Customer Reviews

Masters of Time

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Just as the first artwork by mankind were primitive paintings and stick figures on the walls of caves, Masters of Time is an example of the first primitive attempts at writing modern science fiction. This novel from the early 1940s was first published in the pulp magazine Astounding Science Fiction, and boy, can you tell.

The book starts off promising enough in the aftermath of a suicide attempt by Norma Matheson. She was trying to kill herself out of regret for rejecting the marriage proposal of man named Jack Garson. The same Professor Jack Garson who, ten years later, is in town to deliver a series of lectures. As she struggles back onto shore from the river where she tried to drown herself, a mysterious man named Dr. Lell approaches her and offers her a job in a recruiting station for a war in Calonia (a war which is never explained). She accepts.

Later on, she finds out the the recruiting is actually for a war in the far future of Earth and that her role is to dupe volunteers who come in. When she tries to escape from the situation, she finds that a machine used by Dr. Lell can control her mind, and even more, can control her age. He is a so-called "Master of Time". He offers her a deal. In return for her cooperation, he will make her young again. With no options, she writes a desperate letter to her ex-lover, Jack Garson, who shows up and is sent into the future to fight a war he does not even understand. How will the two survive the future? Norma will have to unlock the power of the universe within herself.

I guess the plot is sorta interesting. The drag of the 1940s is all over this book though. For example, Dr. Kell does not accept women in his future war because they are not mentally suited. Yeah, right. Tell that to our own 21st century women military personnel. The whole thing that the Norma, a woman, has to lead these men into Dr. Kell's trap goes with the whole femme fatale crime noir of the 30s and 40s.

Another negative of the book is the downright goofy jargon of the text. You hear things like "super duper ray guns", "the Glorious depersonalizing machine", and "three handsome Ganellians" etc. This book comes from an age when your science fiction didn't have to explain its science and so they just winged it all, more like fantasy really.

It did have some good moments when it didn't rely on too much science. I was glad that Norma actually becomes the heroine in the end. The fact that in the future man's actions were partially controlled by superhuman machines called Observors and that some of these machines were called Tentacles, who are described much as the Sentinels in the latest Keanu Reeves actionfest, reminds one of the world of the Matrix. I was disappointed reading this after knowing the reputation of AE van Vogt. Perhaps he wrote better and worse novels than this one.

I love old science fiction but this might be a little too old ; ) I found some parts very confusing; how did Norma get her powers exactly? There is no way I would have kept reading if the novel had been over three hundred pages.

I wouldn't underrate this book so much -- I thought it was as good as many a sci-fi miniseries. It took me a couple of hours to get through on a hot summer's evening. The author spins a yarn with plenty of arresting scenes and ideas. The time-travelling kidnappers of the future justify their practice by saying that it's the responsibility of every man to fight for his planet. Van Vogt was prolific and it's good to think that minor works should in some way be kept alive. 20 cents a copy -- not many prices have changed that little since the 1950s!

Reputation of Science Fiction luminary AE Van Vogt could not have been built on the likes of Masters of Time, a sloppily written novel that barely held my attention.

A woman, Norma, is contacted, and offered a job. She finds out that her secretarial job is in a business which exists as a front for a recruiting station, where men are duped into being sucked into the distant future, to fight in a battle for all of Earth. Indeed, Norma's lover/boyfriend Garson is caught up in just this. The man who hires Norma is a tall, powerful, and callous individual named Dr. Lell.

Apparently, Dr. Lell is one of the (try not to laugh) "Masters of Time."

Part of the novel concerns Norma's plight and efforts; part of the novel concerns Garson's attempts to get back to his own time in history. When Norma fails to cooperate with Dr. Lell, she is "aged" years into the future. As she cooperates, she "earns" years, and she appears to get younger.

By and large this novel is sloppily written and pockmarked with atrociously bad phrasing and sci-fi jargon.

Here is one example: "The destruction of Tentacles 1601, 2, and 3 and the neutralization of electron molds could have only been accomplished with the assistance of a mind reader."

In places, the author's description of an individual character's plight is moving. He describes desperate situations very well. The beings, such as Dr. Lell, who assemble and use the machines to create these armies are ruthless, harsh, and cold. Scenes where these beings are summarizing the fate of the mere humans are striking and memorable.

So I suppose the entire book is not a waste. _Masters of Time_ is a slender novel, something you can probably read in three hours or so. My copy is 128 pages.

ken32