I thought van Vogt would be a good person to do today as I have some of his books on our shelves…yes, well, I still need to find them. I have memories of seeing them in the dim, dark past but I cannot find them today and today is what counts.

Van Vogt is a name from my childhood and that makes perfect sense as he commenced his publishing career in the late 1930s, somewhat before my time. According to everything I can find his book The World of Null-A was an ‘interesting’ novel which became a classic despite everything being totally wrong. You can read an essay by Robert Silverberg on this subject which mentions an essay by Damon Knight both of whom are now competent science fiction authors in their own right, although Knight wasn’t when he wrote his essay.

Something I didn’t know is that van Vogt wrote some stuff for TV; some documentaries and parts of TV series. The one that pokes a hole in my memory is The Outer Limits from 1999 and 2002; some of them being screened after van Vogt’s death in 2000.

He’s got an interesting name and I found this webpage talking about the pronunciation. They vacillate between rhyming with vote or pronouncing every single letter. My money is rhyming with vote purely because it’s easier to say. One pronunciation mentioned only once is voite which is how I’ve said it all my life for no good reason.

Anyway, you need to read him yourself in order to make your own judgement as he is one of the giants of the science fiction industry. Here is The World of Null-A and The Voyage of the Space Beagle. I’ve always found this second title a rather strange one for no reason I can actually remember.