Customer Reviews

The Voyage of the Space Beagle

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One of Van Vogt's most loved books, I have to admit that there was a certain thrill in here that was lacking in "The World of Null-A" probably because it's much less based in an unfamiliar philosophy, but at the same time it's much less complex. Still for straightforward authentic Golden Age SF it doesn't get much better than this. Basically you have four stories (it's all treated as one story but it's four separate situations) of the crew of the Space Beagle as they explore the vast reaches of space. Each is a little mini-adventure, two involve horrific aliens, one is a tad dopey and the last involves an alien so big that only in the Golden Age could you get away with it. Beyond the ideas the stories themselves are exciting, even if in the beginning the crew comes off as a bunch of total idiots (twice they bring the alien onto the ship! twice!) and they never really stop being self centered. Much of the book is seen through the eyes of Grosvenor, the new guy with the new science of Nexialism which is apparently a way to integrate all the sciences, among other things . . . unfortunately this means that the stories fall into a pattern where everyone has the wrong solutions to everything because they are self centered and can't see past their own disciplines until Grosvenor basically forcefeeds them the solution. But, as typical for novels from this period, you don't read them for the staggering charactizations but the ideas and Van Vogt writes like a madman here, cramming so many fanciful into each chapter and making you believe them that you find yourself devouring the book more than reading it, especially the bits with the aliens (the second alien was an obvious influence on the movie Alien, right down to it picking people off in the ship) which are genuinely frightening . . . it's a credit to Van Vogt that he can write the scenes from the aliens POV convincingly, sometimes more convincingly than the people. It may or may not be his best book, but it definitely ranks as one of the few all out fun classics from the Golden Age of SF. Sadly it's only available used these days but even then a little searching can probably dig it up.

The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950) is a standalone SF novel. The Space Beagle is a roving laboratory ship that is outward bound to another galaxy. Almost every human science is represented onboard the great ship, including one Nexialist. These scientists are searching for new and unusual data that they can use to evaluate and revise existing scientific theories.

In this novel, Ellott Grosvenor -- the Nexialist -- observes as the other scientists encounter a huge black cat-like animal on a previously unexplored planet. The creature is obviously intelligent, as is shown by its straight-forward, yet cautious, approach to the scientists. It even has manipulative tentacles around its neck.

Coeurl is hungry, but knows that it cannot directly attack the small strangers and survive. It acts friendly and later ambushes a lone individual among the ruins of the Builders. For the first time in weeks, it absorbs life sustaining id from the body. But its feeding is interrupted by the approach of a small flyer.

The strangers are suspicious of Coeurl after the body is found. Gregory Kent -- head of the chemistry department -- is very angry at the death of his friend Jarvey. He wants to terminate the creature immediately, but is overruled by Hal Morton, the expedition director.

The chemistry department analyses the remains and discovers a shortage of potassium. They prepare a soup of potassium suspended in an organic compound similar to its state within the human body and Kent presents a bowl filled with the substance to the alien creature. Before most of the department heads, Coeurl angrily dumps the contents of the bowl into Kent's face.

After being thrown off his feet by the forcefully thrown substance, Kent responds by drawing his vibrator gun and shooting the creature. He is quickly disarmed, but the whole incident results in a loud argument. Eventually one of the participants notes that Kent's shot struck Coeurl without harming the creature.

In this story, Grosvenor leads the creature into a specimen cage and the doors are locked from the outside. Grosvenor submits a report to the director about the incident and points out that, with the creature's known and suspected abilities, the current confinement has certain flaws. Later that night period, Coeurl manipulates the electrical lock with its control of electromagnetic energy and starts killing off the humans.

At first, the creature kills humans in individual bedrooms and returns to the cage in sufficient time to fool the roving guards. When it reaches a dormitory, however, Coeurl goes into a killing frenzy and returns late to the cage. As it is killing the guards, one cries out and sets off alarms throughout the ship. It throws the bodies far down the corridor and slips into the cage, locking the door behind it.

This story tells of the battle between Coeurl and the humans. It also relates the experiences of the ship's crew and passengers when they encounter the bird-like Riim espers, the almost unkillable space-living Ixtl, and the galaxy-spanning dispersed intelligence of the Anabis. As the ship's captain says, "scientists can find trouble where it never existed before."

This is one of the earliest novels by the author and is based on his first published short story -- "Black Destroyer" -- from the July 1939 issue of Astounding. It contains most of the elements that earned him a lofty reputation: high adventure, exotic science, and extraordinary individuals. While the book publication was almost sixty years ago, this story still seems to be as futuristic as the latest tales in SF magazines. The science of Nexialism could be announced anytime in the next year or so.

Obviously, the title and plot of this story refer to the voyages of the HMS Beagle. This nineteenth century brig was used for three voyages of exploration, but is remembered mostly for the second voyage. In 1831, the Beagle sailed from Plymouth with the naturalist Charles Darwin onboard. While visiting the Galapagos Islands, Darwin collected the data that eventually led to his theory of evolution.

This story, however, expands upon the voyages of the Beagle. Rather than a small vessel, the space version is a huge starship capable of tremendous velocities through intergalactic space. Moreover, the ship carries over eight hundred scientists and hundreds of tons of tools and instruments. The author doesn't think small.

Highly recommended for van Vogt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of high adventure, advanced mental training, and unknown worlds.

-Arthur W. Jordin

The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A. E. van Vogt is a book that could best be described as Classic Sci-Fi. Science Fiction in general is a genre that is very new to me, and I have never read any van Vogt. So I decided to go on a voyage!

This book was originally 4 short stories that were put together in a "fixup" by van Vogt. The stories are all about the crew of the Space Beagle (a Darwin reference) and its intergalactic expedition. The crew is made up of military personnel and scientists that are on board to study alien life in other galaxies. Eliot Grosvenor, is the books protagonist. He is the lone Nexialist aboard the ship. Nexialism is a relatively new science. It is one that encompasses ALL the other sciences and relates them together. It is more generalized than specific, but it also adds an element of hypnotism and mind control. At first, Grosvenor isn't given much thought. He is left to himself until trouble comes aboard and his skills are called into play.

Each story, or section, in the book describes contact with an alien race. In the first story, the crew members explore what they think is a seemingly deserted planet. The stumble across Coeurl, a cat-like creature that has tentacles and an incredible hunger. He pretends to be just another dumb animal, and the crew members "capture" him and take him aboard the ship to study. But Coeurl is hungry and he has an agenda. He quickly escapes and terrorizes the ship.

They also encounter the Riim, a bird-like creature that has great hypnotic power; the Ixtl, a devil-like alien that is keen on breeding, by implanting his eggs in the stomach of the crew members; and Anabis, who is galaxy-wide and is waiting to take over planets.

While the aliens are the main part of the storyline, what appealed to me even more was the relationships of the crew members. If the creatures outside don't get you, the people inside just might! There is a political undertone that reflects the climate on the ship. The military and the scientists always seem to be at odds with each other and underlies the harmony on the ship. It seems to be a pretty accurate assessment of ventures even today that involve the same types of people. While a lot of the "scientific" stuff is really dated, I was intrigued by the politicking going on inside the walls of the Beagle. This was a short, fun read. I can see a lot of present day science fiction that was influenced by this writer. Overall, I highly enjoyed it!!

With all the benefit of hindsight, it's easy to read Van Vogt's "Voyage of the Space Beagle" with the same clarity and futuristic vision that perhaps inspired Gene Roddenberry to spin off Star Trek vesting the Enterprise with the five year mission to go where no man has gone before. In a style that will remind readers of Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" or Asimov's "I, Robot", this quintessential example of early pulp science-fiction and space opera - at once fun-loving, thought-provoking, intense, frightening and entertaining - is actually a series of four short stories joined together by the common theme of inter-stellar exploration and alien first contact.

Each of the four stories is brim full of the stock in trade and requisite hard sci-fi toys and elements of the typical stories of the day - blasters, stun guns, force fields, teleportation, bizarre aliens, hostile landscapes, communicators, travel at near light speeds, and the like. But assessing it from the hard side of the sci-fi spectrum, "Voyage of the Space Beagle" is certainly not unique, has little beyond short-term entertainment value to recommend it and I think most readers would be unlikely to accord it the status of "classic".

But look more closely at the softer side of the sci-fi field of play! Ah, now there's where "Voyage of the Space Beagle" comes into its own with some compelling and imaginative ideas, insights and questions - Elliot Grosvenor as the expert in the newly founded science of Nexialism which purports to be the nexus or bridge between hitherto unrelated fields of scientific endeavour such as physics, chemistry, metallurgy, geography or sociology for example (a means of looking at the "big" scientific picture from a new meta-level, as it were - do you think we're talking about a 1950s version of Science Officer Spock here?); the social difficulties of a population living in the confined quarters of an exploratory vessel for extended periods; the political, command and management clashes between scientific, technical and military personnel with their varying motives, agendas and decision making styles on such a mission; the completely ineffectual nature of democracy as part of a command structure in the context of such an operation; and the unbridgeable philosophical differences and overwhelming communication difficulties that might be encountered in an alien first contact situation.

Clearly Van Vogt was appreciative of our ultimate smallness in the universe. Like Clifford D Simak, he was also openly critical of man's history of violence and the arrogant impression of his own power and importance:

"You assume far too readily that man is a paragon of justice, forgetting, apparently, that he has a long and savage history. He has killed other animals not only for meat but for pleasure; he has enslaved his neighbors, murdered his opponents, and obtained the most unholy sadistical joy from the agony of others. It is not impossible that we shall, in the course of our travels, meet other intelligent creatures far more worthy than man to rule the universe."

I wonder if Van Vogt appreciated the irony in his own writing. Despite the obvious criticism of the human condition inherent in his character's words, Van Vogt persisted in writing stories in which every alien encounter failed to transcend that hostility and savagery and either began or ended with violent confrontation or battle. For the most part, the inhabitants of the Space Beagle barely even tried. Sigh!

"The Voyage of the Space Beagle" is fun to read, entertaining and imaginative to be sure but not truly visionary and capable of lasting other than as a memento of what good space opera was like in the 50s! Recommended for lovers of classic science fiction.

Paul Weiss

Let me say first that I'm the youngest and most eager Alfred Elton Van-Vogt fan I know.

I'm 20 years old and so far I've read 11 "Vogtians" , and that's alot for someone in Israel - we don't have his books around.

And ofcourse , everyone says that the "Beagle" is , if not the best , then one of the 3 best Van-Vogt novels.

I disagree. O.k , the story is just too flat. I mean , this space ship flys around and every time it tacklls a problem the only one who's able to solve it is Grosvner , all the other scientists are self-centered impotents.

And besides that , the way the problem just "fall" on the crew when the're finished with the last one - too "Star trek adventures" for me to buy as serius sci-fi , since I know how Van-Vogt can write.

BUT - nextialism is nice. more than that , I think that it could work. As always , the aliens are interesting , well thought-of , and unusual. And there's that master's writing style - I can't put my finger on it , but Van-Vogt just know's how to make you swallow the book instead of reading it. If you're interested in reading full-potential Van-Vogt read :"The silkie" , "Empire of the atom"&"Wizard of lin" , "A world of null-a"&"The players of null-a" and "Slan".

Bye.

This is A.E. Van Vogt at his best, with the story of a major exploratory expedition and a young practitioner of a newly-developed science called Nexialism on board. Nexialism undertakes to combine the knowledges of the various branches of science and make something than is more than the sum of the parts, and Van Vogt provides an extremely cleverly-drawn summary of how this works under fire. As with several of his other books, its insight into social science is penetrating and original. The only minor drawback is the relatively two-dimensional characters, a feature quite common in older SF. But Van Vogt keeps the action coming and the narrative direct and absorbing. Even his not-so-great novels hold the reader's interest, and here he is in top form.

This novel is a collection of four novellas that were originally published independently in various pulp magazines from the 30's to the 50's. This book contains four tales about the adventures of the crew of a star ship named the Space Beagle that travels to the far reaches of our galaxy and beyond. The ship is filled with a wide range of scientist from every major discipline (physicists, astronomers, geologists, chemists, biologists, etc.) as well as soldiers. The main character, Elliot Grosvenor, represents a new science/philosophy of Nexialism. This is a discipline that supposedly brings together all other disciplines but additionally provides a mechanism for viewing the totality of problems (kind of what Scientology purports to be). The science/philosophy of Nexialism is actually fairly well developed and represents one of the strengths of this book in my view. There really isn't a great deal of exploration (or even much voyaging) in these tales, in spite of the title. In each of the stories the ship is assailed by some alien menace that must be defeated. In all cases the threats initially appeared overwhelming, but were then defeated relatively simply. Much of the text is taken up discussing the internal political dynamics of the ship and the maneuverings of individuals and factions. The main interest in this story is, in my opinion, primarily historical. There are many details of the movie `Alien' that are taken directly from one of the novellas in this series. There are definitely some imaginative ideas in this novel, but some of the physics is just nonsense. Overall this is a decent, but far from outstanding, book. This book is far less interesting than even the middlin' works of hard sci-fi greats such as Larry Niven or Arthur C. Clarke. It certainly does not merit some of the 5-star reviews given to it by other reviewers. It is a nice book to buy for $1 from a used book store, but I wouldn't recommend spending much more.

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 1930s novel was supposed to be inspiration for 1957's film, IT! THE TERROR FROM OUT OF SPACE, which film inspired 1979's ALIEN film.

The novel takes place in the far future. The Space Beagle is the first spaceship to travel to another galaxy. That's a pretty bold concept, if you understand astronomy. It's mind-boggling enough to think we'll ever span even our own galaxy, but the Space Beagle is traveling to another galaxy.

The story takes place in that vast void between galaxies. The usual space opera/soap opera power plays aboard a spaceship on a voyage to discover new worlds. However, despite the distant future, people are pretty much like they were in the 1930s (kinda like how on STAR TREK they resemble 1960s people).

Anyway, while they're traveling in that void between galaxies, they come upon a dragon-like monster floating in space. The monster is immortal, and cannot be destoyed. Doesn't need food or air. The author also describes what the monster is thinking. He was once a feared ruler of a galaxy, but is now exiled into space. He's indestructible, but he has a problem. Since he's got nothing to grab or propel himself again, he's doomed to float in the void unless something comes along, an astroid or whatever, that can take him back into a galaxy. Along comes the Space Beagle...

So the crew sees the monster floating, they come up close, the monster grabs the spaceship and enters. (He can also float through matter, should he so desire, so at times he floats through the spaceship floors as a means of hiding from the crew), and the killing starts. The monster has contempt for these inferior humans. The humans must now trick the monster into leaving the ship.

This monster tale only occupies about a third of the book. There are other adventures for the Space Beagle.

The hero is a scientist who's invented a new dicipline: nexilism. It's the science of combining sciences (i.e., to find their nexus). In another story, he discovers a mind creature that has taken over an entire galaxy and killed all life in it.

This is an okay book, interesting from a historical perspective, if you care about the inspiration of IT!, which inspired ALIEN! It's not a great book, IMO, but reasonably entertaining.

You hear that a lot. This is a classic, that is a classic. But this IS a classic.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle is one of those books that have inspirited many later authors and movies. A. E. Van Vogt is one of the Fathers of modern Sci-Fi. While the Black Destroyer may, or may not, have inspirited the makers of the movie Alien I do know that two of the aliens in the book also show up in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials along side such great aliens as the Puppeteers, The Thing, the Overlords, the Guild Steersmen and the Old Ones.
The book is four short stories put together. Or a novel that has been cut up into four short stories for other collections. But in the end this is the story of a huge spaceship on a deep space mission to explore and understand. The science is kind of soft, more of a space opera but also reminds me a tad of Star Trek. But remember this was first printed decades before Star Trek.