This long, well-developed novella, revisiting the saga of the mysterious "Weapon Shops" organization that acts as a check-and balance on the powers of the world-dominant Isher dynasty some 7000 years in the future, was first published as the cover story of the February 1949 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories.
It has never before been republished!.
That state of affairs is perhaps due in part to its considerable length (33,000 words), and perhaps more for commercial reasons, as van Vogt (…)
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THE 83 VAN VOGT STORIES ON THIS SITE
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"The Weapon Shops of Isher" (1949) - a major golden-age novella by A. E. van Vogt never before republished!
28 May 2017, by A. E. van Vogt -
"The Weapon Shop" by A. E. van Vogt (1942)
17 May 2017, by A. E. van VogtOne of van Vogt’s iconic stories, this theme of a mysterious "Weapon Shop" organization, subtly fighting to oppose by advanced technological, ideological and organisational means the overreaching tyranny of a populist-style family dictatorship, provided the central theme to a number of works by van Vogt during the forties and early fifties.
This series of stories and novels, all placed 7,000 years in the future and all featuring a vast network of technologically-advanced semi-underground (…) -
"War of Nerves" by A. E. van Vogt (1950)
1 March 2017, by A. E. van VogtWar of Nerves was first published in the May 1950 issue of the magazine Other Worlds Science Stories, only a month or two – according to a comment in the editorial column of that issue – before the publication of van Vogt’s epic novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle, of which it became a part.
This was the fourth van Vogt story about the adventures of the scientific exploration spaceship The Space Beagle (named in honour of Charles Darwin’s ship of exploration of then-undiscovered areas of (…) -
"M33 in Andromeda" by A. E. van Vogt (1943)
2 February 2017, by A. E. van VogtM33 in Andromeda, first published in the August 1943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, was the third of van Vogt’s great series of stories, after Black Destroyer and Discord in Scarlet, about the adventures of the spaceship The Space Beagle on man’s first trip of scientific discovery outside of his own Milky Way galaxy.
Quite up to the remarkable level of those other two famous stories, it became a key part of van Vogt’s masterful novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950), albeit with (…) -
"Discord in Scarlet" by A. E. van Vogt (1939)
23 December 2016, by A. E. van VogtThis is the dramatic story of the struggle for survival of the inter-galactic exploration ship The Space Beagle, after having being invaded by an incredibly powerful alien being – a narrative familiar to viewers of Ridley Scott’s 1981 masterpiece Alien, which was largely based on this story.
First published in the December 1939 issue of the Astounding Science Fiction magazine, Discord in Scarlet is the direct sequel of van Vogt’s equally dramatic novella Black Destroyer that had appeared (…) -
"Black Destroyer" (1939) - the original text of A. E. van Vogt’s first published s-f story
21 December 2016, by A. E. van VogtThe July 1939 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, featuring A. E. van Vogt’s first published s-f story Black Destroyer on its iconic cover by Graves Gladney, is generally considered to have initiated the golden age of science-fiction, extending throughout the forties and into the early fifties.
It later became the initial six chapters of van Vogt’s great 1950 novel of interstellar exploration, The Voyage of the Space Beagle. However there are very many textual variations between (…) -
The "Mixed Men" series of golden-age s-f stories by A. E. van Vogt
20 December 2016, by A. E. van VogtThese three linked golden-age stories pursue the theme of man’s expansion beyond the Milky Way Galaxy explored in van Vogt’s initial and iconic Black Destroyer (1939) tale.
From a completely different but just about as interesting perspective: the discovery by a gigantic Earth exploration spaceship of a race of super-evolved men that had escaped from Earth’s domination of the entire Milky Way galaxy into the nearby Lesser Magellanic Cloud galaxy some thousands of years earlier.
These (…) -
Fifteen golden-age science-fiction stories by A. E. van Vogt
31 January 2016, by A. E. van VogtThese fifteen stories are all fine examples of this great writer’s best work from his most creative period - the forties and early fifties, the "golden age" of science-fiction.
All of the stories published here are the original magazine versions, with the magazine artwork and cover for each story. An e-book of this sizeable anthology (185,000 words, 600+ standard printed pages) is available for downloading below. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Repetition (1940) - an emissary from Earth struggles (…) -
"Destination: Universe!" - A. E. van Vogt’s superb first anthology of his science-fiction short stories (1952)
9 October 2015, by A. E. van VogtA. E. van Vogt’s first anthology of his golden-age short stories, published in early 1952, with the author’s introduction and all the original magazine texts, artwork and covers of each story. TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION by A. E. van Vogt.
1. Far Centaurus (1944) Getting to Centaurus on a spaceship can take a long time indeed, and when you get there, there will be surprises! (7,700 words).
2. The Monster (1948) Aliens of the ever-expanding Ganae race check out Earth as a suitable (…) -
"Away and Beyond" - A. E. van Vogt’s other great 1952 anthology
5 October 2015, by A. E. van VogtThis outstanding collection of nine of van Vogt’s best golden-age science-fiction stories was published in 1952, as a sort of companion volume to Destination Universe, his first short-story anthology published earlier that same year.
Curiously, almost all editions of Away and Beyond printed after 1952, notably the (American) Berkley Books, the (British) Panther and the (French) Presses Pocket editions, have omitted the remarkable first story in this anthology, Vault of the Beast – van (…)