The Silkie (novel)

The Silkie, a fix-up science fiction novel by A. E. van Vogt, a Canadian-American writer, came out in its complete form in 1969. The stories that make it up had earlier appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine.

Plot introduction

Drawing from the Celtic selkie legend, the book follows a group of beings who look human but can transform into different shapes. One can live underwater, like the mythical selkie; another can survive and travel through outer space without protection. In all their forms, these Silkies have some mental control over energy.

A prologue explains the Silkies’ origin as a genetic experiment. The story then jumps over a hundred years to a future where Silkies are common on Earth. Humans have integrated them through the Special People, who can form telepathic links with Silkies. All Silkies are male, and most are married to women from the Special People.

They work as space police, a role most accept. One dedicated Silkie, Nat Cemp, meets three different alien species. Each encounter gives him more powers and reveals more about the true nature of Silkies and the universe.

Like other van Vogt works, the novel includes a psychological element similar to general semantics, here called the "Logic of Levels." Instead of the symbol-versus-reality split of general semantics, this logic treats behaviors and instincts as complex neurological structures and feedback loops, with higher levels built on simpler ones. By using their powers to manipulate these complexes, Silkies can defeat enemies, who get trapped in self-amplifying feedback from their own desires and instincts.

Plot summary

The novel has four sections. The prologue was written for the book; the other three were each previously published as part of a series.

Prologue to the Silkie

In the prologue, a young woman living on a boat with her father near Haiti hears about a doctor who may know the secret of eternal youth. Suspecting a scam but wanting to get close to money, she joins elderly expatriates traveling to Echo Island to meet Dr. Sawyer.

Instead, she finds a young man who swims up from underwater, changing from a fish-like form to human as he emerges. He says he is the result of Sawyer’s work and that he and Sawyer need women to bear his children. He ends by saying, "I'm a Silkie.