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A E van Vogt's The World of Null-A, although regarded as a sci-fi classic from the pre-Hugo award era, fails to follow through in its execution. The "world" is a future where humanity has advanced to a society that offers essentially a mediocre utopia to the population of Earth which is overseen by a master computer. Null-A refers to non-Aristotelian logic that is a type of fuzzy logic that "gestalts" decisions. Human who demonstrate this ability are rewarded with relocation to Venus which provides for an upgrade to utopia. The "hero" is an individual without past memories and thrust into the middle of a conspiracy of unknown dimensions. At this point, everything goes off the rails. His false memory of a dead wife turns out to the daughter of the Earth's president who he runs into one night seemingly homeless like him. He then ends up dead, but is reanimated on Venus getting help from the master computer there that basically just tells him to be captured again. Alliances are constantly shifting and unclear throughout. Finally, a human extrasolar power is intent on invading and conquering both Earth and Venus.
The basic problem with the story is the lack of any context. Little about the society, how it functions and how it came to be is provided. The desirability of migrating to Venus is never articulated and other than living in tree roots, seems to offer little. The motives of various player around the hero, the president, his daughter, their collaborators who seem to be playing both sides of the fence, a psychiatrist, and a random hotel worker are never adequately outlined. Finally, the rationale for an invasion (why take over Venus?) or the background on how advanced humans capable of mounting an interstellar invasion even came to exist is never described.
The various sci-fi contrivances are a bit strained. While the master computer running everything seems reasonable at least, the mind shifting trick from body to body seems like it would have been of general interest, rather than developed specifically for a conspiracy. The extra brain bit was also billed as a one-off. If it really was as powerful as advertised, why give it to someone who has to figure it all out? Lastly, transporting by brain power alone from Earth to Venus seems a bit far-fetched. Overall, there wasn't so much as a master strategy as everyone making stuff up as they went along.
- Paperback: 276 pages
- Publisher: Orb Trade (October 25, 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0765300974
- ISBN-13: 978-0765300973
- Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: 66 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#213,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5448 in Science Fiction Adventures (Books)
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