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The Voyage of the Space Beagle | 
 enlarge | Author: A. E. Van Vogt
Publisher: Orb Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 144020
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0765320770
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765320773
ASIN: 0765320770
Publication Date: July 8, 2008 (New: Today)
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Product Description
One of the great original classics of modern SF returns!
An all-time classic space saga, The Voyage of the Space Beagle is one of the pinnacles of Golden Age SF, an influence on generations of stories. An episodic novel filled with surprises and provocative ideas, this is the story of a great exploration ship sent out into the unknown reaches of space on a long mission of discovery. They encounter several terrifying alien species, including the Ix, who lay their eggs in human bodies, which then devour the humans from within when they hatch. This is one of the most entertaining and gripping stories in all of classic SF.
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The first third of this novel, BLACK DESTROYER, appeared in the 7/39 ASTOUNDING as Van Vogt's first science fiction story. It was the basis of the Sigourney Weaver Film, Alien. Van Vogt (1912-2000), named an SFFWA Grandmaster in 1995, was the most influential science fiction writer of his time.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Nexialism vs. far-flung complex aliens October 30, 2007
Written in 1959 - wiseguy, hard SF space novel readers don't knock it yet! A.E. van Vogt presents, carries and completes a beautiful presentation about a roaming scientific spaceship visiting worlds strewn acorss the glaxay. His vision of aliens don't have the normal Golden Age hokiness than many books at the time have. The Space Beagle meets four species which are so different from the normal "two-arm, two-leg, slimy" alien. These aliens can control wavelengths or exist as pure energy or can project hallucinations, etc. The way these aliens interact or deceive humans is an excellent read.
The crew of the Space Beagle are always on the brink of destruction, if it wasn't for Grosvenor and his mysterious science of Nexialism. Whole none of the crew understand his science, they view him as eccentric and unreliable. It's Grosvenor's struggle to have the others see that his science can work wonders between the other scientists sciences.
Into the Unknown October 15, 2007
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
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
A classic... September 18, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
 Classic Sci-Fi and the Basis for Alien June 12, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
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!!
 Interesting and imaginative but dated! April 25, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
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
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