Customer Reviews

Rogue Ship

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story of a space-ship, with her crew, who's stuck on it for five generations instead of a couple of years (due to a difference between the theory and practice of near light-speed flight science).

Many adventures happen to fall in the ship's way, but the book is more about the social structures in the ship.

Again we notice Van Vogt's degrading views on women.
Allthough in it's plot "Rogue ship" resembles "the Beagle", it does'nt reach the same level of writing.

I have read 17 titles of this scifi master, and this one is not one of the best 10.

This novel is a close scrutiny of the idea of a "Generation ship". To those who are not familiar with it, a generation ship is large spaceship containing a agricultural and animal farms, built to cross the huge distance between the stars at sub-light speed. As to be expected, the original crew will not live enough to complete the trip, so they must reproduce on board and their children and grandchildren will carry on the mission.
The author wisely foresees the problems inherent in the concept and describes how the generation gap, claustrophobia, leadership struggle, frustration at a situation the youngsters did not choose to be in and failure to find a suitable planet to colonize, turn the ship into a battle ground. It is actually a "thought experiment", and a very good one. It is a shame it didn't receive any award.