Πρόκειται για την ιστορία του Τζέημσον, ενός ανθρώπου για τον οποίο "τα πάντα – η οικογενειακή ζωή, η ανατροφή των παιδιών, η αγάπη και οι προσωπικές επιθυμίες – έρχονταν σε δεύτερη μοίρα", ενός ανθρώπου αναγκασμένου "απ' τις περιστάσεις να αντισταθεί με μοναδικό όπλο την ευφυϊα του απέναντι σ' ένα ή περισσότερα Ραλ, εχθρούς πιο έξυπνους απ΄αυτόν". Ο van Vogt αφηγείται την ιστορία αυτή με λόγο λιτό και πυκνό. Δημιουργεί υπέροχους κόσμους, με απειλητικές ζούγκλες, τοπία απέραντης σιωπής, προστατευμένες πόλεις με πόρτες ορθάνοικτες που δονούνται από ατέλειωτες σειρές θορύβων: Εριστάν ΙΙ, Κάρσον, Μίρα 23, Πλόια, Λαέρτης. Και τοποθετεί σε αυτούς όντα διαφορετικής μορφής, ευφυείς μορφές ζωής, που αναμετρώνται καταρχήν με την ίδια την ικανότητά τους να επιβιώνουν. Μέσα από αυτή την τόσο γοητευτική περιπέτεια, ο αναγνώστης μπορεί, αν το θελήσει, να ξαναστοχαστεί τα προβλήματα και αδιέξοδα της καθημερινής του ζωής. Να μάθει για την ιστορία των ανθρώπινων πολέμων. Να κρίνει το παρελθόν, το παρόν και το μέλλον της ανθρωπότητας. Εδώ, στον πλανήτη Γη. Για τον Τζέημσον, όπως και για όλους τους αναπτυγμένους ανθρώπους του καιρού του "που είχαν μια γαλαξιακή αντίληψη της ζωής και του σύμπαντος", "πιο σπουδαίος ήταν ο πόλεμος ενάντια στα Ραλ που κρατούσε ήδη έναν αιώνα και καταβρόχθιζε τα πάντα". Για εμάς;
In this far-future novel, based on five related stories, humanity has been fighting a century-long war against the shape-changing Rull, and things are not going well.Carson's World is a vital part of Earth's defense. It is inabited by large, blue creatures, with teeht and claws, called ezwals. Trevor Jamieson is the only human who knows that the ezwal are highly intelligent and telepathic. It's best for everyone, human and ezwal, if no one else knows this. The ezwal want all humans off their planet, so there is plenty of hatred, mistrust and dead bodies on both sides. For humanity, the only criterion to determine a civilization's intelligence is whether or not they will assist in defense against the Rull.A lifeboat crashes on a very hostile jungle planet, carrying Jamieson and an adult ezwal. It's the sort of place where all sorts of disgusting and carnivorous creatures come out at night, and Jamieson's blaster is almost depleted. The ezwal would like nothing more than to tear Jamieson into lots of little pieces, but they end up having to work together to get off the planet.A ship crash-lands in Alaska, carrying an adult and baby ezwal. The mother is murdered by a human in revenge for the carnage on Carson's World. The baby survives, and is hunted by humans all over the Alaskan landscape. It is rescued by Jamieson, and is willing to tone down its conditioned hatred of humans.A Rull survey ship, and Jamieson, who seems to have nine lives, crash land near each other on a desolate mountain. Neither ship is going anywhere, so Jamieson uses this once-in-a-lifetime chance to conduct some psychological experiments on a captive Rull, to see what makes them tick.This is a fine piece of space opera from science fiction's early days. It's got intelligence, weird alien planets, and lots of good writing. Nearly anything by van Vogt is recommended, and this is no exception.
What do You think about The War Against The Rull (1999)?
Van Vogt is a fantastic science fiction writer, but his work suffers from his 40s/50s era portrayal of gender interactions. This book has it particularly bad, and you'll certainly wince a few times. However, it's fast-paced and takes an interesting turn from the usual sort of anthrocentrism that's present in most sci fi (replacing it with a different sort of anthrocentrism). Also, this was apparently written (or compiled, I suppose) after Van Vogt became a Scientologist, because I caught a passing reference to "engrams" toward the end.Overall, I liked it a lot. Van Vogt's take on humanity's place in the universe is a good one, once you get past the fact that he doesn't see women as playing a very useful role.
—Ed
Migliaia di razze tra le più disparate, si dividono il dominio della nostra galassia.È possibile trovare esseri umani, umanoidi e, ovviamente, anche delle forme di vita totalmente aliene. Comunque, anche se a volte la diversità morfologica è notevole, è sempre possibile per la razza umana trovare un punto d’incontro ed un “modus vivendi” con le altre razze, finché, un determinato giorno, si verifica l’incontro con una razza aliena con la quale non è possibile alcun genere d’accordo.Questa razza – I Rull – non fa parte della nostra galassia, ma appartiene ad un’altra ben lontana. Lo scopo dichiarato di questi alieni è di impadronirsi della nostra galassia dopo aver distrutto sia gli esseri umani che i loro alleati che la abitano.Ed è così che inizia un’altra stupenda avventura spaziale di quel grande Maestro della Fantascienza che risponde al nome di Alfred E. Van Vogt.
—Matteo Pellegrini
I liked the individual parts of this fix up and wish I could have read them as individual stories, because they are not fixed up very well. The stories, Repitition (1940), Cooperate or Else (1942), The Second Solution (1942) The Rull (1948), and The Sound (1950) were published in the sci-fi pulp magazine, Astounding Science Fiction as stand alone stories.It is quite easy to tell where the seams are. Van Vogt put little effort into the rewrite to concoct a novel from these unconnected stories. What emerges is a disjointed, difficult to follow tale with no character development or arc and no real plot line.Van Vogt's penchant for doing fix up novels, some would argue, reduced his standing in the science fiction community. Those readers new to Van Vogt's work might pick up one of these fix up novels and wonder how this man ever got published.As science fiction transitioned from the pulp magazine short stories and serials into full blown novels, some authors made the transition and some did not. Van Vogt wrote some good novels and many excellent short stories. He should have kept the two separate.As a novel, The War Against the Rull is poor. Reading the individual chapters was great fun and takes one back to those days when pulp sci-fi was light years ahead of Hollywood in creativity.
—Brian Schwartz
