SOJALS rating:

Mediocre (2/5)

I first read this in 1975 and most recently on the 2nd October 2005

In "The Empire Of The Atom", Vogt introduced us to the world 10,000 years from now. It's world where bows and arrows and space technology live side by side.

Once mankind had a star-spanning civilisation. But then the alien Riss came and their were desperate battles against them. Finally in resisting the Riss, mankind's great civilisation collapsed.

Now mankind relies on left-over, handed-down technology to allow the construction of space craft. The engineers are completely ignorant of the vast body of knowledge that underlies the apparently simple processes.

Now the Riss have come back and a profoundly weakened hnman race must face them.

Lord Clane Linn must battle them to save all the planets on which humankind survive. However he must also tame the ferocious warlord Czinczar, and concurrently defeat the murderous plots of the Lord Advisor and his hidden supporters.

Really rather good for its time. Another reviewer mentioned that it was reminiscent of Asimov a. And indeed it is. It's a product of the same era. I read it as a young adult and it didn't have quite the impact of "The Weapon Shops Of Isher", but it was still rather good. However, I've always found his writing very odd and have failed (not that I've much tried) to quite work out why that is. Oh, and it is, being from the '50s, somewhat sexist.

I enjoyed it, and loved once again to read his sharp observances of human behaviour.