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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Typical Van Vogt: fascinating ideas bordering on fantasy,
By
This review is from: Empire of the Atom (Paperback)
This novel concerns a far-future Earth, thousands of years after civilization has been destroyed in a catastrophe of unknown origin. Aspects of advanced science remain (spaceships) simultaneously with primitive features (bows and arrows), and Earth is carrying on longstanding wars of subjugation with human cultures on Mars and Venus. This is the story of a mutant, Lord Clane, of noble birth, but with a body warped by radiation, and his efforts to raise society to a higher plane. The characters are mostly flat, but Van Vogt ladles out the imaginative concepts as skilfully as ever, and never fails to hold the reader.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
van Vogts greatest?,
By A Customer
This review is from: Empire of the Atom (Paperback)
A. E. van Vogt used to be up there with Heinlein and Asimov during the 1940s and early 50s - and now he's not in print. In my wiew, he was a better and much more ORIGINAL scifi-storyteller than all of them - and Clarke too. But, on the other hand: Without a doubt, he was much more crazy.... Ok, this is maybe his best novel, from a purely litterary wievpoint, with a great central personality, a (relatively) logical story-line, but incorporating the same great van Vogtian sense of wonder that shines in his more crazy novels (like the Null-A and the Wheapon Shops series.
Sad that it is not available!.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sci-Fi Retelling of "I, CLAUDIUS",
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
To the noble house of Emperor Medron Linn (Augustus Caesar) is born the atomic mutation Clane (Claudius). Everyone thinks the physically deformed boy should be disposed of, but a temple scientist takes the youngster under his wing and trains him to use his brilliant mind. Clane survives the many plots and intrigues in the Capitoline Palace and outwits his scheming grandmother Lydia (Livia), quietly pursuing his scientific studies while she advances her son Tews (Tiberius) to the Linnan throne.
Clane offers brilliant tactical advice to his uncle Tews and his brother Jerrin (Germanicus) as they continue the imperial policy of conquering the barbarians. Mars and Venus fall to the empire, but Europa unexpectedly sacks the eternal city and kills Tews, leaving Clane the only imperial family member available to take charge of the army. This book seems even more silly and quaint than most science fiction from the 1950s, because the imperial troops zip out in their spaceships to battle the barbarians from horseback with bows and arrows. This book is very obviously a retelling of I, Claudius by Robert Graves. If you like that sort of novel you must read Jenna Starborn by Sharon Shinn, a fabulous retelling of Jane Eyre.
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