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!