Customer Reviews

The Wizard of Linn

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First a remark : I believe that the plot of "Empire of the atom" was the inspiration to the BBC's famous "I , Claoudius".

"Wizard of lin" continues the story of lord Clane , this wonderfull mutant with a twisted body and an ingenius mind. Lord Clane must , this time , deal with both a fearsome military leader from the saturn moons , and the second Riss invasion - the same Riss that destroyed man's civilization 8000-12000 years ago.

In this book there is maybe a bit less plot-twists than in the usual Van-Vogt BUT don't think I mean that the book is below the Vogtian average - on the contrary - it is among the best.

Political schems on personal-power-strugles on personal conflicts and so on. On top of all that , as in "Empire of the atom" , you get a glimpse into a world where advenced technolegy such as spaceships is used to move armies into battles of face-to-face combats with swords and axes in hand.

A uniqe future , the writing of a master , and a truly vivid hero , makes "Wizard of lin" and ofcourse "Empire of the atom" , books that I REALLY didn't want to finish reading.

My grade : EXCELLENT.

This book is a sequel to The Empire of the Atom. It is the continuing story of Clane, a mutant who had been born into the ruling family of Earth, in post apocalyptic times. In this book, an alien race invades Earth and it's colonies on Mars and Venus and it's up to the cerebral Clane to save the ungrateful human race from becoming slaves of the Riss - the alien invaders - at best or extinction at worst.

This book, published in 1962 was written by science fiction pioneer A.E. Van Vogt. Like many of the writers of the time, he writes of a society of low-tech weapons (swords and Bows and arrows) and high tech travel. (Space travel). The rational for this, in this case, is apparently the downgrading and elimination of high tech weaponry after an unremembered nuclear holocaust had sundered earth.

Over the years, Van Vogt has written many science fiction novels including one called `The Voyage of the Space Beagle' which some credit as the inspiration for the sci-fi horror film `Alien.'

In this sequel to "Empire of the Atom," Van Vogt continues the story of Lord Clane, a mutant of noble birth with a body badly warped by radiation, and his efforts to unify and uplift human civilization. The setting is several thousand years in the future, after a catastrophic war with the alien Riss, who are again threatening to invade the solar system. Fascinating ideas and political discussion--reminiscent of Asimov's "Foundation and Empire" series.