The Silkie (novel)

The Silkie is a fix-up science fiction novel by Canadian-American writer A. E. van Vogt, first published in complete form in 1969.

[citation needed] Taking its inspiration from the Celtic legend of the Selkie, the novel describes a race of apparent humans with the ability to change into other forms.

[citation needed] As with other Van Vogt works, the novel introduces a psychological element similar to general semantics.

By manipulating these complexes with their powers the Silkies can defeat adversaries, who find themselves caught in self-amplifying feedback from their own instincts and desires.

The prologue was created specifically for the book; each of the remaining sections consists of a story previously published as part of a series.

[citation needed] A young woman, eking out an existence with her father on a boat moored somewhere in Haiti, learns of a medical man with a possible secret of eternal youth.

Suspecting a swindle, but keen to get close to any source of money, she joins the various elderly expatriates in a trek to Echo Island, where the supposed genius, Dr. Sawyer, is living.

"[citation needed] Nat Cemp, a Silkie travelling through space under his own power, is hailed by a ship full of Variants.

Since Silkies have to return to water to breed every 9.5 years, and are not allowed to meet their children afterwards, the boy's claim is credible.

[citation needed] Cemp returns to Earth clandestinely in order to see his wife Joanne, but finds that the alien has taken on her form and is waiting in his house.

Apparently the story of Dr. Sawyer was a fraud, intended to allow Silkies to live on Earth after the asteroid first approached the Sun.

Cemp, however, finds the Logic of Levels key to the Glis's true nature and trips a feedback which forces it out of its state of retarded development, into the next phase.

[citation needed] Cemp eventually confronts a powerful alien called a Nijjan, which seems to be able to manipulate time and space itself.

Using one of the Glis's weapons, he survives the encounter, but Nijjans begin kidnapping Silkies and Special People from Earth.