A. E. Van Vogt was one of the giants of the Golden Age of science fiction, when he, with his contemporaries Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, completely transformed the genre, leading it to a new level of maturity. His landmark novels
Slan and
The World of Null-A were two of the most influential SF novels of the 20th century, and were also two of the first SF novels to appear in hardcover from a major publisher. His ability to write complex wheels-within-wheels plots was often imitated, by writers as different as Philip K. Dick and Keith Laumer, but has never been equaled.
In 1996 Van Vogt received the Grand Master Nebula Award for a lifetime body of work from the Science Fiction Writers of America. He also was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame and received a special award from the World Science Fiction Convention. Booklist has noted that "Van Vogt created genuinely different aliens, endowed with extraordinary physical and mental powers as well as appetites, and the genre . . . has thrived on them since."