The Weapon Shops of Isher

Having read only one of A.E. Van Vogt's novels, "Slan," years ago, I did not know what to expect. Spurred on by Alec Nevala Lee's reviews of AEVV, I took on this read with anticipation.

While the storyline is somewhat frantic, it is worth sticking with. While the characters are not worth investing in, I became interested in their outcomes. AEVV pulls everything together to a conclusion and answers many questions while asking others.

To add weird on weird, the basis of the novel is time travel and the first in the " The Weopon Shops of Isher" series. It is a fix-up of three short stories written and published in the early 1940s. This makes it the first in the series published in 1953. Ten years after number 2 in the series, "The Weapon Makers," was published as a serial in "Astounding" and then in book form in 1947. So, if you started reading the books in the late 1940s, you would read the second before the first if you followed all that you were ready to take on AEVV and this novel.

Well worth the TIME!