Subject: Review of "The Universe Maker" by A.E. Van Vogt

From: [email-masked] (Doug Reeder)
Date: 8 Jul 92 08:13:27 GMT

Review of "The Universe Maker" by A. E. Van Vogt
review by Doug Reeder

[Biblio data moved to end of review.  --Moderator]

     I was prompted to read this novel by Van Vogt's name
and the cover art of the Carrol & Graf edition: a woman in a
blue jumpsuit with several technological gadgets.  In
retrospect, my advice is to look at the cover but don't
bother to read the book.
     I am annoyed by time travel stories where the
characters decide they must act to make events happen the
way they did.  In this story, not only does the main
character do this, but it turns out it is impossible for the
universe to exist unless he does.
     The story is full of flat statements that the physical
universe has morality built in (which could, if you were
being very generous, be interpreted as the opinions of the
viewpoint character and not the narrator's.)
     The fifties attitudes towards women are obnoxious (the
original copyright is 1953.)  The attitudes of the
characters from the future toward sex appears much more
modern, though Captain Cargill has a soldier's attitude that
all women are at least potentially available and you have to
press hard to find out  (what we now call sexual
harrassment).  "You must try to win Miss Reese to your point
of view.  Grannis tells us the best method would be for you
to make love to her-"
     The book suffers from Cargill being the only character.
The other people aren't really characters, just part of the
scenery that Cargill wanders through.  The plot has
Cargill's importance being inherent in the structure of the
universe, and although he is an army officer, he is able to
tell the naive people how to organize their air force, and
how to take over the government.  Apparently, in the future,
they don't study history.
     The technology of the future is based on "million
tubes."  The people of the future have discovered that you
can make "one times one times one times one times zero
equals a million".
     It is very rare that I can force myself to stop reading
a book before I get to the end.  The problem is not the
writing, but the storyline and the theme.  I found myself
just gliding along, not worrying about the absurd (and
dogmatic) statements piling up.
     Unless you're doing an essay on Van Vogt's work, don't
bother to read this book.

%A Van Vogt, A. E.
%T The Universe Maker
%P 192 pp
%I Carrol & Graf
%C New York
%D 1992 (Copyright 1953,1981)
%G ISBN 0-88184-841-7
%O paperback, US$3.95 
%O Not worth reading

-- 
Doug Reeder                                 USENET: ...!tektronix!reed!reeder
Internet: [email-masked]                   BITNET: [email-masked]

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