Empire of the Atom

From the flaps of the SFBC edition: "Here, woven from the colorful background of the Italian Renaissance, is a science-fiction novel foretelling a still greater re-birth to come. For in the millenniums that followed the devastating Galactic War with Earth and most of the solar system laid waste, progress had ceased and the records of the past had been forgotten. Such was the legacy of the atom which had shattered the world of the future Empire of the Atom is as much a history of this future age as it is the story of the Linn family which so strongly influenced it. For if history can be said to be the story of the influence of great men, the rise of the Linns and their "course upon the mountain-tops of power", is the story of this future time. The era of Earth's second Renaissance dawned with the emergence of the Linns, for ruthless and bloody though they were, the Linn rulers brought stability and order to a world recovering from a second Dark Age. There was Medron, Lord Leader of Linn, a strong administrator under whose rule civil war had been brought to an end. He had married Lydia, and lived many years to regret it, for Lydia never ceased to plot and scheme, corrupting the Linn heritage with murder and intrigue. Foremost among her ambitions was the rise to power of Tews, son by her first marriage, a hypocrite who used the cloak of republicanism to deceive everyone - even himself. But Creg, brilliant soldier son of Medron, stood in Tews' path and so was fated to die on Mars. And, looming over his contemporaries there was Clane, grandson of Medron, who had bootstrapped himself from a shunned, unwanted freak into a patron of the second Renaissance, and finally into the role of war leader. From out of the vastness of space came Czinczar and his warrior horde. Striking with force and by stealth, Czinczar had within a few days plundered Earth of its treasures, destroying its leaders and occupied its capital. With the world at bay, only Clane rose to oppose him - Clane the mutant, who became leader of Earth's resistance to the barbarian invasion from the Jovian satellites. Readers familiar with the Italian Renaissance will appreciate the parallel between the Florentine Medici and the Dynasty of Linn, for Medron is a fitting successor to Cosimo Pater Patriae, while Clane is truly a Lorenzo il Magnifico. In Empire of the Atom A. E. van Vogt has succeeded in blending fragments of history with the drama of speculation and prophecy, and from those creating the great and mighty panorama of a future world. In brilliantly merging fiction with fact, and in completely rewriting the materials of this book from magazine form into the present novel, Mr. van Vogt has made yet another contribution to science-fiction enjoyment."