In the year 2023, a revolution is building against the alien overlords of Earth known as the Utt. Forty years prior, after their swift and peaceful subjugation of every world government, it had been the Utt’s conclusion that most of planet’s tribulations had been the fault of men. Thus, the Utt enacted laws that made women the dominant sex. All men are required to undergo a procedure that leaves them nearsighted and are forced to wear chemically treated glasses that somehow leaves them emasculated.

However, when Peter Grayson, a physicist for a chemical company, finds both lenses of his rose-tinted glasses cracked, he uses a special transparent tape to repair them—and quickly discovers that his simple repair nullifies the submissive power of the glasses and liberates him from the oppression of his domineering wife.

Shortly after, Grayson finds himself embroiled in the male revolution against the Utt, a situation which he attempts to manipulate for his own personal gain…

I found Renaissance to be the weakest of all Van Vogt books I’ve read so far. Published in 1979, the quality was nowhere near his earlier work. The concept is preposterous and served as little more than an opportunity for a plot laden with blatant and cringeworthy male wish fulfillment. Worse, the prose was clunky and riddled with awkward sentence structure, inelegant wording (ex: “From that very first moment, being scientifically trained, Grayson did his trying-to-understand-with-his-knowledge.”), and scenes that served little to no purpose. Some plot elements that held the promise of an ultimate climax never paid off in the end.

If you want to explore the best works of Van Vogt, avoid Renaissance and read his earlier work such as Slan, The World of Null-A, Voyage of the Space Beagle, The Twisted Men, The Weapon Shops of Isher, and The Weapon Makers, to name a few. ( )

Although this story is set in the future at a time when women are the dominant sex, it turns into a male wish fulfilment fantasy by the end. It was okay, but it was only 159 pages long, and if it was much longer I probably wouldn't have bothered finishing it. ( )

Renaissance, published 1979, is almost totally absurd from beginning to end, and rather inconsistent, but even its absurdities can be thought provoking. It is set in a fairly near future (2023), about forty years after human civilisation has been changed by contact from an alien race, the Utt. The Utt examined the state of humanity, decided that all problems were the fault of the male part, and introduced rules to correct this. It is not clear what problems the Utt intended to solve, but it becomes clear that their solution comes at considerable cost.

Under Utt rules, men are not allowed to own property or drive vehicles. Most important, all men at puberty are given a drug which renders them permanently very short sighted, and the only way to correct this is by wearing special glasses designed by the Utt. As well as correcting for the short sightedness, these glasses filter out those parts of the spectrum which make women attractive. (Just believe it, OK?) Women are not allowed any scientific education — later in the book, we find out why. (It seems there were no problems in the transitional period while there were still educated women. Perhaps Van Vogt is indicating his opinion of the state of women's education at the time of writing?) Marriage is permanent: there is no divorce and the partners must live together.

Apparently there has been little scientific or technical progress in the decades since the Utt takeover. This may just be due to the lack of imagination so common in science fiction, but it can more charitably be explained as the result of alien dominance and the rules imposed by the Utt. Nevertheless, whenever the plot requires our protagonist, the physicist Dr Grayson, to use some nifty gadget, he can obtain, make or invent what he needs.

The story opens with Grayson working in his office. He hears two sharp pings and his vision blurs: his lenses have both split horizontally across the middle. He uses some high quality transparent sticky tape, made by the company he works for, to mend the lenses so that he can see clearly again. At this point the owner of the company, Miss Haskett, comes into his office and he realises that he can see more clearly than before: not only is she attractive, she is obviously lonely and in need of affection. She immediately realises that he is no longer the typical post-Utt male, and in the ensuing conversation, she volunteers the information that she lives alone in her own apartment. A little later, her secretary gives him an address.

Feeling too confused to do any more work, he goes home, and he is surprised to find that his wife is not there. When she comes back, she also recognises that he is not his usual subdued self and she is both terrified and sexually aroused. Their marriage is typical of post-Utt marriage: from shortly after the wedding, the wife rejects almost all sexual activity and treats her husband with contempt. With thirty years of this behind him, Grayson rudely rebuffs his wife's advances. After dinner, he goes out and makes his way to the address Miss Haskett's secretary gave him. Miss Haskett invites him in, and it is not long before they are in her bed.

The next day a man claiming to represent a resistance movement contacts him and gives him a phone number. Grayson doesn't like his threatening attitude, so he constructs two devices: one traces a call to the number so well that he knows the address, and the other sends a signal along the line to give the person at the other end false memories, which Grayson can exploit when he visits the address.

All that is just the beginning of the book, there is plenty more to come. He fascinates more women, he is imprisoned by the Utt and escapes, he finds out what women do while their husbands are at work, he organises his own resistance movement, and generally overcomes all obstacles and improves the lot of downtrodden male humanity.

Utterly absurd, but fun.

(My thanks to the kind people at Reviews reviewed for helpful suggestions.)

One of the best worst novels I have ever read. How could he have possibly have dreamt up this ludicrous,insane concoction and how did it get published? Thank Divine Providence it did.
Too wonderful for words. And the cover with the guy with the glasses running in what looks like a pose from a gothic romance cover, is so unbelievably perfect.
As with The Secret Galactics, I don't see how one can be prepared for how insanely bad/wonderful these books are.
VanVogt wrote some great stuff, and he wrote a lot of very bad stuff, but these two books are unique in the catalogue.They are worthy of religious worship.
Plan 9 From Outer Space quality material. ( )

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