Slan

by A.E. van Vogt

Book Overview

In the 1940s, the Golden Age of science fiction flowered in the magazine Astounding. Editor John W. Campbell, Jr., discovered and promoted great new writers such as A.E. van Vogt, whose novel Slan was one of the works of the era.

Slan is the story of Jommy Cross, the orphan mutant outcast from a future society prejudiced against mutants, or slans. Throughout the forties and into the fifties, Slan was considered...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312852363
• ISBN13: 9780312852368
• Release Date: February 1998
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A must read for those who like Mutant themed books

Van Vogt is a genius, plain and simple. However, if you have ever read Damon Knight's harsh and cruel criticism of Van Vogt, he does hit upon a few real concerns with Van Vogt. If you want a story that follows a perfectly plotted story with logical explanations for each and every aspect, Van Vogt is not your writer. But if you want stories that are way ahead of their time that pull you right in, read "Slan" is a great Van Vogt book to begin with: cool futuristic city, institutionalized racism/discrimination, romance, super-powers, and plenty of twists and turns.

The Wave of the Future

Slan (1951) is a standalone SF novel. Slans are a mutation of humanity that have high intelligence and telepathic capabilities. Their popular name came from Samuel Lann, the man who discovered their abilities. The most distinctive difference from humanity is the golden tendrils growing from their scalp, but they also have internal dissimilarities, including a modified heart. In this novel, Jommy Cross is the son of Peter and Patricia Cross. His father had been killed by a mob of humans about four years before. Since Jommy is charged with retrieving his father's papers from the catacombs when he reaches fifteen, his mother is taking him into Centropolis to show Jommy a secret entrance into the tunnels. Unluckily, the humans have noticed the pair and suspect that they are slans. The secret police are closing in, although Jommy is not mature enough to detect their presence until they are quite close. His mother shoves him between two other people and tells him to run. Jommy climbs onto the rear bumper of a car that is soon moving swiftly down the street. Jommy tunes in to the thoughts of the men within the car. He has no difficulty reading the thoughts of the driver, but the passenger only shows the upper level of his thoughts. Soon Jommy realizes that the passenger is John Petty, chief of the secret police. Moreover, the radio is announcing his flight from the area where his mother has just been killed. John Petty is realizing that his car is probably the one mentioned in the radio report. The car is traveling too fast for Jommy to jump off and survive. Yet Petty is having the driver slow down and stop to check the rear bumper. As soon as the car has slowed enough to jump, Jommy is off the bumper and fleeing down a poorly lit alleyway. But the driver gets one good shot at him and doesn't miss. Jommy wonders at the lassitude of his body, which is usually not tired by any effort. He is feeling woozy, but he pulls himself over a pile of boxes and inside a hole in the wall. He finds that the irritating objects under him are shards from the wall and replaces them, using mud as mortar to hold them in place. While he is preparing his bolthole, he discovers that an evil mind is also thinking of the hiding place. Later, after the pursuers have left the area, he crawls out and is snatched by the owner of the evil thoughts. She puts him into her wagon under a smelly cover and smuggles him out of the neighborhood. In this story, Granny is a former show girl who uses her good looks and sex to advance in show business. Yet she is eventually betrayed and tossed out onto the street. Since then she has become an alcoholic rag lady. But she is still capable of finding a way to use Jommy to gain money. Granny takes Jommy to a department store to swipe valuable trinkets. He brushes against a man heading out of the store and scans his mind. He is quite startled to find that the man is a slan. Yet the man lacks tendrils and is unable to

A revelation to me as a teen

I first read Slan in my early teens, and (this is going to get a little personal here, folks) I really identified with the struggle against persecution because at the time I was an adolescent struggling with my own sexuality and the realization that I am gay - something that in my youth (and to a *slightly* lesser extent today) was something to hide, something to fear, lest you suffer persecution.I re-read the book along with a few other Van Vogt novels as an adult, and it still gave me that feeling of empowerment - that being different was not necessarily "bad."I doubt Van Vogt had gay people or any specific minority group in mind when he wrote the novel. It was, after all, 1940, and there was no such thing as political correctness and we as a society saw no harm whatsoever in persecuting entire groups of peoples, subcultures, etc.Which just proves that as a writer, Van Vogt was ahead of his time.The book holds up; it is still a great story, still has great action, mystery and intrigue. A few of the "science fiction" elements are a little cliched today, but they were of course *new* when Van Vogt wrote them.I would have to call Slan one of my all time favorites.

Van Vogt's best from the Golden Age of SF.

Jommy Cross is a Slan, hunted as all Slan are by the normal humans that hate and fear them. Sounds common, maybe, just that Van Vogt was there WAY before Stan Lee and the X-Men. And better.It's hard to say why this is so good, but Van Vogt has a style of story-telling that is just hard to describe. It's as unique as Van Gogh's painting -- you can read a Van Vogt without looking at the author and know exactly who wrote it.Other books of his (The Weapons Shops of Isher, The World of A) also have this One Man Against All theme, but this is his masterpiece. Among the cream of the Golden Age of SF, still in print after 50 years, and still just as readable.

Remember it was writen in the 40's.

Slan is a great exemple of practically a perfect simple-plot , one-hero , sci-fi story.Now , before you're clicking "not helpfull" , you have to understand that you are used to a writing style that has taken over the sci-fi scene in the 40's and 50's. A style led by John w.Campbell , and writers like Asimov , Clarck and Heinlin. Those people decided for you what sci-fi should be. Generally , they were right , most of the writers at that time had lower standards for sci-fi stories.But not Van Vogt. Allthough his style is'nt compatible with "Campbellian" standards , his writing has a different magic. Enormous scope , fantastic imagination , and very special lead charecters , are only part of something that I cannot put into words , and flows free in his works.You should not judge "Slan" by today's standards , instead , give it a chance and enjoy the magic of the early style science fiction.

Stays with you long after the last page is turned.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me and I have booted it to my "favorite" list. Being more of a modern SciFi fan, I had my doubts, but I saw so much creativity in this book, that I have gone on the read others of Van Vogt's. The story of a boy who is struggling in a world full of preconceptions, this book is great lesson to how suseptible our race is to taking rumor as fact and how we can be so quick to jugde. A wonderful, easy to follow tale AND it leaves you with something after it's done. Great.