A true timeless classic!
The Weapon Shops of Isher (A.E. Van Vogt, 1951) Nov 2020, SMB_MBSC
This story is set roughly 4700 years in the future with civilization divided between the ruling House of Isher and an opposing organization, the weapon shops. A curious reporter named McAllister from 1951 sees a weapon shop from the future appear in his own town and time. He believes it to be only a fantastic illusion and so enters innocently into the shop. In reality, the weapon shop has been accidentally transported back in time to the 19th century by an energy weapon of the House of Isher. It was intended to destroy a single weapon shop in the small city of Glay as a precursor to the total elimination of all weapons shops. From this point in the story, McAllister becomes trapped in a temporal pendulum that swings between the future and the past. The temporal oscillations grow larger and larger in amplitude, fueled by the continual energy directed at the weapon shop in Glay.
The story line centers subsequently on four additional characters, their relationships to each other and the predicament of McAllister. One of these characters is Cayle Clark, a naÃ?Æ'Ã?¯ve young man from Glay with special but unrecognized talents. He seeks adventure and opportunity in the great city of Isher that is the center of the government. The reader will appreciate the perspectives and sentiments of his father Fara, another primary character, who conservatively supports the House of Isher with complete faith in its authority and its good will toward the governed masses. These qualities are, according to Fara, totally vested in the fourth primary character of the novel, the young Empress Innelda. Her world is framed by her annoyance and disgust with the aged and corrupt bureaucracy around her. The fifth and final principal of the novel is Robert Hedrock, EarthÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢s one immortal man. His true identity is unknown to all, especially his role as the founder of the weapon shops and the inventor of various technologies that make its continued existence possible.
All of these characters have their own independent, often conflicting perspectives on life and the world around them. The reader will readily identify with each of the principals, understanding their disparate backgrounds and why they choose the actions described throughout the story. As befitting a grandmaster of the genre, van Vogt brings them all into a final complementary resolution at the end of the novel.
Every page is well-crafted and relevant. Each sentence adds something interesting or important to a character or the story development. Contrast this with much of the voluminous irrelevant blather often found in todayÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢s sci-fi offerings. The principal characters weave their way through the story lines with logical and completely relatable perspectives, actions and interactions. The ending of the novel for the five principals is analogous to the final fitting of the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
This is one of the best sci-fi novels ever written. I was impressed by the thesis of the story some sixty years ago and remember being similarly astounded after four or five readings since then. In a compilation entitled A Treasury of Great Science Fiction (Vol 1, Doubleday, 1959), editor Anthony Boucher wrote that this novel Ã?¢ââ??¬Ã?Å"quite possibly has the best curtain line in all imaginative fictionÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢! I still agree with this assessment today as I did when I first read the book. Every dedicated aficionado of classic sci-fi should read this book. Although almost 70 years since it was written, the story line, character descriptions, and imagination are timeless. It remains an impressively imaginative and an enjoyable read today.
I highly recommend this novel to existing sci-fi enthusiasts and especially any new readers who want to investigate for the first time the genre known as science fiction. I look forward to my own next reading of this timeless classic.
