The Weapon Shops of Isher

The Weapon Shops of Isher is a 1951 novel by A. E. Van Vogt cobbled together out of stories which originally appeared in Astounding Science-Fiction Magazine, which makes it a Fixup.

Related Topics:
A. E. Van Vogt - Astounding Science-Fiction - Fixup

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The Weapon Shops of Isher and its sequel, The Weapon Makers, detail the adventures of Robert Hedrock, The One Immortal man and his nemesis/wife, the Empress Innelda Isher. The only check on her was the power of the weapon shops which provided weapons to the populace. Isher had ordered an invisibility shield which would allow her to overturn the power of the weapon shops.

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The most interesting thing about the first of the two stories, The Weapon Shops of Isher , is that it is one of the very few examples of Golden Age science fiction that explicitly discusses and addresses the right to keep and bear arms, specifically guns. (Indeed the motto of the Weapon Shops, repeated several times, is "The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.") The story is thus relatively interesting and important when considered in relation to other libertarian-oriented SF, even beyond its literary merits.

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