The War Against the Rull by A. E. van Vogt
First published 1959. Panther paperback, 1973, pp156, c.64,000 words.
Surprisingly, there is very little shooting in this book, despite “war” being part of its title and the cover featuring spaceships shooting; although covers of SF books of the time this was printed very rarely reflected the contents. Instead, the story here concerns attempts by a human to build strategic advantage over the Rull by engaging with intelligent, but uninvolved, alien species. The Rull hardly feature except as a background menace until near the end, and even then it’s much more to do with trying to overcome the enemy by subtle rather than brutal means.
Trevor Jamieson is a senior scientist and military strategist and he roves across human controlled space. Much of the time he is dealing with the appalling Ezwal, an alien race that humans had thought unintelligent because it had not become technological, and on the surface operated as an instinctive top predator. It resents the intrusion of humans on its planet, but Jamieson thinks there is a better solution than extermination. The opening couple of sections are hugely imaginative and generate a powerful story premiss.
This book was constructed from at least five short stories published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine between 1940 and 1950, and the cracks have not been entirely covered up. While the background of the war remains constant, locations and story lines have a compartmentalised feel.
It is always fun to spot the reversion to 1950s America is technologies and social attitudes. Here we have ticker-tape machines [p124], atomic piles [p113], and not very advanced road-building machines [p88]. A mother phones her husband because she is worried about their nine-year-old son’s first night away from home, and the father sends his wife shopping. To be fair, not all the women here are treated as servants; one is certainly an initiator of action.
The science base of the story is thin at best. The book might be better classified as fantasy, with creatures able to mind read, communicate telepathically and to almost perfectly morph into the form of other creatures. There is the usual faster-than-light communications and travel.
van Vogt is a very able writer, conjuring truly alien creatures and worlds. There is the odd word unfamiliar to this reader such as ‘choler’ [p91]. Occasionally he tries to be profound which is a bit hit and miss. For example: ‘The will to death is in all life. Every organic cell ecphorizes the inherent engrams of its inorganic origin. The pulse of life is a squamous film superimposed on an underlying matter so intricate in its delicate balancing of different energies that life itself is but a brief, vain straining against that balance. …’ [p152]. It’s just not true, despite the highfaluting language the underlying thought is dressed up in.. Fortunately there is not much of this sort of thing.
Although this is a flawed book, it contains enough highly inventive aspects to demand attention, and while the story is episodic, it does hang together and make an entertaining and thoughtful read, dealing with war from a search for strategic advantage rather than the use of overwhelming force.
Wikipedia biography of van Vogt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._E._van_Vogt
Wikipedia summary of the book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Against_the_Rull
Others’ reviews of the book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/873739.The_War_Against_the_Rull?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_24
© William John Graham, October 2023