Sunday, April 26, 2015

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Astounding, October 1940


I admit, I've never been much of an A.E. van Vogt fan. I've never read SLAN, although I've owned copies of it. I don't know if I do now or not. Should I read it? Other stories in this issue of ASTOUNDING are by Theodore Sturgeon, L. Sprague de Camp, Malcolm Jameson, Harry Bates, and Nat Schachner. That's a pretty strong line-up. The cover is by Hubert Rogers.

11 comments:

Tom Johnson said...

A.E. van Vogt was one of the masters. SLAN and the NULL-A series remain my favorites from the early age of SF. Well worth reading.

Barry Traylor said...

Darn near 40 years since I read Slan but I remember liking it quite a lot. This issue also has Farewell To The Master by Harry Bates that the film The Day the Earth Stood Still was based on. A classic yarn and well worth reading.

Walker Martin said...

I read SLAN a long time ago and liked it but my feeling now is that it may be dated. I have the opening illustration original art by Charles Schneeman hanging in my bathroom. I often look at it while I'm shaving.

Nik Morton said...

Of this line-up, my favourite is Sturgeon; his writing has moved me to tears (intentionally, I'm sure)

MP said...

Do people still read van Vogt? I recall reading some of his stuff when I was a teenager in the late 50s/early 60s and found them confusing, although they had a propulsive quality I liked. Twenty years later I tried them again and found that the propulsive quality didn't make up for the awful writing and the totally nonsensical plotting.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Tried rereading Slan a couple of years ago and didn't get very far. The writing is just horrible. My 12 year old self who read it in the early sixties was less discerning.

Cap'n Bob said...

I read it years ago and was underwhelmed. But it is the inspiration for Slan-Apa, which I've been a member of for over 30 years.

Unknown said...

Wouldn't it be wonderful if a publisher would revive the pulps! Your postings make me nostalgic. I remember browsing the newsstands in the mid-to-late 50s. Forbidden treasures were lurking there for a lad!

Ron Clinton said...

James, I too have never read SLAN (nor DUNE, nor any Heinlein...my classic sci-fi reading is woefully deficient). With a TBR pile already too large, I doubt I'll remedy that in this lifetime. Plus, based on the comments above, sometimes I think that type of material is best encountered when one is young.

James Reasoner said...

I checked my shelves and don't seem to have a copy of SLAN. Maybe I'll pick one up sometime. Or not. The only van Vogt book I have is EMPIRE OF THE ATOM. Haven't read it, but maybe I will. Or not. DUNE I read when it was new, but I've never reread it and haven't read any of the sequels. Heinlein, though, I've read a bunch of, and I've been thinking about rereading some old favorites and reading the ones I never got around to.

Graham Powell said...

SLAN is okay but WORLD OF NULL-A is better. Best of all is the novel-length THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER, an expansion of "The Weapon Shop".

I may be a little off on the titles; working from memory ain't what it was.