Kirkus Gives Outstanding Review to NULL-A CONTINUUM
The March 1st issue of Kirkus Reviews gives Null-A Continuum a starred review! The full review follows.
A star is assigned to books of unusual merit, determined by the editors of Kirkus Reviews.
The books of Golden Age great A.E. van Vogt (1912-2000) inspired Wright (Fugitives of Chaos, 2006, etc.) to pen this authorized sequel to The World of Null-A and The Players of Null-A.
The background will be familiar to all van Vogt fans. Gilbert Gosseyn is serially immortal-if killed, he wakes, memories intact, in a duplicate body. Not only does Gosseyn not know his origins, but he’s being manipulated by an unseen cosmic “Chessplayer” for purposes unknown. And he has two brains: the second can control energy and teleport him vast
distances. While attempting to find out who he is and why he’s being manipulated, Gosseyn defends Earth and Venus against an interstellar plot, then halts the invasion plans of precognitive, clairvoyant dictator Enro the Red’s galactic empire. Among Wright’s contributions:ROSEBUD IS A SLED! A SLED! DARTH VADER IS LUKE’S FATHER! BRUCE WILLIS IS A GHOST! SOYLENT GREEN IS MADE OF PEOPLE!
[I am kidding, sort of. The reviewer, somewhat clumsily, next lists my carefully constructed plot surprises, one after another, in a fashion meant to spoil them. More in sorrow than in anger, I wield the scissors of Righteousness to censor the offending comments, that the virgin purity of my reader’s ears might be preserved. The review concludes with these words:]
Van Vogt would have reveled in such dialogue as: “Does he know that an extra-dimensional superbeing called the Ydd is using him to destroy the continuum?” The enterprise culminates in such preposterously magnificent intricacy anddensity that even the elucidations of the explications require explanations.
Must have been as much fun to write as it is to read.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
