Slan (original 1946; edition 1971)

Reactions upon reading this book in 1991. Spoilers follow.

I expected to like this book since I've liked the van Vogt short stories I've read. I did not like it. In fact, I found its 176 pages a tedious read.

I suppose part of it may have been its pulpiness, but I've read pulp I've liked. I like baroque plots, so I don't think I objected to the idea of back stage manipulations and twists and turns per se. But I don't think van Vogt handled it well. His idiosyncratic method of 800 word scenes was usually obvious and kind of fun to look for. But too much was left for the end-chapter revelations instead of being revealed piecemeal like more convential mystery/suspense plots. Van Vogt's 800 word method may prevent that.

The return, at end, of the allegedly dead Kathleen Layton Gray caught me by surprise, I must admi,t though it's very typical for sf of the period (must end with that marriage). I'll even admit Kier Gray, world dictator, turning out to be a slan caught me by surpirse; van Vogt effectively defused my suspicions of this in the middle of the novel.

Maybe my expectations killed my enjoyment of this book. Instead of getting a straightforward tale of a manhunt for mutants, I got a quest for a spaceship and manipulators and plot twists aplenty. And I found the payoff of accelerated evolution (to meet the demands of modern civilization), pacifistic slans forciably spurned on by persecution covertly directed by other slans so they can meet the attacks of normal humans, genetic manipulation, and atomic superscience dull and rather contrived.

I did think van Vogt did a good job with the emotional experience of telepathy though not as good as Alfred Bester in The Demolished Man. I thought the moral implications of protagonist Jommy Cross' "hypnotism crystals" terrifying. The slans' plan to re-engineer humans -- symbolized by what Cross does to the grotesque human Granny (an interesting character, perhaps the best done in the novel) psyche without their consent and allegedly for their own good raises moral questions. ( )

Quite a tedious and boring read to be honest, but then it is van Vogt's first novel. ( )

This is one of the classics of science fiction, first published in 1946 (1940 serialized), written by A.E. van Vogt. It is the story of Jommy Cros, a Slan boy of nine years old. The Slan are more than human, have two hearts, tendrils on their heads and are telepathic. They are viciously hunted down by humans, who feel threatened by the slans. They think that the Slans want to take over the world, as they have tried this in the past. The story starts when Jommy’s mother is killed, and he is left to hide until he is fifteen and can carry out his secret mission, given to him by his already murdered father. Meanwhile we also follow Kathleen, another young slan kept prisoner by a human dictator.
During his long mission, which stretches out nearly ten years, Jommy learns a lot about the history of humans and slans and tries to bring the two closer together.
Even though the book is pretty short, it packs in a lot of adventure and ideas. The ending was pretty unexpected and ties everything wonderfully together. A classic that holds up pretty well even nearly 70 years after first being written. Four out five stars. ( )

This is a Masterpiece of Fiction???? C'mon, Eastern Press... u gotta b kidding!!!

Slan is the story of a tri-cornered war between Human Beings, Slans, and Tenrilless Slans. Slans are a mutation of humans that began to develop a thousand years before this story takes place; they are people of greater abilities and a longer life span than humans. So much greater the abilities, a war of fear raged for hundreds of years; humans won the war based on sheer numbers.... Slans have been in hiding, being hunted and killed like vermin. Then there are the Tendrillless Slans, you see, Slans have the ability of telepathy - which occur due to slim golden tendrils that come out of their head from their brain. Tendrilless Slans have all the mutations of regular Slans except telepathy - because they don't have tendrils, see?

All of the questions as to how and why of the mutated humans are answered in a very wordy fashion in the 2nd half of this book. Yawn... the second half is also full of starts and stops of characters, lines of thought, movement of the story. Very unsettling to be brought into a story line and then suddenly it is a new chapter and that line of writing is gone... the new characters are gone...

I think today the second half of the book would become a series of books. Each line of thought... of direction of the protagonist, could be a separate book... instead this short read is ruined by seeming unfinished and unsatisfying movement.

Now, the first half of the book is really really good! I became engrossed in the characters, I cared about the people I met and learned about... too bad the whole trip wasn't so good.

I gave this book a 3 out of 5 star rating only because the first half is so good. The second half deserves 1 star... maybe 1.5 stars. Slan was written in 1945... my husband said that maybe the story fell apart because writers weren't experienced in the '40's. WHAAAAAT???? I have read too many science fiction books of this era to believe that statement (he, my husband, must have been drinking when he said that).

I suppose this is not so much a review of the book as a rant on the disappointment of the story telling! Of all the Masterpieces of Science Fiction that Easton Press has put out (at least of the books I have read) this is the most disappointing. In my humble opinion, Easton Press needs to re-read Slan and perhaps make a different decision as to it's inclusion in this series.

Geepers... what a let down! ( )

NIL