Wikipedia has a handy (though spoiler-filled) summary of all three tales. In “Asylum” we followed the adventures of an (apparently) average-Joe kind of space pilot, Steve Hanardy, who gets inadvertently tangled up in the battle between a galactic observers who are trying to protect mankind and the solar system from deadly, and superiorly-intelligent, vampire-like aliens, the Dreeghs, from overrunning the solar system and destroying mankind. Prospero’s Isle currently has my favorite one-sentence review of the retro-Hugo nominee “Asylum”: “ The Proxy Intelligence” ( World of If, October 1968) “Research Alpha” ( World of If, July 1965) - Nebula nominee “Asylum” ( Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1942) - 2018 Retro Hugo Nominee, Best Novella Tops on that list at the moment is Supermind, a 1977 fix-up novel composed of three acclaimed novellas originally published between 1942-68, all dealing with humanity’s struggle against a sinister race of alien vampires: That doesn’t mean that there aren’t still Van Vogt titles that interest me, and stubbornly refuse to leave my TBR pile. I tried to reread Slan a few years ago, a book that mesmerized me when I first encountered it in 1977, and I found that to my adult eyes it read very much like a middle grade chapter book. There aren’t a lot of Van Vogt books I would recommend to a curious modern reader. Of the writers I still read read today, his voice most vividly reminds me of the pulp era of science fiction, with all its strengths and weaknesses - including, unfortunately, a simple and unadorned writing style that’s largely unappealing to modern readers. Van Vogt first emerged in the pulps, and he mastered the art of writing for a pulp audience. Dick, just as a few examples - there isn’t a highly visible group of fans fighting to keep his memory alive, or bring his most popular work to the attention of Hollywood.
And unlike a lot of popular authors of the era - Heinlein, Asimov, Philip K.
His books Slan, The Voyage of the Space Beagle, and The World of Null-A were required reading for any serious science fiction fan, and half a dozen publishers - including DAW, Ace, Berkley and Pocket Books - were competing to keep his large and lucrative back catalog in print. van Vogt was one of the most prolific and respected SF authors on the shelves.
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