting in its own right, of special interest to van Vogt fans is a brief discussion of Null-A Continuum. (Thanks to Mark McSherry for sharing this with the Yahoo group.)
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Slan Hunter Update
February 10th, 2007
Amazon.com now has Slan Hunter available for pre-order.
Also, Mark McSherry's and Isaac Wilcott's reviews of the novel will now be appearing later than originally scheduled. They should be ready by late February or early March.
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Slan Hunter Cover Art
January 18th, 2007
The cover for Slan Hunter is now on the web. It can be seen in two places: a page on Holtzbrinck's website, and at Canada's Amazon.ca where the book is currently available for pre-order. As far as I could see the artist is not credited in either of these places. (February 25th, 2007: I've been fortunate enough to be contacted by the artist himself, Bruce Jensen, who also kindly shared with me a large JPG of this beautiful painting without the text.)
It now seems that Slan Hunter will be published in July, as opposed to the May or June dates mentioned earlier. The Holtzbrinck website also has some detailed information on the reprint of Slan which is scheduled for June.
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Old News & New News
January 10th, 2007
Since I'm such an enthusiast of history it perhaps shouldn't surprise you that I'm just now reporting some "news" that is a few months old:
In October 2006 Baen released a new collection of van Vogt stories entitled Transgalactic. Not to be confused with the other recent collection entitled Transfinite which was published by NESFA a few years ago, the Baen book contains the original magazine versions of many of his stories in various series. It contains the first reprinting of "The Mixed Men," "A Son is Born," and "Child of the Gods," since their first appearance in Astounding over 60 years ago. It also contains the original, unaltered text of "The Barbarian" — I've only just learned that whenever this story previously appeared in collections it was in fact an excerpt from Empire of the Atom, containing material at the beginning and end that was not present in the original. Also appearing in this collection is his 1950 novel The Wizard of Linn.
This softcover volume features cover art by Bob Eggleton, and comes to a nice and hefty 448 pages. It's $15 in price, and can of course be ordered from Amazon.com at a discount. Baen is one of the leaders in online publishing, so a digital version is available for download for just $5 in a wide variety of formats. A free sample — in the form of the introduction and the first story "A Son is Born" — is also available on Baen's website.
Although this book was published a few months ago, I have been out of the loop for quite some time and was totally unaware of it. Thanks to Michael McKinney (and, indirectly, Mark McSherry) for letting me know about this.
In more current news, the Tor hardcover of Slan Hunter (see below) was previously scheduled for a May 2007 release but it has been moved back one month to June. Also in June Tor will reprint their softcover edition of Slan (now available for preorder on Amazon.com). The two novels are tightly linked, with the sequel starting immediately after the conclusion to Slan. Slan Hunter is currently being serialized in Jim Baen's Universe.
And, lastly, some time in early February not one but two reviews of Slan Hunter will appear on this website, with Mark McSherry and Isaac Wilcott each offering their thoughts on the novel. (And, so as not to needlessly upset people, we promise to do our very best to avoid the inclusion of spoilers.) "Titan" level subscribers to Jim Baen's Universe can read unreleased issues of the magazine months in advance, and can therefore already read the complete novel. When I invited Mark (who is a Titan subscriber) to write a review of Slan Hunter for this website he accepted and also, very graciously, gave me a Titan subscription of my own (right out of the blue!) so I could read it as well. I'd like to publicly thank Mark for this wonderfully generous gift, and to express my delight that yet another fellow van Vogt reader has decided to speak up and offer us all his own unique knowledge, views, and insights.
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Slan Hunter to be Serialized in Jim Baen's Universe
November 15th, 2006
The new sequel to Slan — Slan Hunter by Kevin J. Anderson — will shortly be serialized in the bi-monthly online magazine Jim Baen's Universe. It will appear in three parts, starting in the December 2006 issue, and continued in the February & April 2007 issues. A preview of the first few chapters can be read here — the rest of the novel will be available only to subscribers. Those who pay extra to join the Universe Club will be able to read issues of the magazine up to three months before they are officially released.
Tor will publish the novel in hardcover in May 2007.
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Van Vogt Story to be Shot to Mars
November 3rd, 2006
The ever-informative George Gilbert passed along a nifty nugget that recently appeared in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper. I've reproduced an excerpt below:
[Van Vogt's] 1950 short story ["Enchanted Village"] about an astronaut's nightmarish mission to Mars will be blasted into space by NASA next year, along with works by such sci-fi luminaries as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, to form "the Red Planet's first library."
The U.S.-based Planetary Society, the world's leading public promoter of space exploration, has gained approval to send a "specialized silica-glass DVD," designed to last "many hundreds of years," containing 80 seminal, Martian-themed literature, artwork and radio productions when the Phoenix spacecraft launches for Mars in 2007.
Click here to read the full article.
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Kevin J. Anderson to Write Slan Sequel
January 10th, 2006
Well, this certainly seems to be the season for sequels to van Vogt books, as Kevin J. Anderson — who co-authored the many Dune prequels and the upcoming Dune 7 with Brian Herbert — recently announced that he has been invited to complete the sequel to Slan begun by van Vogt in 1984.
To quote the snippet that has been floating around the internet and news groups (thanks to Michael Colpitts for sharing this with the van Vogt group at Smartgroups [as of November 2006, Smartgroups is no longer active]):
Novelist and IAMTW member Kevin J. Anderson has been asked by Lydia Van Vogt, widow of author A.E. Van Vogt, to complete the manuscript for SLAN HUNTER, the sequel to SLAN. A. E. Van Vogt began the book in 1984, but was unable to complete it due to Alzheimers disease. Anderson received 100 pages of draft manuscript and outline. Tor will publish the completed book, with David Hartwell as editor.
More information can be found at Anderson's Dune 7 blog: http://www.dunenovels.com/dune7blog/page24.html
Both this and Wright's Null-A Continuum (see below) will be published by Tor, the only major publisher to have reprinted Van's books in the last ten years.
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Null-A Sequel in the Works
December 6th, 2005
The Sci-Fi Channel's website reported on a fourth novel in van Vogt's Null-A series being written by John C. Wright, and entitled Null-A Continuum. Here is the full text of the article, taken from http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue450/news.html:
SF and fantasy author John C. Wright told SCI FI Wire that the estate of late science fiction Grand Master A.E. van Vogt has granted him permission to write a sequel to van Vogt's Null-A series, which includes the novels The World of Null-A (1945), The Players of Null-A (1956) and Null-A Three (1985). The sequel will be called Null-A Continuum and will continue the story of van Vogt's hero, Gilbert Gosseyn.
Being chosen to be van Vogt's literary successor meant a lot to Wright. "The moral tone, without any hint of moralizing, running through A.E. van Vogt's work is what inspired me, then as now," Wright said in an interview. "The hero prevails by reason of his superior sanity, his ability to adjust his behavior to reality. [Van Vogt] was a Golden Age writer that made the age golden. His tales breathed wonder from every page. The reader is hurried along by a headlong plot, astonished by some sublime (or ridiculous) conception, blinded by atomic super-energies and shining cities of the future, dazed by the complexities of time paradox or layers of hidden identities, and in the midst of all this fury, action and intrigue we find the van Vogt hero. He is usually some lost superhuman who must learn to control his mysterious powers before they destroy him."
The Null-A books focus on one such hero. "[In] the original story, the hero, Gilbert Gosseyn, finds his basic memories are false, implanted in him for some mysterious purpose by an unknown agency," Wright said. "The utopian world of the far future is controlled by the concept of non-Aristotelian logic—abbreviated Null-A—a multi-valued system of speech and thought habits designed to bring man's animal nature into an educated harmony with the nature of reality. Rank in society is determined by the outcome of objective psychological tests umpired by a dispassionate Games Machine."
In Null-A Continuum, Wright said, the story moves from the intergalactic to the cosmic scale. "Gosseyn discovers that [a] shadow figure ... has arisen in the dead galaxy and is murdering the Null-As attempting to bring peace to a wartorn galaxy. ... [In] order to prevent the destruction of the entire structure of space-time, the continuum itself must become a Null-A Continuum."
A first draft of Null-A Continuum is complete and must be submitted to the van Vogt estate for approval. Meanwhile, the first book of Wright's Chronicles of Chaos series was published in early November, and he's in the midst of revising the middle and final volumes of the trilogy.
John C. Wright's own website can be found here.
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H.L. Drake's Vast Collection Donated to Michigan State University
January 22nd, 2005
H.L. Drake is something of a giant among A.E. van Vogt scholars, having worked in this field of study for decades now, with hundreds of articles, essays, and interviews to his credit. His recent book A.E. van Vogt: Science Fantasy's Icon has sold reasonably well since its release in January 2002, and the review I wrote has consistently been one of this website's most often-viewed pages. I'm therefore happy to report exciting news regarding the materials he has collected and written during his lifetime of research.
The following is an excerpt from an email recently sent to me by Drake:
My van Vogt collection of books, correspondence, photos, audio recordings, transcripts, copies of some of my published and unpublished work on van Vogt is now in the Special Collections department at Michigan State University in East Lansing. They will need to sort through it, catalog it, et cetera, before it is ready for researchers. How long that will take, I do not know.
I made a fast drive to MSU this Monday & Tuesday and personally delivered 10 banker's boxes of materials. The acceptance, paperwork, et cetera had previously been completed.
I was prompted to do this for several reasons:
(a) Several years ago, I used the MSU special collections library while doing some van Vogt research. They treated me well and seemed to have quite a large SF collection of original magazines, etc. So, when I contacted them, they were eager to receive the materials. I have also given them a modest financial donation to help keep up, and perhaps add to, the van Vogt materials and the SF collection.
(b) Also, MSU is one of the depositories for the Science Fiction Oral History Association tapes. I also visited that section of the library several years ago and was sufficiently impressed.
(c) The recent information about the Harry Warner, Jr. SF collection problems, was a sort of wake-up call for me to take the matter into my own hands and resolve it while I'm still alive and able.
Of direct interest to regular visitors to this website is the possibility that some of Drake's material will eventually be able to appear here. Details are still being worked out, and developments will be reported on this page as they happen. I'd like to express my gratitude to Drake for supplying me with this news, and for his willingness to supply me with material for my website. Van Vogt fans and scholars worldwide will be eager to have access to his incredible labors of research, whether by visiting MSU in person, or viewing a small portion of it on the internet.
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Short Film Based on "A Can of Paint" Completed
August 17th, 2004
Director Robi Michael just completed a short film based on van Vogt's classic 1944 story "A Can of Paint." More information can be found on the official website www.canofpaint.com, where photos, production information, and credits can be found. I will update this page with new information as it becomes available, and once I get myself a DVD copy I will write a review and post it elsewhere on my site. I'd like to commend Michael on his excellent choice of source material, and congratulate him and his crew for finishing and releasing this adaptation which is one of far too few film and television versions of Van's works. (As of January 17th 2005, my review can be read by clicking here.)
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Transfinite Given Favorable Review at SciFi.Com
September 19th, 2003
The Sci-Fi Channel's website does occasional book reviews at their weekly online periodical Sci-Fi Weekly, and in late July it was Transfinite's turn. Paul Di Filippo's appraisal and comments were both favorable and refreshing after the consistent deprecation or ignoring Van's works have received during the past thirty years.
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Non-SF Van Vogt Story from 1937 Found
November 12th, 2002
Van Vogt wrote quite a lot before his career with SF began in 1939, mostly "confession" stories and radio plays. He also contributed a fair number of miscellaneous stories to various newspapers and magazines throughout the '30s. In his 1975 autobiography Reflections of A.E. van Vogt he mentions a story published in the Toronto Weekly Star as an example of the publishers getting his name wrong in the byline — in this instance he was credited as "A. Ban Bogt." Van did not give the story's title or say when it was printed.
George Gilbert recently searched through the Toronto Star archives and found the story in section 6 of the January 9th, 1937 issue. Running at 1,911 words and entitled "To Be His Keeper," it was credited to "Alfred Alton Bogt." It's the story of a manipulative writer's reuniting with his estranged wife. Although it is a prime example of the slick, melodramatic "everyday life" genre, it nonetheless shows some typically van Vogtian elements. His early work adhered rigidly to the writing methods suggested by John Gallishaw, and this story is a fine example of that. It also shows one of van Vogt's recurring concerns, in that it shows the negative effects of people who are controlled by their emotions.
Keeping in mind the fact that Van would rather have his pre-SF work forgotten, it is not surprising that he had misremembered the details at the time of writing his autobiography some 35 years later — recalling "A. Ban Bogt" rather than "Alfred Alton Bogt." Indeed, so great was his dislike for his early output that it is doubtful whether he himself had copies of these old stories. As a result, all his pre-1939 work remains very obscure — prior to Gilbert's discovery, only the titles to two other stories were known: "No One to Blame But Herself" (also known as "I Lived in the Streets") and "The Miracle in My Life".
This story can now be read elsewhere on my site, and the illustration that accompanied it can be seen here.
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TOR Releases Reprint of The World of Null-A
October 18th, 2002
TOR Books has just released their reprint of The World of Null-A, and can be bought for a quite reasonable price at Amazon.com. The cover is a reproduction of Hubert Rogers' artwork for the second installment of The Players of  as published in Astounding Science Fiction in November 1948. This continues TOR's tradition of purloining covers from Players to adorn books that are not the second Null-A volume . . .
In other book news, Easton Press has renewed their license to print their special leather-bound edition of Slan as part of their Masterpieces of Science Fiction collection.
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Two Novels Released in e-Format
September 10th, 2002
Rosetta Books have published two of Van's classic novels, Slan and The Voyage of the Space Beagle, as inexpensive downloadable e-books. They are available only as Microsoft Reader documents, and not PDF, so Mac users beware.
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Publication News Update
July 20th, 2002
NESFA Press has changed the title of their new van Vogt collection (see March 18th, below) to Transfinite: The Essential A.E. van Vogt and reportedly they are in the final stages of pre-publication. This book was originally to hit the shelves last April, but has been delayed for unknown reasons.
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New Van Vogt Collection Planned
March 18th, 2002
NESFA Press has a new van Vogt collection in the works, entitled Approximately Infinity: The Essential A.E. van Vogt, edited by Joe Rico. This is intended as a book incorporating the most representative of his stories, from 1940's "Discord in Scarlet" all the way up to the late 1970s. It's unclear when they intend to print this book, but it will be sometime this year. There is a page where they have posted information on this book; they haven't settled on the contents yet, but as things progress they'll add the information: http://www.nesfa.org/press/Books/VanVogt.html
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Review of H.L. Drake's Non-Fiction Book
February 6th, 2002
Booklocker.com has recently released H.L. Drake's new book A.E. van Vogt: Science Fantasy's Icon, both as a e-book in PDF format and as a print-on-demand paperback. It is a study of Van's books as they relate to General Semantics and his various "studies" like the violent male model of human behavior and the Bates' eye-restoration system. I have written a review of this book, which I hope will be helpful for those of you who are considering buying it but would like to know more about it.
