The anarchistic colossus (original 1977; edition 1979)

by A. E. Van Vogt

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233	3	115,213	(2.64)	4
Sur Terre, l'anarchie est devenue manie re de vivre. Une anarchie tre s spe ciale cependant, re gie par de myste rieux ordinateurs Kirlian. Et cette Terre affronte une race d'extra-terrestres, pour qui la conque te de notre plane te fait partie d'un jeu passionnant, radicalement destructeur. Le grand joueur Slua-Ig est satisfait. Ses vaisseaux foncent vers la Terre, la partie est presque acheve e... et gagne e ! Mais voici que la tactique extra-terrestre, d'une logique plus-que-parfaite, se heurte a un obstacle impre visible : la colossale et anarchique complexite du cerveau humain. Les re gles du jeu voelent en e clats !… (more)

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Member:	marcusstafford
Title:	The anarchistic colossus
Authors:	A. E. Van Vogt
Info:	London : Pan Books, 1979.
Collections:	Your library
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The Anarchistic Colossus by A. E. van Vogt (1977)

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Great title, but what a bizarre, running on fumes piece of drek. Crude, coloring book Asimov prose and earnest, mind numbing discussions of fifth rate cold war philosophical ideas, not worth a second consideration, except to confirm you've wasted valuable time reading this thing. More than usual (for him) -SciFi dork "probs with women" stuff.
Van Vogt often brings the wildest imagination to his best work, but it is entirely absent from this block of freezer burned cheese. If you are not a complete-ist, avoid at all costs.
No fun poop.
Read "The Battle of Forever" for late career fun. (

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arthurfrayn | Sep 19, 2023 |

Full of interesting ideas which are never really fully explained and ultimately rely on the usual hand-wavy "impossible alien tech" explanation for them to work and what is presented as this ideal anarchistic society is in fact a tyranny of said computer system. The plot could be contained in a paragraph without missing anything. Most of the book is showing off this future society. A fun thought experiment. (

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Paul_S | Dec 23, 2020 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
A. E. van Vogt	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Forbes, Bart	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Science Fiction Book Club

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Science Fiction Special 32 by Octavia E. Butler

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1977

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It is not easy for some one or some thing in a distant (multi-light-years away) part of the universe to watch a single episode of human existence on earth.

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Sur Terre, l'anarchie est devenue manie re de vivre. Une anarchie tre s spe ciale cependant, re gie par de myste rieux ordinateurs Kirlian. Et cette Terre affronte une race d'extra-terrestres, pour qui la conque te de notre plane te fait partie d'un jeu passionnant, radicalement destructeur. Le grand joueur Slua-Ig est satisfait. Ses vaisseaux foncent vers la Terre, la partie est presque acheve e... et gagne e ! Mais voici que la tactique extra-terrestre, d'une logique plus-que-parfaite, se heurte a un obstacle impre visible : la colossale et anarchique complexite du cerveau humain. Les re gles du jeu voelent en e clats !

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