In folklore, a silkie is a changeling-- a person who is a man upon the land and who is a seal in the ocean. Van Vogt's silkie, Nat Cemp, is a changeling who has three forms: human, fish and silkie. The silkie form is not that of a seal; rather, it is a kind of armored space creature. There is one scene in which Cemp re-enters the Earth's atmosphere to land off the coast of Florida and another in which he chases a renegade silkie up into space, losing him in the Van Allen radiation belts.
Description:
In folklore, a silkie is a changeling-- a person who is a man upon the land and who is a seal in the ocean. Van Vogt's silkie, Nat Cemp, is a changeling who has three forms: human, fish and silkie. The silkie form is not that of a seal; rather, it is a kind of armored space creature. There is one scene in which Cemp re-enters the Earth's atmosphere to land off the coast of Florida and another in which he chases a renegade silkie up into space, losing him in the Van Allen radiation belts.
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