Author: A. E. Van Vogt (aka Alfred Vogt)
First Published: 1974
Pages: 141pp
Publisher: DAW
Publisher: DAW
Well this was an interesting read. Something a bit, er, different from what I was expecting. If you have never read a Van Vogt science fiction book, be prepared for a Marmite experience!
A. E. Van Vogt, was born Alfred Vogt, in Manitoba, Canada in 1912. Raised by descendants of Dutch lineage, he became one of the most recognisable names in Sci-Fi literature and influenced such writers as Philip K. Dick and Harlan Ellison. During the course of his writing career he became one of the most popular figures of the 20th century's Golden Age of science fiction.
However, this was not the genre that Vogt began with. His first foray into the literary world started with true confessions stories for pulp magazines such as Tue Story. He changed track by the end of the thirties and inspired by the Astounding Science Fiction magazine and James W. Campbell, submitted a story entitled Vault of the Beast which was rejected. However, with encouragement and a further submission, his first published sci-fi story for the same magazine was called Black Destroyer* which appeared in the July 1939 issue.
Vogt quit his job and went full time as a writer in 1941. His most famous novels were written in a purple patch between 1941 and 1944. Most of these appeared in serialised form in various magazines before being released in paperback. He moved to California in 1944, and took on his pen-name as his legal name whilst applying for American citizenship.
Between the years of 1950 and 1961 Van Vogt entered into a kind of sabbatical when he become linked with L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics movement. He stopped producing any new material and concentrated his time on supporting his new venture. However, rather than disappearing totally from the market, he decided to recylce old stories (he called them "fix-ups") by either expanding, providing bridging material, or joining previously unrelated stories together into 'new' stories. These worked with varying success and lead to Van Vogt receiving some negative criticism among readers and reviewers.
He came back to writing new material in the sixties, but still used his "fix-ups" to bolster the roster on occasion. The Man with a Thousand Names came out of this period, and does not appear to be a fixed up old story. Vogt's writing style is very recognisable, he is brief and his sentence structuring is sometimes fragmentary. His plots can be filled with quite fantastical situations or large scale events that he covers in a matter of short sentences.
This story takes place in an undefined future, not too distant, but distant enough for a manned space journey to the closest habitable world (called Mittend) to happen in a matter of months. One of the crew of this inaugural flight to the new world is Steven Masters, son of the richest man on planet Earth. The book is told from the point of view of Steven. You get to feel his embarrassment as he fumbles and staggers off the ship and into the new terrain, hoping none of his fellow astronauts, or nobody on Earth following the expedition on television, see his poor form. He explores a little bit of the area around the landing site, then experiences something strange; a fleeting thought, someone asking 'Mother' if they can deal with the 'intruder'. Pretty quickly Steven spots a group of naked people coming towards him and he panics and tries to hide. They capture him and physically try to haul him away. Then something REALLY strange occurs, and the next Masters knows he is standing in a bar serving drinks.
From here we find out that Steven Masters has inhabited the body of a person back on Earth. Mark Broehm's body is older, and he isn't rich. He lives at the back of a bar and has a girlfriend named Lisa. As soon as he can, after bedding Lisa, Masters books travel back to New York to settle back into his high-end apartment with servants and security guards. Then he contacts his father and tries to explain what has happened.
The twist that Vogt presents here is the character of Steven Masters. He is a very unpleasant young man. A womaniser, unbelievably rude to everyone including his parents, considers himself entitled to everything (he demanded to go on the space flight because he was bored); he is a spoilt rich kid who has made many many enemies over the years (literally enough to fill an auditorium) and cares about no one other than himself. He often switches off when people are talking to him as he finds them tiring.
Suddenly this young man is thrown across the galaxy and, as the story evolves, into the minds of multiple people by the mysterious force called "Mother" on Mittend. He is even thrown into the mind of a women at one point. Vogt's writing is strange and punctuated with odd sentence structure - but at the same time it's quite hypnotic. I was drawn into the story, and once used to the prose style this short novel became an enjoyable read. Vogt breathes life into Masters, at least more than some of the supporting players. But I did not feel the criticism he has had about his characterisation was present here.
The final sections of the story reveal more about the over-arching plot on Mittend and Masters part in it. It does get a bit 'far-out', and personally I liked that flavour in this context. I'm not sure if I would seek out many more Vogt books, because I'm a little wary of finding a bad one, however this one was a nice little sci-fi diversion. I could easily understand if someone else finds him totally unpalatable though.
The Man with a Thousand Names is not available in eBook format for me in the UK. In fact not that much of A. E. Van Vogt is available in eBook format and I'm not really sure why that is. Given his back catalogue, and his recognisable name and former popularity I would have expected a lot more to be available. Saying that, I wonder if the majority of his other work, especially those 'fix-ups' just don't stand the test of time?
*Thanks to Howard Miller for the correction.