'The Book of Ptath' – A.E. van Vogt (Panther Books)


So my ex-wife, and my daughters, were on holiday in Plymouth and I get a call from her. “Graeme, we're in a great second hand bookshop, on the Barbican, and I've found a book with the most ridiculous cover I've ever seen, I bought it for you.” She knows me :o) I love me some old school SFF cover art and now I'm not so embarrassed about reading these books on the bus, the cornier the cover art the better as far as I'm concerned. You've seen it, I'll let you make your own minds up. Me though, I was up for the read and it wasn't just the cover art either. There is a lot of early SFF that I've still to read and I'd never read anything by A.E. van Vogt, until now that is. And it was only a hundred and fifty seven pages long, I could polish that off over a couple of days on the bus to and from work. Couldn't I...? Well, that's what I thought...

200,000,000 years A.D.

The old continents of Earth have long since disappeared. The population is now ruled by temple princes and princesses, who in turn are dominated by more-than-human beings with the power of gods. Vast armies stand ready to deal with any rebellion.

Into this explosive situation comes Ptath, the greatest god of them all, believed lost for aeons. The goddess Ineznia, his greatest rival, has had him reincarnated in merely mortal form. So will Ptath, with only the limited strengths of a mere man, win his furious contest with Ineznia? Or is he secretly still the most powerful force in all the worlds of time?

Mighty armies, temple princesses and a man with three horns on his head. And that cover... It all sounded like the kind of 'light entertainment' that I've been after just recently. And it was, for a few pages here and there (although no mention of Ptath's horned head, at least not that I saw...) What 'The Book of Ptath' actually is though is a bit of a meditation on godhood, where it comes from and how it is maintained as well as it what it all does to the being holding that power. And that leads the reader onto a little discussion on the nature of organised religion because of course it would, you can't have one without the other.

Does it work? That's the important question and the answer is well, kind of... van Vogt isn't really saying anything new but he is saying it against the backdrop of a far future Earth where warriors ride into battle on giant war birds, and the gods can swap bodies at will, so that's a point in the book's favour. I just felt like the book needed a little more of that to offset the commentary, at least from where I was sat at the time. Ptath spends enough time trying to find his place in the world, lets see some more of it. That's what bogged me down, Ptath's self examination as well as the fact that he' a very passive character for a 'mighty god', a lot seems to happen to him and it takes ages for him to start affecting change himself. Fair play to van Vogt though; no matter how 'bogged down' things felt, the 'amnesiac god' concept was presented in such a way that I wanted to keep reading, especially with Ineznia constantly one step ahead of the game.

Not a bad read then but not one that I'll be returning to any time soon. At least I can finally add Van Vogt to the list of authors that I've read and 'The Book of Ptath' wasn't a bad place to begin.

Comments

  1. Anonymous29 April 2022 at 08:09

    Thanks for that. I've got the very same covered edition but haven't gotten round to reading it myself. Maybe that cover 'worried' me a little 😄

    Nis (@zen_of_comics)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Graeme29 April 2022 at 12:04

      I think that cover would worry most people, left me feeling rather inadequate... ;o) It's pretty dry reading but not too bad.

      Delete

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