The War Against the Rull

Way back in 1964 I started reading a book called The War Against the Rull by A.E. Van Vogt. I had gotten about a third of the way through when it was stolen...leaving possessions outside while going through the lunch room line in school, I learned, was a good way to lose them. It was a good 20 years before I got my hands on another copy and finished the book. The image to the right is what the first book looked like (published in 1962) and the one on the lower left is the one I finally finished many years later. A few weeks ago I was browsing on Amazon and came across a new(er) edition of War Against the Rull with a new story added...and frankly I remembered the book being stolen, but had forgotten that I finally did finish it, and it was only a penny...so I bought it. The cover of that book is on the lower right.

I read the "new" short story at the end of the book first, as it was set before the rest of the story and then jumped right into the saga from the beginning! Yes, I enjoyed it. Yes, it was nostalgic. Yes, I remembered reading it twenty years ago before I'd gotten very far in to it, but I didn't remember the details and re-reading this book was like sitting down with an old friend telling and listening to favorite old tales. I don't begrudge the time...or the penny plus shipping...I spent on The War Against the Rull.

I won't say much about the book's plot, as someone might want to read it, but surfice it to say it is about a war against a specie called the Rull, and the Rull are the implacable foes of mankind and all of our allies. The book is really a collection of short stories (and novelettes) that have been put together with a little stitching to make them hang together, so it is more a series of vignettes telling stories about the protagonist, Trevor Jamison, his family and his associates. One "story" focuses almost entirely on Jamison's young son, Diddy, and his "night out" where he "tries to find the source of the noise". The young boy is 9 years old and, like all other young boys (but not girls it seems), spends a full night out in The City as sort of a rite of passage. The subject matter being what it is he, of course, runs a foul of a Rull plot and has to thwart it...by gunning down 100 plus other young boys...disguised Rull of course, who are ransacking the Research Offices. The degree of discipline and ruthlessness, trained into the youth of this culture through conditioning is frightening. I, frankly, have trouble seeing the humans as "the good guys." My guys, better than the other side's guys, certainly, but not the good guys.

To today's sensibilities there are some problems with The War Against the Rull. First, the human's tactics are just about as despicable as the Rull. Rull exterminate all intelligent opposition...that's evil no doubt...but Humans subvert and "brainwash" any intelligent opposition they run into until they "willingly" become allies...is that much better? Second, this level of training, not education, but pure brainwashed conditioning, is something that humanity has done to itself. We see the effects on the elite and how they live, but I do wonder at how the mass of humanity live in this, oh so very, controlled society. Thirdly, these stories were clearly written before any thought was giving to equality of the sexes. Women are emotional, weepy, creatures who either get in the way of their stoic men-fold, need to be saved in any crisis, or are willing prostitutes for their "man" who uses them to get what he wants and eventually discarded. Nope, not one capable woman in the book! Well, given that these stories were written in the 1940's and 50's for the most part I can't blame Van Vogt much for his chauvinism, it was almost par for the course in those days. It does grate today, though, and I'm an old male chauvinist pig, these portrayals would probably really piss off a feminist.

During the 40's and 50's Van Vogt was one of the leading lights of Science Fiction, right up there with Asimov and Heinlein. Slan and The Voyage of the Beagle, among other books were...and still are...excellent reads. If you like SF, you need to be familiar with Van Vogt, old fashioned, chauvinistic, he may be to today's thinking, but his work is still an important part of the continuum of Science Fiction.

So, do I recommend this book? Yep, I certainly do! I think the fun of the stories in The War Against the Rull outweigh all of its perceived faults. If you haven't had the pleasure of reading this book, these stories, and are willing to put up with some "old fashioned" ideas, you should take the time to seek it out and give it a read. I think you'll enjoy...and then you can move on to read some of the other great Science Fiction that A. E. Van Vogt wrote!

Analog April 2009

I'm still working my way through my huge backlog of Analog Magazines. Next up is the April 2009 issue. The cover looked promising...winged spaceships with a ringed planet (Saturn maybe) as a backdrop, however none of the stories inside had anything to do with winged spaceships or ringed planets. There wasn't much science in the fiction in the issue either and the fact was a little thin as well, but that doesn't mean the stories inside aren't worth reading. My thoughts on a few of the more interesting stories and articles follows...

Gunfight On Farside, by Adam-Troy Castro is this issue's lead Novella. The story kept my attention all the way through and was entertaining. There has only ever been one "gunfight" on the moon and, in a way, this is the story of what happened there and many years after. The secret isn't what happened so much as what was never revealed, and why. As I said this was an entertaining read, even though the "secret" was easy enough to guess well before the story ended. Of course, in the end this was much more of a fantasy than a science fiction story...but you'll need to read it to find out why that is so.

Steak Tartare and the Cats of Gari Babakin, by Mary Turzillo was the next story in this issue, a novelette set on a well colonized Mars. Turns out a domed town...Gari Babakin...has had an infestation of Trixoplasma gondii. Cats do carry this parasite and it is communicable to humans that much is fact. That is makes human females sexy and smart while making human males slovenly drunkards and making both sexes frivolous and "inefficient" is...well, I doubt that's particularly factual, but an interesting hook to hang a plot upon. The citizens of Gari Babakin are happy, creative and productive, but the rest of the Martians have to take care to not become "infected" by them, and so their products aren't as widely used or as good as they could be. So, the corporation that owns Gari Babakin "right down to the last molecule" sends a delegation to secretly "infect" the colony with a viral agent to "free them of their parasites...and kill their cats! The citizens of Gari Babakin find a way to retain their culture, and get their revenge upon the rest Mars while they are at it. I found it interesting that this story really seemed to be about a tension between creativity and efficiency...sometimes you need a little inefficiency to create.

Foe, by Mark Rich, another novelette set on a well colonized Mars was, in my opinion the best story of the issue. Mr. Rich's name didn't make the cover, but I enjoyed his story more than any other. Foe dealt with the a very similar idea as the previous story....productivity vs. efficiency. A new Department Chief for the Office of Efficiency has just arrived at Dometown 26. He soon discovers that he now the "Face of Efficiency"...the Foe of everyone in the town. A little investigation and he decides that if he does his job well he'll be fired, or forced out, like the previous 16 Foes of the last 30 years and if he does a poor job he'll also be forced out or fired. Being sent from Earth to Mars, he isn't going to be sent back to Earth so he'll have to find another job here, and if he is unversalily disliked who will hire him? He decides to introduce inefficiencies into the system here and there to get himself fired, but do so in a way that will make him friends...or at least no enemies. Much to his surprise he discovers that the inefficiencies he is introducing...forcing an overworked manager to take a 15 minute break, allowing a 'crazy old bum' to paint a small section of the dome blue so it will like like an Earth sky, sending a worker home to practice her violin instead of working on reports that her boss has been pestering her about, requiring all the workers to stop work and attend a concert in the park...are having the opposite effect from what he expected. The manager is less grumpy and gets more done, the worker feels so much better after practicing for that concert that she comes in early the next day and able to focus on the reports gets them all done. The entire town's efficiency and productivity goes up with his introduction of inefficiencies into the system. In my experience, the old adage of "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is a truism that management too often forgets. Yes, I did enjoy this story especially when our hero changes his office door so his IN/OUT sign makes his office The Office of IN Efficiency whenever he is at work.

The rest of the issue was so-so. The short stories in this issue weren't very strong, and I can't really recommend them. The science fact article dealt with "Ribbonworlds", tidally locked worlds that may be habitable. I'll admit to skimming it, but it did make we want to run out and run a Traveller role playing game. The Alternate View article was a review of "cold fusion" which the author opines as a real effect whether mainstream physics wants to accept it or not.

All in all, a collection of stories worth reading.