Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Sphere (1974), Paperback, 224 pages
Description
In this sequel to World of Null-A, Gilbert Gosseyn must learn to use both hisbrains and function in various bodies in order to save the universe from Enrothe Red.
User reviews
LibraryThing member euang
A dumb little book that could change your life.: The novel itself didn't impress me that much as a work of fiction -- although it's been a bestseller for years, and has won some science fiction awards. It's certainly entertaining enough, but it doesn't rank with Heinlein or Asimov, for instance. I
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read it againrecently, and I still found it kind of simplistic and naive -- very much a product of the 1940's, when it was written. On the otherhand, the 'real' subject of this book is not the protagonist, or the plot: it's a discipline called General Semantics. Gilbert Gosseyn ("Go Sane" -- get it?) has mastered this deceptively simple-seeming, but very complex discipline. As a result, he's able to deal with some pretty daunting challenges, and (well, of course) win out in the end. I discovered this book years ago, and after reading it, I began to wonder if "General Semantics" was 'real'. I did some investigating. Turned out it was, indeed, real. I studied the stuff, and have continued to study and apply it, for years. I can't transport myself across the universe like old Gilbert, -- but I sure owe van Vogt a debt for having put me in touch with gs. Show Less
LibraryThing member ben_a
Not really so good. There's some interesting concepts -- the ability to 'similarize' and the 'cortico-thalamic stop.' The use of the latter (and indeed the entirety of the Null-A philosophy) makes it less of a surprise that Van Vogt was an early collaborator on Dianetics. The plot rather unravels
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towards the end. This is common in science fiction and fantasy, but more marked than usual here. Show Less
LibraryThing member iansales
There’s a Brian Aldiss story called ‘Confluence’ which is little more than amusing dictionary definitions of phrases from an alien language. One phrase is defined as “in which everything in a book is understandable except the author’s purpose in writing it”, and its converse, of course,
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is “in which nothing in a book is understandable except the author’s purpose in writing it”. The Pawns of Null-A fails both definitions. I have no idea what van Vogt thought he was writing about and nothing in the novel makes the slightest bit of sense. It is nominally a sequel to The World of Null-A. Gilbert Gosseyn prevented the conquest of Earth by the Greatest Empire in that novel, but in this one he finds himself bouncing around the heads of various characters in the Greatest Empire in an effort to either stop it or prevent it from defeating the League of Galactic Worlds. Gosseyn finds himself caught in a trap and transported into the brain of the heir to the Greatest Empire’s leader. He surmises some other powerful player is doing this in order to hone Gosseyn as a weapon, but the reader is bounced from one unexplained situation to another, with a remarkable level of faith in the reader’s attention, certainly to a greater extent than any modern-day author would be able to get away with. Gosseyn stumbles across a planet of “Predictors”, who seem to be chiefly responsible for the Greatest Empire’s victories, but since Gosseyn – and by extension van Vogt – seem to have little idea what’s going on, there’s little point in the reader trying to figure it out. Damon Knight famously performed a hatchet job on this novel’s prequel, The World of Null-A, but later retracted it when he learnt van Vogt documented his dreams and used them as plots. That’s not an excuse. It’s an explanation, certainly, but “oh he plotted while he was asleep” does not suddenly make a book no longer open to criticism for shit plotting. I loved van Vogt’s novels as a teenager, but virtually none have survived adult rereads. And with good reason: he was a fucking shit writer. Damon Knight was right. He just wasn’t honest enough – something which has plagued the genre since its beginnings. The Pawns of Null-A is badly-written, has no real plot to speak of, and its past popularity should be considered an accurate indictment of past sf fans’ taste… Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1948
Physical description
224 p.; 6.9 inches
ISBN
0722187726 / 9780722187722
Other editions
Players Of Null-a by A. E. Van Vogt (Paperback)