Customer Reviews

Beast

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A.E. van Vogt covers a lot of ground in this novel, set in the not-too-distant future, and even though it was first published in 1963, most of the questions it raises are still relevant today. The story opens prosaicly enough when Jim Pendrake, formerly of the US Air Force (and minus his right arm), discovers the wreck of an unusual vehicle with a totally unrecognizable engine. The book seems to take its time progressing as this reclusive man takes possession of the engine, conducts some simple tests, and eventually has it taken away from him by unknown assailants. The story shifts gears quickly though, once Pendrake notices that his missing arm has begun to grow back. The pace accelerates after his investigations lead him into the hands of a sinister, secret organization and even bring him to the attention of President Jefferson Dayles, who has his own less-than-savory agenda. Things really get confusing when he loses his memory, develops a new life, escapes his captors, and loses his arm (again), only to wind up being abducted (again), and this time left to die on the moon, where he discovers a society ruled by a million-year-old super-intelligent Neanderthal man. There are a substantial number of further twists and turns in this story, but hopefully one gets the idea. This is a book filled with action, suspense, and particularly surprises, but perhaps its most noteworthy feature is the questions it poses about the cultural revolution that took place in the U.S. around the time the book was written. Van Vogt challenges us to question the place of women in society by postulating a treatment that would allow women to become the "equal of men" in aggressiveness and ruthlessness. He wonders exactly what men expect from women by placing a stalwart monogamist into a society of bigamists. He suggests that Pendrake's regenerative power only makes him more prone to engage in violent and dangerous behavior, putting an unusual slant on the relationship between violence and medicine. But most of all, this book is about power, and how the lust for power drives so many to behave like the beast in his title. Virtually every character is both victim and victimizer at various points in the story, but van Vogt takes pains to point out that only by rising above this primal urge to dominate others can humanity ever hope to become more than a vicious animal. Despite the wild plot and somewhat disjointed structure, this book is both an entertaining and thought-provoking piece of speculative fiction, definitely worth a read.

An A.E. van Vogt novel is part modern fairy tale, part dream sequence, part mad invention, and part pseudoscientific doubletalk. When van Vogt is at his best-- as in _The World of Null-A_ and _The Weapon Shops of Isher_-- he takes you on a roller coaster ride, throwing events at you so fast that you don't have time to think about them until the end of the novel. When you look back, you can't see how it all makes sense; and yet, you can't help but feel that it _might_ make sense-- that there is a meaning that is just barely eluding you. You reread the novel because you think that you might find that meaning. You never do, but it doesn't matter. You are hooked on the roller coaster ride once more. It's like experiencing an Indiana Jones movie.

But when van Vogt is at his worst, there is no spark or dazzle to his writing. The episodes that he throws at you are simply silly and trite. There is no illusion of reality. The experience is like watching a cheap serial such as _Radar Men From the Moon_. _The Beast_ is not like an Indiana Jones movie.

There really two monsters in _The Beast_. The first is Big Oaf, a million year old Neanderthal leader of a wild west town in a cavern on the moon. The second is a saber toothed tiger in a lunar pit to whom Big Oaf feeds his enemies. There are a lot of other denizens on the moon as well. There are disembodied blue moon people and a super secret group of East German Communist Nazis. The Nazis kidnap the hero and fly him to the moon by airplane.

Back on Earth, there is a president who plans to become a dictator. There is his band of Amazon bodyguards. There are hordes of feminists who want to have deserting husbands whipped back to their homes. There is an Institute with secret agents that sponsers an agricultural labor camp on Venus.

_The Beast_ is a novel that is as silly as it sounds, written in prose without a trace of poetry or grace. It is one of van Vogt's worst novels-- and, as you may have gathered, that is very bad indeed.

Probably needs to be longer, something A.E. was obviously pretty allergic to. A super powered individual, via your classic technology accident, becomes involved in a conspiracy, and time travel. Somewhat of a pulp feel, here. How is his wife involved, how is the corporate world involved?

Can he defeat the beastly overlord in the world he is sent to, and protect others?

Definitely a superman theme, here.