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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Golden Age Weirdness - Go on! Have a Try!, 14 Aug 2006
In his introduction to the revised edition of this somewhat controversial novel, Van Vogt is refreshingly effusive and proud of one of his most famous works. Among other things, Van Vogt claims that this novel (published in translation around the globe) kickstarted the French Science Fiction scene. He is also magnanimous in his praise for Damon Knight who famously published a review of this book, so damning that the review became almost as legendary as the book itself.
Nearly sixty years later, we should ask the question `What was all the fuss about?'
Van Vogt's appeal lay in his futuristic settings, the incredible buildings, machines and landscapes. He would no doubt be the first to admit that dialogue was never his strong point. His stream of consciousness approach to plot was also an issue for some readers. Here, however, Van Vogt seems to have given some thought to structure, and although the dialogue is excruciatingly stilted, one can still find much pleasure in this Noir-style adventure.
Several centuries hence, Man has adopted the philosophy and logic of Non-Aristotelian thinking (the Null-A of the title). Van Vogt at the time was an advocate of General Semantics and hoped for an age where Humanity would adopt a philosophy of logic and reason (rather Vulcan-like in its conception).
Every year, aspirants would travel to the City of the Games Machine to be tested for suitability to join the Human Society on Venus. Only totally integrated Null-A minds are allowed to live on the planet, which has become a pastoral paradise filled with vast trees a quarter of a mile in diameter.
Van Vogt uses one of his motifs, the great phallic structure, in that the Games Machine is a self-aware supercomputer, housed in a vast spire of a building.
Gilbert Gosseyn goes through the first of the Games Machine questions and is surprised to learn from the machine that he is not who he thinks he is. It would appear that all of Gosseyn's memories have been faked.
Subsequently, Gosseyn - in the process of attempting to discover his own identity and purpose - is gunned down in the street and killed. He later awakens, alive and unharmed on the surface of Venus, where he begins to unravel the details of a plan by an extra-solar Galactic Empire to take over the Solar System, beginning with Venus.
With the help of a Venusian scientist Gosseyn manages to outwit the agents of the Galactic `gang' and return to Earth. He then discovers that he has an extra `brain', as yet undeveloped and whose powers - it is deduced - will be activated when he is killed and the third clone is automatically awakened.
Gosseyn decides to end his life in order that the third body can be awakened, but is stopped just in time when it is discovered that Gosseyn III has been discovered and destroyed. However, renegade parties within the Galactic invaders decide to help Gosseyn train his undeveloped brain - which gives him powers of teleportation.
Once more Gosseyn escapes his captors and manages to warn the Venusians who - being sane and logical Null-A adepts - manage to easily repulse the invasion fleet.
In most of Van Vogt's work there is a logical, rational hero, and this is no exception. Gosseyn is the embodiment of Van Vogt's obsession with quack mental-development programmes. General Semantics may have been a beneficial training regime, but later the author's involvement with Dianetics and L Ron Hubbard's `Scientology' religion did damage to his writing and indeed his reputation.
The ending is a little rushed, but the explanation for Gosseyn's existence is cleverly thought out. The central premise however, of the nature of identity and the question of whether Gosseyns I and II were in fact the same people is the thing which raises this novel above the level of pure Technicolor Space Opera. It addresses the fundamental question of whether we are merely the sum of our memories.
Philip K Dick, who has been recorded as claiming van Vogt as one of his influences, was to take this concept and explore it in multifarious ways.
Above all, Van Vogt was not only writing a fast-paced action adventure, full of colour, weird science, mile-long spaceships and giant thinking machines. He was postulating a rational future, where we were gradually weaning the race away from irrational beliefs and acts of violence.
Interstingly, around the same time, Asimov was doing essentially the same thing with Hari Seldon in his Foundation Trilogy, whose tenet `Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent' could apply just as easily to Gilbert Gosseyn.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You won't find a better deal!, 1 Jul 1998
By A Customer
In this book (and its sequel, "The Players of Null-A") you get twice the content for the price of one:Sure, the SF story is pretty interesting, and the mystery of Gosseyn's 'true' identity is engrossing, too. But in addition to that, you get a fun introduction to a discipline that could change your life: general semantics. Keep in mind how much Gosseyn had to study and train to even have a shot at scoring well in the Games. GS isn't easy. But you might find out that it's worth the effort. Check out Korzybski's "Science and Sanity," for a Complete change of pace. The original source for van Vogt's ideas about general semantics, a lot tougher to read, and an invaluable guide for how not to be Nuts.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Prepare to permanently alter the way you think, 23 Mar 1997
By A Customer
This book changed my brain. The story centers on the 'life' of Gilbert Gosseyn (Go-Sane), a man with a very special brain. As a contestant in the Game, a challenging test of one's ability to master Null-A (non-Aristotelian logic), Gilbert hopes to achieve one of the better prizes, citizenship on Venus or even the Presidency. But a conspiracy of shadowy players and public figures have other plans for Gilbert and his special brain. Gilbert is a surprisingly resilient challenge to their power. And a great surprise to himself, as well. As he discovers more about himself, he also learns more about a larger game being played by hidden masters who control whole galaxies.
At first a humble and unwitting pawn, Gilbert is quickly promoted as he progresses through the ranks in unorthodox and interesting ways.
In addition to the great pulp-style sci-fi story, A.E. Van Vogt adds a lot of interesting semantic theory by beginning each chapter with a quote for Alfred Korzybski's work SCIENCE AND SANITY. "The Map is not the territory it represents" is one of the shorter, and most easily understood. They get progressively more challenging, mirroring Gilbert's story. The Korzybski excepts are worth the price of the book alone. If you're interested in a good old sci-fi tale with conspiracies, space battle and other planets, as well as some thing which actually challenges your own mental processes, check it out.
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