View source for Slan

{{Short description|1940 novel by A. E. van Vogt}}
{{For-multi|the manga character|List of Berserk characters#Slan|the Irish phrase|Slán Abhaile}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book 
| name          = Slan
| title_orig    = 
| translator    = 
| image         = Image:Slan.jpg
| caption = First edition
| author        = [[A. E. van Vogt]]
| illustrator   = 
| cover_artist  = Robert E. Hubbell
| country       = Canada
| language      = English
| series        = 
| genre         = [[Science fiction]]
| publisher     = [[Arkham House]]
| release_date  = 1946
| english_release_date =
| media_type    = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]])
| pages         = 216
| preceded_by   = 
| followed_by   = 
}}

'''''Slan''''' is a [[science fiction]] [[novel]]   by American-Canadian writer [[A. E. van Vogt]], as well as the name of the fictional race of superbeings featured in the novel. The novel was originally serialized in the magazine ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]'' (September–December 1940).  It was subsequently published in hardcover in 1946 by [[Arkham House]], in an edition of 4,051 copies.  In 2016, ''Slan'' was awarded the [[Hugo Award#Retro Hugos|Retro-Hugo Award]] for [[Hugo Award for Best Novel|Best Novel]] for 1941.<ref name=hugo>[http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1941-retro-hugo-awards/ "1941 Retro-Hugo Awards"] at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved October 2, 2016.</ref>

== Plot ==
Slans are evolved humans, named after their alleged creator, Samuel Lann. They have the [[psychic]] abilities to read minds and are super-intelligent. They possess near limitless stamina, "nerves of steel," and superior strength and speed. When Slans are ill or seriously injured, they retreat into a healing trance. However, the human dictator Kier Gray leads a campaign to exterminate the Slans.

There are two kinds of Slans. One type has [[tendril]]s on their heads and can read the minds of ordinary humans and telepathically communicate with other Slans. The tendrils are golden-colored, making it easy to spot them. These Slans are hunted to near extinction. The other type is tendrilless, equally as intelligent as the tendrilled kind but without psychic abilities, except the ability to hide their thoughts from the first type of Slan.

As the novel begins, nine-year-old Jommy Cross (a telepathic Slan of the first type) travels with his mother to the capital, Centropolis. They are discovered and Jommy's mother is killed, while Jommy flees. Jommy Cross is not only the heir to the brilliant inventions of his father, but he represents the last hope of the Slan race to save it from [[genocide]]. In fulfilling his mission, he seeks to destroy Kier Gray, and, in their final confrontation, discovers an astonishing secret.

==Reception==
[[Groff Conklin]], reviewing a 1951 edition, described ''Slan'' as "a little overblown, considerably melodramatic, but still [a] really gripping adventure story."<ref>"Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf", ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', April 1952, p.120</ref> [[P. Schuyler Miller]] called ''Slan'' "van Vogt's first and most famous novel, perhaps his best."<ref>"The Reference Library", ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]'', July 1952, pp.159</ref> In a back-cover blurb in the 1998 Orb edition, [[Charles de Lint]] says this: "Over fifty years on from when it first saw print, van Vogt's ''Slan'' is still one of the quintessential classics in the field that other SF novels will inevitably be measured against."

R. D. Mullen reported ''Slan'' to be "perhaps the most widely read, and perhaps the best of [van Vogt's] novels." He described the situation of the Slan minority in the imagined society as "obviously intended" as analogous to "the position of the Jews in the Third Reich", though in the novel "there actually is a secret world-wide conspiracy, and the Slans actually do control the world in much the same way as is imagined about the Jews by students of [[Protocols of the Elders of Zion|The Protocols of Zion]]."<ref>[http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/birs/bir7.htm#VanVogt "Reviews: November 1975"], ''[[Science Fiction Studies]]'', November 1975</ref>

== "Fans are slans" ==
In American [[science fiction fandom]], the slogan "Fans are slans"<ref>[[Francis Towner Laney|Laney, F. Towner]] (1950). "Fanzine Scope," ''Spacewarp'' 36, March 1950. online reprint: [http://www.fanac.org/fanzines/Spacewarp/Spacewarp36-10.html "Fanzine Scope"]</ref><ref>Eney, Richard (1959). ''Fancyclopedia 2'', 1959, 1979, p. 63, The Mirage Press.
online reprint: [http://fancyclopedia.editme.com/FANSARES "Fans are Slans"]</ref> quickly developed, making the analogy between science fiction fans, perceived as harassed because of their greater intelligence and imaginative capacity, and the slans in the novel, who are persecuted for their superior mental abilities. Although some regard the usage as a sign of fandom's elitism, along with the related term "[[mundane]]" for non-fans, others regard it as a natural reaction to the disapproval of science fiction fans by the broader culture. The related term "slan shack" came to be used in [[fanspeak]] for a home occupied primarily by fans. The first Slan Shack to bear that name was established in 1943 in [[Battle Creek, Michigan]] by [[Al Ashley|Al and Abby Lou Ashley]], [[Walt Liebscher]], [[E. Everett Evans]] and fan artist Jack Wiedenbeck.<ref>[http://jophan.org/mimosa/m22/coger.htm Coger, Dal. "The Legendary Slan Shack"], ''[[Mimosa (magazine)|Mimosa]]'' #22, pp. 28-30</ref> Others have included the Bozo Bus Building in [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]] and Lytheria in [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]].<ref>[https://www.milwaukeemag.com/2016/03/16/fun-house-lytheria/ Brooke, Zach. "Fun House" ''Milwaukee Magazine'' March 2016]</ref>

== ''Toward the Terra'' ==
The manga and anime series ''[[Toward the Terra]]'' is influenced by ''Slan''.  Both stories feature a hero named Jommy/Jomy, who discovers that he is a member of a race of telepathic mutants, who are persecuted by [[artificial general intelligence]] and non-telepathic humans<ref>[http://www.anime.com/Terra_He/ Cirulnick, Brian. "To Terra/Toward the Terra/Terra He" anime.com September 2008] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091217063751/http://www.anime.com/Terra_He/ |date=2009-12-17 }}</ref> brainwashed by them.

== 2007 sequel ==
American science fiction author [[Kevin J. Anderson]] completed the sequel to ''Slan'', titled ''Slan Hunter'', that includes content from an unfinished draft by van Vogt. It was published July 10, 2007, and credited to both Van Vogt and Anderson. Van Vogt's widow Lydia van Vogt previously gave permission to publish her introduction online, which partly deals with the onset of [[Alzheimer's disease]] that van Vogt struggled with at the end of his life.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== General and cited sources ==
* {{Cite book |last=Chalker |first=Jack L. |author-link=Jack L. Chalker |author2=Mark Owings |year=1998 |title=The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923–1998 |location=Westminster, Maryland and Baltimore |publisher=Mirage Press |pages=29–30}}
* {{Cite book |last=Jaffery |first=Sheldon |author-link=Sheldon Jaffery |year=1989 |title=The Arkham House Companion |location=Mercer Island, Washington |publisher=Starmont House |pages=20–22 |isbn=1-55742-005-X}}
* {{Cite book |last=Joshi |first=S. T. |year=1999 |title=Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography |location=Sauk City, Wisconsin |publisher=Arkham House |pages=37–38 |isbn=0-87054-176-5}}
* {{Cite book |last=Nielsen |first=Leon |year=2004 |title=Arkham House Books: A Collector's Guide |location=Jefferson, North Carolina and London |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=0-7864-1785-4 |page=60}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|slan|slanhood}}
* {{ISFDB title|1192}}

{{A. E. van Vogt}}
{{Hugo Award Best Novel}}

[[Category:1940 debut novels]]
[[Category:1940 American novels]]
[[Category:1940 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:Novels by A. E. van Vogt]]
[[Category:Novels first published in serial form]]
[[Category:Superhero novels]]
[[Category:Works originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact]]