Holding Back the Tide

books:


	• Slan & Slan Hunter (Slan, Volume 1 & 2) A.E. Van Vogt & Kevin J. Anderson SFBC, 2007 average customer review:based on 1 review
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Holding Back the Tide

Slan & Slan Hunter (2007) is an omnibus edition of Slan SF novels, including Slan and Slan Hunter. Slans are a mutation of humanity that have high intelligence and telepathic capabilities. Their popular name came from Samuel Lann, the man who discovered their abilities. The most distinctive difference from humanity is the golden tendrils growing from their scalp, but they also have internal dissimilarities, including a modified heart.

In Slan (1951), Jommy Cross is the son of Peter and Patricia Cross. His father had been killed by a mob of humans about four years before. Since Jommy is charged with retrieving his father's papers from the catacombs when he reaches fifteen, his mother is taking him into Centropolis to show Jommy a secret entrance into the tunnels.

Unluckily, the humans have noticed the pair and suspect that they are slans. The secret police are closing in, although Jommy is not mature enough to detect their presence until they are quite close. His mother shoves him between two other people and tells him to run.

Jommy climbs onto the rear bumper of a car that is soon moving swiftly down the street. Jommy tunes in to the thoughts of the men within the car. He has no difficulty reading the thoughts of the driver, but the passenger only shows the upper level of his thoughts.

Soon Jommy realizes that the passenger is John Petty, chief of the secret police. Moreover, the radio is announcing his flight from the area where his mother has just been killed. John Petty is realizing that his car is probably the one mentioned in the radio report.

The car is traveling too fast for Jommy to jump off and survive. Yet Petty is having the driver slow down and stop to check the rear bumper. As soon as the car has slowed enough to jump, Jommy is off the bumper and fleeing down a poorly lit alleyway. But the driver gets one good shot at him and doesn't miss.

Jommy wonders at the lassitude of his body, which is usually not tired by any effort. He is feeling woozy, but he pulls himself over a pile of boxes and inside a hole in the wall. He finds that the irritating objects under him are shards from the wall and replaces them, using mud as mortar to hold them in place.

While he is preparing his bolthole, he discovers that an evil mind is also thinking of the hiding place. Later, after the pursuers have left the area, he crawls out and is snatched by the owner of the evil thoughts. She puts him into her wagon under a smelly cover and smuggles him out of the neighborhood.

This tale also relates the experiences of Kathleen Layton, a slan female who is a couple of years older than Jommy. Kathleen is living in the palace designed and built by true slans before humans drove them into hiding. She is the ward of Kier Gray, leader of all humans on Earth.

This novel is one of the early works by the author. It was also one of the first novels published after the wartime constraints. It is considered a classic Science Fiction novel.

In Slan Hunter (2007), Davis Stewart is driving his very pregnant wife to the hospital. Anthea is in labor and Davis is in a hurry. When he reaches the emergency room, he runs into the hospital to get help and comes out pushing a wheelchair and leading an orderly.

The orderly wheels Anthea toward the delivery room while calling out to the nurses. A nurse stops Davis at the door, but Anthea is quickly moved into position. The doctor speaks calmly to Anthea and tells her to push.

The baby comes quickly and the doctor holds him up for his mother to see. A nurse cries out and the doctor shows a horrified expression. The baby has golden tendrils growing out of the back of his head. He is a slan.

Neither Anthea nor Davis show any sign of being slans. They certainly are not aware of any such possibility. However, the doctor fills a hypodermic syringe with a poisonous substance and reaches for the baby.

Davis comes into the delivery room, responding to a feeling of danger. Nurses and orderlies try to block his passage, but he fights his way through. Anthea tells him of the doctor's intention and Davis throws aside everyone between him and the doctor.

After removing Anthea and their baby from the room, Davis immediately recognized the danger of three security men and a secret policeman coming toward them. He tells Anthea to take the baby and run, then he runs toward the security men. As Anthea goes the other way, she hears the shots that signal the death of her husband.

The Foreword describes how this book came to be published. This provides a fascinating -- and dismaying -- glimpse into the Van Vogt life story. The senior author tried to produce this book, but was overcome by Alzheimer's. Eventually, the novel was put into the hands of the junior author.

Highly recommended for van Vogt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of high adventure, mutational advances, and political intrigues.

-Arthur W. Jordin

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