The Weapon Shops of Isher

Back in 1951 a strange building appears in a city street. It's a weapons shop. Two men approach, for one the door won't open, for the other it will. He enters and soon after the shop and the man disappears.

This is a story of time swinging between events that are forced increasingly apart. The reason for the swing has something to do with the disappeared man. But the narrative centers on a far future empire rife with corruption, and in which the weapon shops are the focus of resistance.

We follow the life of a young man who leaves home and hopes to become significant in the government. He doesn't realise how deep the corruption runs but as he becomes more aware he uses it to his advantage. And still the weird time swings keep happening.

van Vogt works through the question, "What would happen if a time traveler met himself in the past?" It's an interesting solution he finds, and one in which the young man gains extraordinary power and influence. In one conversation we get the sentence, "He was here with his twin brother."

The political forces battle it out until both sides are forced to admit the damage being done to the disappeared man and that the time swings need to be stopped. The book ends by giving us a look into his mind, and the final sentence, in just a few words, breaks my mind as van Vogt drops his most powerful bomb into the story.