This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: The Silkie, the Voyage of the Space Beagle, Slan, the Weapon Shops of Isher, the World of Null-A, Empire of the Atom, Rogue Ship, the Universe Maker, the Man With a Thousand Names, the Book of Ptath, the Wizard of Linn, Null-A Three, the Weapon Makers, the House That Stood Still, the Players of Null-A, Children of Tomorrow. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: The Silkie is a fix-up science fiction novel by A. E. van Vogt, first published in complete form in 1969. The component stories had previously been published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine. Taking its inspiration from the Celtic legend of the Selkie, the novel describes a race of apparent humans with the ability to change into other forms. One, like the Selkie of legend, can live underwater. Another can survive and travel unprotected in outer space. In all three forms the Silkies can wield mental powers over energy to some degree. After a prologue which purports to explain the origin of the Silkies as an experiment in genetic manipulation, the action moves forward over a hundred years to a future in which the Silkies are numerous and live on Earth. Humanity has assimilated them by means of the Special People, who can establish telepathic rapport with the Silkies. All Silkies are male, and most are married to women of the Special People. They are employed as police in space, and most are comfortable with that role. One dedicated Silkie, Nat Cemp, encounters three different alien races, and with each encounter he gains more powers and learns more about the true nature of the Silkies, and of the Universe. As with other Van Vogt works, the novel introduces a psychological element similar to General semantics. Here the Silkies use the so-called "Logic of Levels." ...More: http: //
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