Original Publication: Simon & Schuster, September 1959

A Rull, you see, can change its outward appearance at will, so that even your closest friend of most trusted colleague may suddenly turn out to be a spy in disguise.' But you almost never see a Rull as he really is. In their true form they resemble some soft of dark, large worm with a variety of appendages. Who and what are the Rulls? They are a race so alien and paranoid that they must have originated in another galaxy. 'Is that a Rull sitting next to you? Now man has conquered all of space and seemingly he is at peace with everyone in it. This Edition: Simon & Schuster/Science Fiction Book Club, April 1958 Original Publication: Simon & Schuster, 1957 Van Vogt again demonstrates his surperb gift for combining suspense, imagination, and psychological insight to form an exciting story of tomorrow with striking parallels to our time.' He looked at himself in a mirror and slowly understood the horror of his predicament: his mind and nervous system were encased in Trask's body, and he was doomed - unless he found Trask and, with him, became an enemy of the government. Then he saw that his hands were different, paler, thinner. When Marin regained consciousness and tried to rise from the floor, he saw that his clothing had been changed. Marin tried to placate him, but suddenly Trask seized a gas gun, aimed it at his visitor and blasted him. He found Trask desperate and nearly hysterical, not because he feared death but because he feared that his work would never be completed. Having spoken in Trask's behald, Marin further endangered himself by visiting the scientist to counsel and encourage him. For he had dared openly to criticize the government, a violation of law for which the penalty was death. But recentlyhis extraordinary experimetn had attracted less interest than his public statements. It was said that in his latest experiment he was attempting to transplant the nervous system of one animal into the body of another.

His associates were shocked when he risked his reputation and career by making a plea for Wade Trask, a man condemned to be executed for sedition. 'David Marin was a great military leader who occupied a high place in government. 'Imagine an empire of the far future, dictatorial, proud, all-conquering, whose citizens could defy it at will by merely entering a store and buying a gun! The guns would be super-weapons that the Empire couldn't duplicate or defeat - and the stories would be impregnable fortresses open to everyone except soldiers and policeman! That's the situation of The Weapon Shops of Isher, brilliant, paradoxical, and intensely exciting.' He had been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease for more than a decade. He died Janufrom complications of pneumonia. The Science Fiction Writers of American named van Vogt their fourteenth Grand Master in 1995 and he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. His work has drawn mixed reviews, creating die-hard fans and harsh critics, but most will agree that he was one of the most popular and complex writers to emerge during the Golden Age of science fiction. Instead he issued collections of his works including The Mixed Men and The Wizard of Linn. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics in 1950 and van Vogt ceased writing for nearly a decade. Both he and his wife become involved with L. He published at least thirty-five stories in Astounding between 19. He published his first science fiction story, Black Destroyer in Astounding Science Fiction in 1939. He began his writing career with short fiction for magazines like True Story, but soon tired of the genre and wanted to write something he would enjoy. Alfred Elton van Vogt was born Apin Manitoba, Canada.

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