"A. E. Van Vogt - Empire of the Atom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Vogt A E)

EMPIRE OF THE ATOM
A. E. Van Vogt

A note on the edition: The text of the story here is that of the original magazine editions first
published in Astounding Science Fiction, not the later versions which A. E. van Vogt reworked
for various novelizations.
"A Son is Born" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in May, 1946.

"Child of the Gods" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in August, 1946.

"Hand of the Gods" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in December, 1946.

"Home of the Gods" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in April, 1947.

"The Barbarian" was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in December, 1947.



PREFACE
The Golden Age of SF is universally dated from the July 1939, issue of Astounding because that's when
"Black Destroyer," A. E. van Vogt's first SF story, appeared. Isaac Asimov's first story also appeared in
the same month but nobodyтАФas Asimov himself admitsтАФnoticed it.

People noticed "Black Destroyer," though, and they continued to notice the many other stories that van
Vogt wrote over the following decade. With the encouragement and occasionally the direction of John
W. Campbell, Heinlein, deCamp, Hubbard, Asimov, and van Vogt together created the Golden Age of
SF.

Each of those great writers was unique. What as much as anything set van Vogt off from other SF writers
(of his day and later) was the ability to suggest vastness beyond comprehension. He worked with not
only in space and time, but with the mind.

Van Vogt knew that to describe the indescribable would have been to make it ludicrous, and that at best
description turns the inconceivable into the pedestrian. More than any other SF writer, van Vogt
succeeded in creating a sense of wonder in his readers by hinting at the shadowed immensities beyond
the walls of human perception. What we've tried to do in our selections for Transgalactic is show some
of van Vogt's skill and range; but we too can only hint at the wonders of the unglimpsed whole.

Eric Flint and Dave Drake 2005

CLANE OF LINN
Part I: Empire of the Atom
A Son is Born
Junior scientists stood at the bell ropes all day, ready to sound forth the tidings of an important birth. By
night time, they were exchanging coarse jests at to the possible reason for the delay. They took care,
however, not to be overheard by seniors or initiates.

The expected child had actually been born a few hours after dawn. He was a weak and sickly fellow,
and he showed certain characteristics that brought immediate dismay to the Leader household. His
mother, Lady Tania, when she wakened, listened for a while to his piteous crying, then commented