Masters of Time by A.E. van Vogt

 

(pb; 1950, originally published in 1942 and 1944 by Street and Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science-Fiction magazine)

From the back cover

“Norma was a helpless victim of the masters of time; Jack, who loved her, went willingly into slavery, hoping to find a way to release her from bondage. Both of them should have been destroyed, yet somehow, gaining strength from each other, they managed to retain some measure of their free will.

“But was it enough to save both of them─and, more important, to save Earth from the monstrous fate that the masters of time had decreed for it?”

 

Review

Masters, a hectic-paced science fiction novel, is a sometimes fun if chatty book. In it, two humans─Norma Matheson, an ambitious, depressed woman, and her ex-college boyfriend, Professor Jack Garson─are pressed into war service by Dr. Lell, a self-proclaimed “master of time” alien and one of the Glorious. Lell’s tentacled Observer machines take humans from Earth’s past and present eras to fight the Glorious’ future conflict for them.

This is not one of Vogt’s better works. It has his trademark, constant twists and turns as well as sudden shifts in locations and perceptions, so many that it becomes overly convoluted, talky and hard to follow at times.

Readers who are sensitive to briefly less-than-“woke” language and typically-1940s-sexist attitudes might want to skip this one. Most of the male characters, including Jack, are condescending toward Norma and her “emotional” state, even as she finds a way (with help) out of her bad situations. As for the less-than-“woke” language, one of the alien villains (Dr. Lell) is briefly described having “Chinese” and “Negro” attributes in his unsettling features. This is not a surprising element in science fiction during this time (the 1940s)─it was sometimes lazy shorthand for adding exoticism to characters─but it is surprising that Vogt, usually better than this, fell prey to the negative, lazy stereotyping of his era.

What works in Masters is Vogt’s initial set-up, editing and pacing, before it goes into the melodramatic weeds for a while. It’s best not to think too hard about the pseudo-science time-travel dialogue spouted by various characters and try to enjoy the ride (if you stick with it). Its ending is an effective, impressive bookend that almost saves the book from its other excesses and unfortunate, antiquated attitudes, but not quite. While not a terrible read, it’s one I’d only recommend to Vogt completists. If you are a first-time reader of Vogt, I’d suggest Slan (1940), The House That Stood Still (1950) and Mission to the Stars (1952, a.k.a The Mixed Men).