Planets for Sale

Planets for Sale, A.E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull, Book Co. of America, 1965

This group of connected stories in novel form takes place in a part of space called the Ridge Stars, a group of suns and planets reminiscent of the 19th century American frontier, where capitalism is Law and money is the lifeblood. In this part of space, a man named Artur Blord is on top. His fortune can be counted in the trillions of stellors. He is said to have more power and wealth than any person in the universe, and, as such, is on everyone's "hit list."

A young woman named Evana, fresh from Earth, is kidnapped by a group of masked men and forced to help them kidnap Blord and get him out of the way, permanently. As an inducement, Evana is injected with a seven-day poison. Blord finds out about the plot, and lets himself be taken to a nearby planet. Living in the ruins of an impenetrable castle is the Skal, a 50-foot-long telepathic lizard with a real hatred of humans in general and Artur Blord in particular.

Blord's enemies have conspired to get rid of Blord by taking over the Star Patrol, the legal government of the Ridge Stars. They are being very thorough by doing it not just on a few planets, but on every planet of the Ridge Stars, which comprise almost 200 light years of space. They then impose a 25 percent tax on all transcations of the Artur Blord Holding Company. When he refuses to go along, the Star Patrol then orders the immediate seizure of all of Blord's assets.

In other stories, Blord comes up against liquid metal R, a substance that can eat through anything, even the outer hulls of spaceships, and horribly mutated former humans called zilths. He also starts to get the feeling that (to use a cliche) the thrill is gone. Even on mankind's newest frontier, everything is predictable and boring.

This is really good. Van Vogt was one of the masters of space opera, and this is no exception. It's weird, it's exciting, it's very well done and it is well worth the reader's time.