A.E. Van Vogt and Kevin J. Anderson, Slan Hunter

Slan Hunter

A.E. Van Vogt and Kevin J. Anderson

Tor, July 2007, $24.95

ISBN: 0765316757

Davis and Anthea Stewart go to the hospital to have their first child, but instead of joy, they are shocked to learn that the offspring has the tendrils of a slan. Neither of the parents were considered Slans before the birthing; slans are killed on sight by the secret police, as humans hate this telepathic, stronger and fast healing race. As Anthea seeks a safe place to hide, President Kier Grey is arrested because the chief of the secret police has found out that he is a hidden in plain sight slan. Also incarcerated are his daughter Katherine and slan rebel Jommy Cross.

The president tries to convince his human jailers that the earth is in danger from Mars, because that is where the tendrilless slans have built a superior civilization, so that they can use it as a springboard to conquer the planet. The tendril-less driven spaceships encounter little resistance as they invade. The president, his daughter and Jommy escape, and try to negotiate a peace with the Slans of Mars, but fail, as one of the leaders wants to rule earth, but needs to ethnically cleanse the earth of the normals and the slans.

Kevin Anderson, using the late A.E. Van Vogt's notes for a sequel to the classic SLAN, completes the project with an exciting science fiction thriller that reads as if the grandmaster wrote the tale. The story line is fast-paced, with the strong social message updated from Holocaust genocide to ethnic cleansing genocide. Feeling like a Golden Age thriller, fans will enjoy the return to the world of Van Vogt, as Mr. Anderson finishes SLAN HUNTER; an exciting action-packed war of the worlds with a social commentary thriller.