In his book, The World of Null-A, author A E van Vogt gives readers an Earth far in the future that is being run using Null-A philosophy and is seemingly better off than today. Or is it? There are some not so enlightened aliens apparently set to take over. The hero, Gilbert Gosseyn, a Null-A'er and a man with two brains and apparent amnesia, gets tangled up in the invasion plans and tries to stop them with the help of some other interesting characters. It is hard to tell if he is successful at the end.
For the most part, I enjoyed the book, as the author used some clever and at times amusingly quaint plot devices, but it does have some downsides.
First, the book was written a long time ago (the 1940's), so presents the future in a somewhat strange fashion, at least viewed from our "more modern" perspective. The author apparently tries to extrapolate future technologies/discoveries based on what existed in his time. For example, he keeps talking about "tubes" whenever dealing with devices - I think he means something like vacuum tubes. Transistors as we know them today probably were not invented or widely known back then. Another example is Venus being covered with plant life and inhabitable by humans without environmental suits. To be fair, he does come up with some Star Trek like transport technology - well sort of like that.
Second, the author does not do a very good job explaining the Null-A philosophy used by the hero in the book. Null-A refers to non-Aristotelian type logic (from the General Semantics of Alfred Korzybski) as opposed to classical two valued logic. Interested readers might take a look at articles on wikipedia if interested in Null-A/General Semantics, but they should be warned that it is not easy reading.
Third, I believe that this book was originally published in serial form which seems to result in some choppy, short chapters which I found most noticeable towards the end.
Fourth, the book ends in a somewhat unsatisfying manner. However, there are sequels.
Despite the downsides mentioned, the book is entertaining, and I think worth reading. Younger readers might find it a bit old fashioned though.
For the most part, I enjoyed the book, as the author used some clever and at times amusingly quaint plot devices, but it does have some downsides.
First, the book was written a long time ago (the 1940's), so presents the future in a somewhat strange fashion, at least viewed from our "more modern" perspective. The author apparently tries to extrapolate future technologies/discoveries based on what existed in his time. For example, he keeps talking about "tubes" whenever dealing with devices - I think he means something like vacuum tubes. Transistors as we know them today probably were not invented or widely known back then. Another example is Venus being covered with plant life and inhabitable by humans without environmental suits. To be fair, he does come up with some Star Trek like transport technology - well sort of like that.
Second, the author does not do a very good job explaining the Null-A philosophy used by the hero in the book. Null-A refers to non-Aristotelian type logic (from the General Semantics of Alfred Korzybski) as opposed to classical two valued logic. Interested readers might take a look at articles on wikipedia if interested in Null-A/General Semantics, but they should be warned that it is not easy reading.
Third, I believe that this book was originally published in serial form which seems to result in some choppy, short chapters which I found most noticeable towards the end.
Fourth, the book ends in a somewhat unsatisfying manner. However, there are sequels.
Despite the downsides mentioned, the book is entertaining, and I think worth reading. Younger readers might find it a bit old fashioned though.
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