Null-A Continuum Book

Grandmaster A. E. van Vogt was one of the giants of the Golden Age of classic SF, the 1940s. Of his masterpieces, The World of Null-A is perhaps most influential. It was the first major trade SF hardcover ever, in 1949, and has been in print ever since. The careers of Philip K. Dick, Keith Laumer, Alfred Bester, Charles Harness, and Philip Jose Farmer were created or influenced by The World of Null-A. It is required reading for anyone who wishes to know the canon of SF classics.

And so John C. Wright was inspired to write a sequel to the two novels of Null-A (the second was The Players of Null-A). To do this, he trained himself to write in the pulp style and manner of van Vogt. So return again to the Null-A future, in which the superhuman amnesiac with a double brain, Gilbert Gosseyn, must pit his wits once more against the remorseless galactic dictator Enro the Red and the mysterious shadow-being known as The Follower, while he is hurled headlong through unimaginable distances in space and in time and through alternate eternities to fend off the death, and complete the rebirth, of the Universe itself!

Publishers Weekly

Questions of identity and personal purpose fill this inconsistent sequel to A.E. van Vogt's 1940s SF pulp thriller The World of Null-A. Gilbert Gosseyn, a double-brained telepath embroiled in intergalactic intrigue, struggles to undermine legendary clairvoyant Enro and his plot to take over or destroy the Milky Way. When one of Gosseyn's clones kills the leaders of the Interstellar League, Gosseyn is left to battle Enro on his own. The often dizzying narrative acquires an ever-widening scope, eventually spanning all of space and time. Wright attempts to flesh out and make sense of van Vogt's world while retaining a respectful distance from the original story. A mixed bag results, fluctuating between hectic action and a dense, plot-slowing web of conspiracy and psychology. The characters' individual voices are sound, but their personalities do little to hold the reader's interest. Though inventive, this problematic love letter to a long-gone era misses the mark. (May)

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