Customer Reviews

The Far-Out Worlds of A. E. Van Vogt

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This is the third short story collection of Van Vogt's which I have read. The first was Away and Beyond, which only had two good stories and the rest was chaff. The second collection was The Blal (and Other Science Fiction Monsters), which were all solid 3-star and 4-star reads. Now the third collection, Far Out Worlds, holds two excellent stories, some pretty good ones and also a handful of duds, IMHO.

Replicators - 3/5 - Marine-cum-farmer kills monster and thereby makes an enemy who vows to kill him before leaving earth, but the government had a different idea. 22 pages

First Martian - 4/5 - An Andean engineer is brought to Mars to withstand the pressure and temperature extremes but the likely emigration of more South Americans will put other, now disgruntled workers, out of work. 15 pages

The Purpose - 2/5 - An investigative reporter stumbles upon a bizarre clinic, is murdered for her snooping, her body kidnapped and reincarnated with her organs in storage by the same clinic, whose intentions are obviously malevolent. 41 pages

The Earth Killers - 3/5 - Major American cities are nuked as a test pilot witnesses one of the bombs descend from space. His testimony is refuted and is sent to prison, only to later escape in search of the truth. 29 pages

The Cataaaaa - 4/5 - One man's high school buddy comes back to town with the circus and his freakshow with the star attraction... a cat; that also happens to want to speak with the man. 14 pages

Automaton - 3/5 - In the midst of a human and robot/clone war is the plight of an enslaved human pilot for the robots, who has been shot down by the humans. How will the humans entice the robotic-minded human back to their side and at the same time disgust the robots. 12 pages

Itself! - 3/5 - An autonomous submarine sentry initiates an underwater sea battles with an alien boat bent on earth's destruction. 3 pages

Process - 5/5 - A sentient forest challenges arboreal neighbors and a spaceship that has landed among its' woodlands, which soon departs after being warned away with micro-mined uranium ore. 6 pages

Not the First - 2/5 - The `new, stupendous atomic drive' isn't jibbing well with space beyond light speed and the crew are parsecs from earth, no way home with no electricity and no hope. 15 pages

Fulfillment - 5/5 - A hermetic computer from future earth time travels back to modern day where it meets another supercomputer and begins to go through the means to assume it or defeat it. 24 pages

Ship of Darkness - 2/5 - Man time travels to three million AD and experiences a black obelisk oh humans traveling nude through space who are off to spiritual war with another obelisk. His desires to conform and to leave are equal. 17 pages

The Ultra Man - 4/5 - Everyone's first 48 hours on the moonbase is struck with ESP and now Dr. Carr has it at a critical time when telepathic aliens are at their doorstep. 25 pages