Customer Reviews

The Players of Null-A

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The novel itself didn't impress me that much as a work of fiction -- although it's been a bestseller for years, and has won some science fiction awards. It's certainly entertaining enough, but it doesn't rank with Heinlein or Asimov, for instance. I read it againrecently, and I still found it kind of simplistic and naive -- very much a product of the 1940's, when it was written. On the otherhand, the 'real' subject of this book is not the protagonist, or the plot: it's a discipline called General Semantics. Gilbert Gosseyn ("Go Sane" -- get it?) has mastered this deceptively simple-seeming, but very complex discipline. As a result, he's able to deal with some pretty daunting challenges, and (well, of course) win out in the end. I discovered this book years ago, and after reading it, I began to wonder if "General Semantics" was 'real'. I did some investigating. Turned out it was, indeed, real. I studied the stuff, and have continued to study and apply it, for years. I can't transport myself across the universe like old Gilbert, -- but I sure owe van Vogt a debt for having put me in touch with gs.

This book is one of the best works of speculative fiction I have ever read, far superior to the work of Heinlein and Asimov, which appears tepid, plodding, and unimaginative by contrast.
Enro the Red, undisputed tyrant of the hundred thousand worlds of the Greatest Empire, had declared war on Earth. A mysterious galactic shadow-being with the power to see through time has been sent to Null-A Venus with a single purpose: assassinate Gilbert Gosseyn! The plan succeeds... apparently. But the fourth-dimensional powers of Gilbert Gosseyn's Null-A trained double brain allow him to survive and corner one of the agents of his killer. The man nonchalantly hands him an innocent looking calling-card. "You have been caught in the most intricate trap ever devised for one man." By the time he read those words, it is too late.
And this is only the first chapter.
Gilber Gosseyn, amnesiac superhuman, the next step of evolution beyond man, must use his every resource to combat the sinister foes whose power has an origin older than human life in this galaxy. Ultimately, however, it is not strength of arms or brilliance of science that will prevail, but the sanity and integrity of the mind, the power, so to speak, of a superior philosophy.
The richness and depth of the imagination, the headlong pace, the sudden reversals, make this book a must for any reader who longs for that sense of wonder that defines science fiction.
Players of Null-A is a sequel to the famous World of Null-A by the same author.

This book is the second in the Null-A series by van Vogt.

In my opinion, it was a very good book and much better than the first. The present book had a tighter storyline than the first and came to a more "satisfying" conclusion - one that explained a lot and only left the reader hanging a little. The technology and "special effects" in this second book do not seem "outdated" and "quaint" as in the first and should be more "believable" for readers of the present time - the book was written in the 1940's. There is better explanation of General Semantics/Null-A in this book as well, including information on the "pause"; readers don't have to take quite so much about it on faith (so to speak) as they might have to if all they knew was as given in the first book.

I have read that the third book in the series was written much later and was inconsistent with the previous ones and not well liked. It has been said that maybe van Vogt was already ill when he wrote it. There is "another" third book in the series, Null-A Continuum I think it is called, written by someone else that follows the first two better apparently - this is the one I plan to go to next.

Not to give too much away, but in this the the second book, a very shadowy character called the Follower appears and creates havoc. Gosseyn's mind is shuttled back and forth without his consent between his body and that of a Prince Ashargin who is closely connected to Enro - the latter mentioned in the first book as the head of a great interstellar empire. We meet the race of the Predictors. Gosseyn discovers new abilities like prediction of the future and hones others. On Enro's home world, there is a strange religion involving the Sleeping God which plays a very important part in the book as revealed towards the end - this is tied up with the origin of humans in the galaxy no less! Crang and Patricia from the first book reappear.

If you liked the first book, you should really like this one. If you didn't care for the first, you may still find this one worthwhile. It seems to be out of print, but used copies are available. Give it a try.

I read The World and the Players of Null-A translated into French, some fifty years ago and, at the time, I rated them excellent. World and Players of Null-A beiing for me, at the time, among the best Science Fiction novels I had read (and I read a lot). Having recently read something about General Semantics, I took a fancy to read the books again, this time in English. I must confess that I was a triffle disappointed and I don't think I shall read it again. At any rate, If I do, I shan't wait another fifty years. Whereas I think I might read a third time the whole of Dune (by Frank H.), including number four and five which may seem a little bit dull.

A.E. Van Vogt is the premiere science fiction writer of the early period (1940's-50's). His novels paved the way for nearly all that came later. Only Aurthur C. Clark's "Against the Fall of Night" (1939) comes anywhere close to Van Vogt's work. "The Players of Null-A" is the first of his trilogy about Gilbert Goyessen, who could be called the first superman, mutant,Esper, X-man, etc. Echos of his capabilities have been incorporated into science fiction characters ever since. Goyessen is the first character to teleport himself and to control energy sources with his brain. Van Vogt's use of General Semantics as a vehicle for telling the story shows how forward thinking his ideas were. Aside from being technologically dated (it was written in 1946), it is a first rate story as well as being ground breaking writing.

Wonderfull , wonderfull book , with more entriges thrown in , enemies revealed , and the true story is begining to take form.

Writen in the masterly style of that author's-god , that if you don't know by now , you will-and admire.

Van-Vogt let's us know at the end (an excellent one) of the real origin of Gilbert Goseyne. This book is , by the way , the sequel of "A World OF Null-A".

Excellent book , I can't say enaugh about it.