Children of Tomorrow

This is a strange little novel, one which overlays golden age tropes onto an intriguing but unconvincing future scenario clearly responding to Vietnam War and 1960s counterculture issues.

This is a future in which the manly men have all become military starfarers, hot shot pilots and commanders. And it’s a good thing they have, because some ill-intentioned invisible aliens have followed our protagonist back to the solar system, and secretly gather intelligence in advance of an invasion. Sadly the career choice of these virile men has not been particularly easy for their loved ones, the logistics of space flight necessitate abandoning one's family for years at a time, leaving wives depressed and tempted and children lacking a steadying show more fatherly authority.

This is one of those books where nothing felt convincing. Unbelievable characters (both human and alien) interact in unbelievable ways and do unbelievable things. The plotting bounces back and forth between the contrived and the trite as it moves towards the rather silly ending.

The only thing I liked about the book was that while Van Vogt gives us a string of stereotype, he frequently then proceeds to play against them. The annoying slangy teen “outfits” which have evolved to provide group parenting by peers in the end prove surprisingly effective. show less

In an Earth spaceport in the future, where men take ten-year voyages to the stars, teenagers form groups called outfits, which are largely responsible for raising themselves. A father, returning from a voyage, doesn't understand or approve of these outfits; his attempts to disengage his daughter from them are misguided. Meanwhile, there is an alien from outer space, masquerading as a teenage boy, who has been assigned by his father to check out humans so that they (the aliens) can take over earth.
Spoiler: it all works out well, and, it turns out that aliens also have trouble with juvenile delinquency and are happy to learn how outfits help with this problem.

A long description of how outfits solve the problem of how to raise children to show more maturity ends with this quote:
"There is a strange look which comes into a man's face when he discovers that the brand of courage, which he has displayed his entire lifetime, is regarded by a new theory as being a carry-over from a teen-age male need to be an adult. And is not of itself an adult state. [p. 225] show less

One doesn't read Van Vogt for the unforgettable characters or the sometimes not so convincing dialogues, but for the always interesting ideas about organising a society that he unfolds. This time, the question is: what if a society, where most fathers have departed for years to fight a war in space, tries to find a solution for youth delinquacy and youth suicide thougths by organising them in groups, and make them responsible for their own education - with some adult back-up? The results are quite remarkable - especially for some alien invasion force, approaching Earth... It's not the best book I ever read, but worth reading.

A real good collection of Short Stories. A good example of versatile plots that need not be covered in leaves and leaves of excessive writing. Shame the cover is not available - not bad artwork.

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