The Weapon Shop of Isher by A. E. van Vogt

[Molly429]

(Excerpted from 'You're Entitled to my Opinion': A Treasury of Great Science Fiction. Featuring the 1943 vintage American short story:
The Weapon Shops of Isher.)

A group of dissidents operate transient weapons shops that move from town to town and village to village to sell specialized self-defense weapons to help repress the tyranny of an imperial government. A young man defies his father who find the weapons shops offensive and strikes out on his own with the help of a young woman associated with the weapon shops.

This story was superb and embodied everything that is good about Golden Age science fiction. The characters are strong and the story plot driven. The pro-2nd Amendment advocacy is not even thinly veiled, but allows the reader to identify with characters confronting the same issues 5,000 years in the future that we confront today.

A website I found describes van Vogt as the third pillar of Golden Age sci-fi along with Bradbury and Asimov. It also claims that this novella was actually a series of short stories published separately.

Book review posted by Brian Schwartz, November 6th 2010

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For further detailed information on this unfortunately obscurely known and recognized - very timely - novella, please consider the missives at:

http://www.troynovant.com/Franson/Va...apon-Shop.html

and

http://open.salon.com/blog/nancy_yos...by_ae_van_vogt

May God's children bless & keep the Constitution of the United
States

[Al Norris]

Totally off topic.

Closed.