“The Changeling” was published in the April 1944 issue of Astounding. The ISFDB says it’s the third in a series of four stories the ISFDB calls Pendrake. I’ve not read any of the other stories, and this was my first time to read this one.

I’m not really sure where to start. There were some twists that might have been more expected if I had read the two stories preceding “The Changeling”. But maybe not. It has the feel of a self-contained episode in a larger story arc where the background is important but the characters seem to have been introduced in this episode. I’m not sure. there are remarks toward the end that could be background information or references to previous stories.

Let’s start with the background, because I’m a little surprised this story is on the final ballot. It isn’t exactly woke in some of the attitudes the characters have.

The story opens in 1972.  WWII ended in something resembling a stalemate. Van Vogt isn’t clear on the details, just that the resolution of the war has had a negative effect on worldwide morale. Women have been emancipated. Not only have they been given the right to vote, something they had when the story was written, but women are now trying hold public office. A woman candidate almost wins the presidency. Towards the end of the story there are riots over women in leadership roles.  Many men don’t want to live in a world ruled by women. Of course the women all think they would do a much better job running the world than the men.

Added to that is a drug that some women have taken to make them more physically equal to men.  It’s nonreversable, and none of the men want anything to do with those women.  Many of them end up as the president’s personal guards.

The president is scheming to stay in office for more than just two terms. He wants a man named Lesley Craig, but the reasons for this aren’t clear until later in the story. The story opens with Craig discovering a discrepancy between his memories and his employment records. Then he discovers irregularities in his military service record, such as having his leg amputated. Craig has all his appendages.

So he sets out to figure out what is going on and who he is.

Some of this might have made a little more sense if I had read the earlier stories. There are places the logic doesn’t hold up. At one point the president says that electronics are so complicated that it takes a man a lifetime to master just a portion of the field.

Well, maybe for Van Vogt…

There’s a lot of the things associated with Van Vogt and Campbell’s Astounding. Suupermen. Super science. Or maybe I should say pseudoscience. There’s enough hand waving in places that it’s hard to tell at times.

Overall, “The Changeling” is a decent story. I suspect it would be a more rewarding read if I had read the stories that preceded it. And the ending is certainly open ended enough that it’s pretty clear Van Vogt wasn’t done with this setting.