The Null-A Trilogy by A. E. Van Vogt
The Null-A Trilogy is a science fiction series exploring themes of identity, evolution, and the implications of General Semantics. The story follows Gilbert Gosseyn, who awakens in a futuristic setting called the City of the Machine, where he grapples with implanted memories and the mystery of his own existence. As he navigates a dangerous interstellar landscape, he learns that he is part of an evolutionary leap for humanity, represented by an extra brain material that distinguishes him from others. Throughout the trilogy, Gosseyn encounters various characters, including the villain Enro the Red and the enigmatic director of the General Semantics Institute, Lavoisseurs.
The narrative unfolds with Gosseyn's repeated deaths and resurrections across different bodied identities, complicating his quest for self-understanding. The sequels introduce new elements, including the Follower, who poses threats to Gosseyn’s continued existence, and the concept of galactic diplomacy, as Gosseyn seeks peace among conflicting races. The final volume emphasizes cooperation and education, as Gosseyn navigates a universe that requires not only survival but also the introduction of love and marriage into his life. The trilogy combines thrilling adventure with philosophical inquiry, making it a unique exploration of human potential and consciousness.
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The Null-A Trilogy
First published:The World of A (1948; serial form, Astounding Science-Fiction, August-October, 1945; revised as The World of Null-A, 1969), The Pawns of Null-A (1948; serial form as “The Players of A,” Astounding Science-Fiction, October, 1948-January, 1949; also titled The Players of Null-A), and Null-A Three (1984, in French; English translation, 1985)
Type of work: Novels
Type of plot: Science fiction—superbeing
Time of work: 2560 and beyond
Locale: Earth, Venus, the Galactic League, and three galaxies
The Plot
The Null-A trilogy has a complicated publication history involving various revisions and title changes; title differences primarily concern use of “Null-A” as opposed to the symbolic form “A.” The final volume was published first in French, then translated into English.
The World of A begins with Gilbert Gosseyn waking in the City of the Machine, where month-long General Semantics games are about to take place. Winners will be awarded free trips to Venus. Gosseyn has had erroneous ideas hypnotically implanted in his brain; they lead him in a quest to find out who he really is. Even the Machine cannot tell Gosseyn who he is and why non-General Semantics people want to kill him.
Gosseyn has extra material attached to his brain and receives clues throughout the story that there is a sort of chess master controlling and moving him around, like a pawn on a chessboard. The chess master can move Gosseyn back and forth through interstellar space in seconds. This is done for the first time when Gosseyn is killed on Earth but awakens on Venus as Gosseyn Two, with the memory and abilities of Gosseyn One. During his searching and misadventures, Gosseyn learns that his extra brain material marks him as representing the next stage in the evolution of Homo sapiens in the Milky Way galaxy.
Venus is populated only by Null-A’s, those originally from Earth who have been trained in the sane and democratic principles of General Semantics. Eldred Crang, a Venusian detective who moves back and forth between Earth and Venus, plays an unknown part in the mystery of Gilbert Gosseyn. The murderous Enro the Red is delayed in his plans to destroy Venus and Earth, which would crush the Galactic League into submission.
Gosseyn believes that he finds the chess master at the end of the story. He believes the chess master to be Lavoisseurs, director of the General Semantics Institute. It is Lavoisseurs who has constructed several Gosseyn bodies and placed them in controlled incubation in various hidden locations on Earth and Venus. Lavoisseurs cannot finish telling his story before he dies, but a further clue in Gosseyn’s mystery is revealed: When shaved, Lavoisseurs had the face of Gosseyn. At this story’s end, Gosseyn does not have the answers to all of his questions.
In The Pawns of Null-A, the Follower, who materializes and dematerializes as a transparent and shadowy figure, plots the death of Gosseyn Two. Gosseyn must continue searching for his identity and how and why he apparently is immortal. Enro the Red continues his war against the Galactic League but delays in destroying Venus and Earth until he finds out where his sister, Reesha, is. Enro has heard of Gosseyn and his unique powers; he delays his destruction of Earth and Venus in part to spare Gosseyn.
The Follower is a Predictor from a heretofore unknown planet who has aided Enro the Red in forcing other Predictors to aid in the galactic war. Gosseyn’s body is imprisoned by the Follower, but Gosseyn’s mind is placed in the body of Prince Ashargin on the planet Gorgzid. Prince Ashargin is a slave to Enro the Red, and Gorgzid is Enro’s headquarters location. Gosseyn gives Prince Ashargin training in General Semantics. Through additional experiences Gosseyn comes to believe that he is being controlled by two forces, or chess players, and he must discover who they are in order to discover his true identity and what galactic role he seems destined to play.
Enro is advised by the high priest Secoh, who is overlord of the temple near Enro’s headquarters. The temple houses the crypt of the Sleeping God. Enro’s warships are stopped in their efforts to gain him galactic control. The priest Secoh challenges Enro’s authority; Secoh had originated the idea for galactic conquest. Secoh is ruined, however, when the Sleeping God rises from his crypt for a few minutes—with the aid of Gosseyn—and denounces Secoh as the evil Follower and a traitor.
At the end of this story, Gosseyn finds the answer to who he is and why he has so many duplicate bodies. The Sleeping God’s crypt is a spaceship that landed on the planet Gorgzid, and Gosseyn’s extra brain material is a direct survivor of beings from another galaxy who were sent out millions of years ago in such spaceships. Lavoisseurs, the director of the Institute for General Semantics who died at the end of The World of A, had been to the crypt of the Sleeping God and found that the body in the coffin could not be brought to life for any length of time. Thus, Gosseyn’s body would contain the only living extra-brain in the galaxy. Lavoisseurs had made and incubated the various bodies of Gilbert Gosseyn in hopes that one of the bodies, with the extra-brain, would make it to the crypt and be fully developed by the machine in the Sleeping God’s spaceship. The story ends abruptly. Null-A Three brings together characters from the two previous novels. They try to reason for peace among all planets and known galaxies. In this story, Gosseyn Two and Gosseyn Three are alive simultaneously and advise each other telepathically because they are separated by millions of light-years. Gosseyn Three continues to develop his extra-brain as he maneuvers diplomatically with the Dzans and a mutant human race known as the Troogs. Meanwhile, all is not entirely well in the Western Hemisphere of Earth (readers do not know what is happening on the rest of the planet), where the General Semantics Institute and the Games Machine need to be rebuilt by Dan Lyttle, a hotel night clerk who played a minor role in the previous two novels.
There are no galactic battles being waged as in the previous two stories; instead, Null-A Three describes the education of Dzans, Troogs, and some Earth humans in the philosophy of General Semantics. All enemies are brought to a state of peace, and Gosseyn Three is the first Gosseyn to add love and marriage to Gosseyn’s life.