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The Voyage of the Space Beagle A E van Vogt Books

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The Voyage of the Space Beagle A E van Vogt Books

A.E.Van Vogt, pronounced vote, has provided the genesis of several well known movies and tv series in this book. The Crouel monster that fed off the id of it's living victims provided the id monster in "Forbidden Planet" although how they managed to change it so much and still keep that idea (sort of anyway, extremely loosely, amazes me. The idea of a large ship with hundreds of crew members, on a multiyear mission to explore space almost certainly provided the idea behind "Star Trek" and the monster they captured that escaped inside the ship and started putting eggs in crewmen couldn't possibly be the prototype of "Alien" now could it???
Still, you have to remember when this was written and remember what the times were like. This was pretty much written about the time Heinlein was writing "Life Line" and "The Bomb" was driving everyone crazy. It's nothing like current fiction, is as "out of date" in it's style just as much as H.G.Wells. Still it's a great book to read and think about it.


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The Voyage of the Space Beagle A E van Vogt Books Reviews

This is classic science fiction at its best. Think of the worlds that other masters created, like Bradbury and Asimov. There is an undertone of social commentary and a sophisticated grasp of the human condition. The background technology might seem dated to some but the story is so good it is easy to become immersed. Probably the biggest and first update I would make to modernize it would be to add women into the story. It is all male.
Van Vogt combined four of his shorter stories into one novel, so although the novel publication dates lists 1950, parts were written in 1939 and 1943. A web search has led to the four stories being

* * Black Destroyer * A. E. van Vogt * nv Astounding Jul '39

* * Discord in Scarlet * A. E. van Vogt * nv Astounding Dec '39

* * War of Nerves * A. E. van Vogt * nv Other Worlds May '50

* * M 33 in Andromeda * A. E. van Vogt * ss Astounding Aug '43

Filler material was written by Vogt to combine the four stories into one novel. The 1939 and 1943 stories are the best part of the book, the filler material is mostly boring. Although a lot has been written about Black Destroyer and it being the seed for the movie Alien, I thought that the creature in the novelette Discord In Scarlet more represented the alien. Maybe people have gotten the two mixed up. At any rate, the high value of this novel, over let's say a short story collection that contains Black Destroyer, is that Discord in Scarlet as well as M33 in Andromeda are included. When you hit these parts of the novel, your just propelled through reading it. Although the aliens are indeed horrific, there isn't as much tension as there is in the movie Alien; it's more that's it's so compellingly written. Sections are also from the aliens point of view which are superb. From what I understand, the alien in Discord in Scarlet is so omnipotent, that when the story was written it was still considered that the Universe may be closed, ie cycles through indefinite Big Bangs and Big Crunches. Well, this alien some how resisted or survived the Universe's previous Big Crunch. In between the stories are discourses on a science called Nexialism which Vogt possibly took from the root word nexus. It's defined as `applied whole-ism'. Yeah, Vogt really packed in a lot of information in that definition. From reading the novel, it appears it's just a basic knowledge of a combination of sciences. A sort of `jack of all trades, master of none.'. Actually Vogt almost seems to say it's `a master of all trades'. Considering the ambition of scientists, which scientists wouldn't want to be an expert in all fields of science instead of being limited by the shear wealth of information of just one small section of one field of science.

A breakdown of the start of the stories are

Black Destroyer, chap 1-chap 6, Superb

Filler material on Nexialism, chap 7-chap 12, Boring

Discord in Scarlet, chap 13-chap 21, Excellent

War of Nerves, chap 22-chap 27, Mundane

M33 in Andromeda, chap 28 (end, pg 192), Great Finish
This book has been noted for its inspiration of Alien, and the similarities between some of the story line, and especially some of the details, seem to be more than coincidence. But the book strikes me as more of an inspiration for Star Trek with its long voyage exploring and coming into contact with alien life forms. The emphasis on the synthesis between difference sciences as holding far more potential than the development of any one science is a central tenet to the book.
A very enjoyable read, though, curiously, this scientific expedition learns very little that we hear about, other than that the universe is teeming with hostile aliens. The scientists aboard do, it is true, learn about the exciting new architectonic science of Nexialism that unites all the individual sciences, promoting them into something far greater than the simple sum of them all, and thereby providing mankind (there are no women on this spaceship) with their only protection against a cosmos filled with enemies.
Great Story, It is a "fix up" four short stories combined into a novel, though the stories fit together well. The book tracks of the space beagle (thin starship enterprise) and a voyage of exploration. The first story covers a creature on a dying planet who kills prey (few prey remain) for their Id or potassium (yes just like the first broadcast episode of Star Trek except there the creature consumed a person's salt). The third story is basically the movie alien, with a very few minor differences -- enough alike that A E Van Vogt received money from the studio that produced alien.

Over all one is reminded very much of Star Trek except that the author shows a very machiavellian leadership fighting at times among themselves.
A very great story an easy read and well worth the short amount of time needed to read this book.
A.E.Van Vogt, pronounced vote, has provided the genesis of several well known movies and tv series in this book. The Crouel monster that fed off the id of it's living victims provided the id monster in "Forbidden Planet" although how they managed to change it so much and still keep that idea (sort of anyway, extremely loosely, amazes me. The idea of a large ship with hundreds of crew members, on a multiyear mission to explore space almost certainly provided the idea behind "Star Trek" and the monster they captured that escaped inside the ship and started putting eggs in crewmen couldn't possibly be the prototype of "Alien" now could it???
Still, you have to remember when this was written and remember what the times were like. This was pretty much written about the time Heinlein was writing "Life Line" and "The Bomb" was driving everyone crazy. It's nothing like current fiction, is as "out of date" in it's style just as much as H.G.Wells. Still it's a great book to read and think about it.