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The Voyage of the Space Beagle

A.E. van Vogt

3.86 · Rating details · 3,451 ratings · 196 reviews

*On and on Coeurl prowled.*
So began Van Vogt's first published story, and so begins this novel. The saga of the Space Beagle, mankind's first effort to reach another galaxy. And what strange life-forms are encountered! ...more

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Paperback, 192 pages

Published 1963 by Macfadden-Bartell (first published 1950)

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Oct 06, 2019 Adrian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-golden-age, read-again, sci-fi, zz-owned-books

I read quite a few van Vogt books as a teenager. I remember saving up my pocket money, getting a 2/6 postal order and sending for the next book I wanted from Panther books from their list of books in the back of the book I had just read. The excitement of waiting for the next van Vogt (or Doc Smith or Asimov) to arrive was stupendous.
Anyway this was one of the books I'm sure I read during those halcyon days of sunshine, hours to read and endless time ahead.

This book has a typical van Vogt feel a ...more

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May 01, 2012 Dirk Grobbelaar rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, sf-road-trip-2012

An exploration vessel with a crew complement of almost one thousand wandering between the stars... cue some music. No, wait a minute, it’s not the Enterprise. It’s the Space Beagle. When was this written then? Well, the individual parts that make up this novel were published between 1939 and 1952. This is quite a famous little novel, even though current opinion about it is somewhat divided. Some of the assumptions in this book are rather naïve, such as allowing a foreign organism into an enclose An exploration vessel with a crew complement of almost one thousand wandering between the stars... cue some music. No, wait a minute, it’s not the Enterprise. It’s the Space Beagle. When was this written then? Well, the individual parts that make up this novel were published between 1939 and 1952. This is quite a famous little novel, even though current opinion about it is somewhat divided. Some of the assumptions in this book are rather naïve, such as allowing a foreign organism into an enclosed system (spaceship) without any concern over contamination or disease. Perhaps it’s merely anachronistic: this novel is, after all, from the golden age of Science Fiction. However, if you look at the story with eyes unbiased by 60 years of Science Fiction history and evolution, you should be suitably impressed.

The Discord in Scarlet storyline is especially memorable. A vicious and supernaturally powerful alien steals aboard the human ship; it lays eggs inside its hosts (the hapless humans); it hides in the “miles-long system of air conditioning”; it is bent on survival at all cost... Sound familiar? It should. 20th Century Fox eventually settled out of court, although in all fairness it may have been coincidence after all.

The novel also coined the phrase Nexialism, which is basically a consolidated approach to problem solving, by applying approaches from different sciences. Or, the holistic (“whole”-istic according to the novel) approach. The Anabis sequence contains some startling ideas, such as the teleportation of entire planets to create artificial systems. We are so used to high concept SF these days that it’s somewhat hard to imagine what folk would have experienced when reading this in the 1940s when the sequence was first published (as M33 in Andromeda, Astounding, 1943).

Needless to say, the Voyage of the Space Beagle has influenced the field of Science Fiction and pop culture to a momentous extent. Whether you like the novel or not, there is no denying its impact. Van Vogt’s alien creatures have even made it into Dungeons & Dragons and Final Fantasy, albeit in slightly altered forms. The novel carries its years pretty well, all things considered, and despite the fact that the Space Beagle still sports a mail chute. A true classic. ...more

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Jul 28, 2010 Jim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi, 1paper, 3classics, 2fiction

July2016: I'm rereading this for the "Evolution of Science Fiction" group read here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The title makes it obvious, but this is an exploration of strange new creatures - not much of strange new worlds, though. Still, I can see the roots of Star Trek. Less obvious is the exploration of a variety of human ideas through a new science called Nexialism, the science of learning many sciences & how to synthesize them. A science that turns out polymaths, I suppose. El July2016: I'm rereading this for the "Evolution of Science Fiction" group read here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The title makes it obvious, but this is an exploration of strange new creatures - not much of strange new worlds, though. Still, I can see the roots of Star Trek. Less obvious is the exploration of a variety of human ideas through a new science called Nexialism, the science of learning many sciences & how to synthesize them. A science that turns out polymaths, I suppose. Elliott Grosvenor is the department of one on the Beagle. There is also the issue of a crew (all male chemically neutered) living together for years.

This was originally 4 short stories, not 3. Thanks to Buck for the TOC. My old 1950s copy doesn't have one in it, but it reads very well as a novel now, so I'm not listing it as short stories.
Black Destroyer 1939, (chapters 1 to 6) is about the Coeurl, one of the last creatures alive on a dying planet.

War of Nerves 1950, (chapters 9 to 12) is about alien mind control which didn't do much for me. It was the weakest story in the collection, IMO.

Discord in Scarlet 1939, (chapters 13 to 21) might well be the basis for the movie Alien with a bit of the first monster thrown in.

M33 in Andromeda 1943, (chapters 22 to 28) was one of the most interesting in several ways. The 'monster' was quite imaginative & Grosvenor really struts his stuff.

I don't disagree with anything I wrote in my earlier review below, but I think I underrated the book badly. While much of the science isn't well explained, it's certainly not as magical as so much was during this time period. Both Star Trek & the Alien movies seem to have grown out of this pioneering work & I wouldn't be surprised if others got their inspiration from it. On top of all that, it's still highly readable so many decades later. I almost feel bad only giving it 4 stars. Highly recommended for anyone into the evolution of SF. Van Vogt was certainly one of the giants.

Old review (2008? Last read... 2000?): 3 stars. Van Vogt collected three short stories together into a novel. It reads well, though. As you'd suspect, the Space Beagle is an exploratory space ship that runs into several different first contact scenarios. One is a very interesting failure to communicate. The other two have a lot in common; extreme power, immortality, war & stagnation. All have a lot of action & are tied together by a new breed of scientist, one who ties together the various specialties. There is a strong theme of 'the left hand not knowing what the right is doing' among the various scientific specialties. Very well done. ...more

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Dec 27, 2018 Jamie rated it it was amazing

Space is deadly. Deadly fun!

I see comparisons to Star Trek, which I think hold to some extent. But unlike the Enterprise, the Space Beagle is first and foremost a vessel of scientific research. van Vogt digs deeper than your typical golden age sci-fi adventure pulps, plumbing a wide range of scientific disciplines in dissecting the deadly wonders encountered by the Space Beagle.

I found the narrative, settings and situations the crew gets into very compelling. van Vogt has a flair for creating un ...more

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Jul 09, 2010 Manny rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I read this undistinguished piece of space opera when I was about 15. I can't say that I was a terribly discerning reader in those days - basically I read any SF I got my hands on, and enjoyed most of it - but there was one episode that managed to shock even my unreflective teenage self. I don't remember all the details, but it went something like this. The eponymous ship is several million light-years from home when it's attacked by a mysterious disembodied entity. It turns out that the aggress ...more

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Mar 24, 2011 J.G. Keely rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, reviewed, novel

Written in 1939, The Voyage of the Space Beagle reads like the prototype for Star Trek. A multinational crew of scientists and the military embark on a ten-year mission to explore the galaxy, seeking out new aliens and almost being killed by them (they even have 'shields).

Grosvenor, our protagonist, is in many ways reminiscent of Mr. Spock: both are awkward, intelligent men mistrusted by their emotional shipmates because of their cool rationality. He also shares the standard characteristics of V ...more

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Sep 15, 2011 Derek rated it liked it

Shelves: space-opera

Let me see if I understand: these explorers are the product of a galactic civilization, with atomic foundries to transmute base metals into super-substances, the ability to transverse and leave the galaxy itself, to reignite stars and relocate planets...and their interoffice mail system is based on pneumatic tubes?

There's a tremendous subtext at play throughout the entire work. In addition to the obvious fight-the-phenomenally-dangerous-monster plot lines, there are meditations on Oswald Spengle ...more

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May 18, 2009 Simon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

To van Vogt, the universe is a violent place and teaming with life. The Space Beagle is a scientific exploration ship sent out from Earth to go where no man has gone before and study all that it finds. The alien beings that are encountered are invariably hostile or if they aren't their efforts to communicate their friendship inadvertedly cause much harm.

The book has an episodic nature that arises from the fact that it was forged from four seperate short stories that he reworked into one story.

T ...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Nandakishore Varma rated it liked it · review of another edition

One of the earliest SF novels I read, even before Asimov. At the time, I felt it was fantastic. However, the sheen has reduced over the years.

This book is an episodic novel, based on the spaceship "Space Beagle"'s journey of exploration (maybe inspired by Darwin and the H.M.S. Beagle), and deals with many exotic species (I remember one living in empty space). But my clearest memory is about "Nexialism", where knowledge from one area of expertise is used in another area, a sort of "stringing-toge ...more

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Oct 25, 2020 Tomislav rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

7 December 2009 - ***. Imagine a 1000-man starship, whose five year mission in space is discover strange new worlds, seek out new life, to boldly go where no man has gone before. On board are a collection of scientists organized by department - among them a single Nexianist, whose science is the interconnection of all sciences, and whose singularly logical thinking saves the ship and crew from strange aliens and psychic threats. No, not the Enterprise, but the Space Beagle. This is a fix-up of f ...more

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Mar 27, 2009 Stefan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I always hate to write about these venerable SF classics, because very frequently I end up being disappointed by them. I know that I can't hold genre fiction from the 1950's up to the same standards as current-day genre fiction, but...

Well, hold on. Actually, I can and I am. Maybe I just feel guilty about pointing out the various flaws, especially because back in the day, this was cutting-edge stuff. Sure, it's filled with cardboard characters (almost all male of course) that either talk about I always hate to write about these venerable SF classics, because very frequently I end up being disappointed by them. I know that I can't hold genre fiction from the 1950's up to the same standards as current-day genre fiction, but...

Well, hold on. Actually, I can and I am. Maybe I just feel guilty about pointing out the various flaws, especially because back in the day, this was cutting-edge stuff. Sure, it's filled with cardboard characters (almost all male of course) that either talk about science, fight off alien menaces, or do both simultaneously. Sure, some of the "cutting edge" science is now verging on the ridiculous (early in the novel, one of the scientists dictates a report and then runs it over to the steganography department to have it transcribed). Some of it is a bit unfortunate (naming the most commonly used weapons "vibrators" was just plain distracting). But there are also a lot of ideas here that were really innovative and exciting at the time.

In the end, I try to read these novels with an open mind, trying to muster admiration for them by keeping their place in the canon in mind... while trying to ignore the distractions.

So. This is an episodic novel --- it really feels like 4 separate novella's sharing the same characters. The 4 stories are incredibly similar (even down to the length --- about 50 pages each). The Space Beagle is basically a giant inter-galactic spaceship filled with a bunch of scientists from nearly every known discipline (and one new one --- more about this later). They are on a voyage heading out of our galaxy and on the way to the galaxy next door. Along the way, they encounter 4 different alien life forms (one per story) who all pose a threat to the expedition. Some of these aliens are pretty nifty (the telepathic bird-people were very cool). Others are more boring (the lay-their-eggs-inside-human-tummies variety).

Invariably, the aliens are defeated by Elliot Grosvenor, the ship's only representative of Nexialism, a relatively new science branch that is initially described in very vague terms but in the end turns out to be something like a simultaneous insight in every other science branch, achieved by hypnotic machine-learning brain-programming (with tapes --- in the vein of CJ Cherryh's Union folks but less evil). Grosvenor is initially ridiculed, shunned and/or ignored, but time and again turns out to be the ship's savior.

My favorite aspect of the novel was the sometimes ethically questionable methods Grosvenor uses to push through his will. It adds a nice greyness to the black-and-white quality of the other characters (good scientist versus evil scientist politics). Grosvenor does good things, but he sometimes accomplishes them by hypnotizing entire sections of the ship to make them do his bidding or by killing the last or only representative of an alien race.

In this sense, the novel reminded me of George RR Martin's "Tuf Voyaging" --- about another loner who is posed with moral dilemmas. (I just realize "Tuf Voyaging" is also an episodic novel. Hm.) However, none of the characters in this novel come anywhere close to the depth and charm Martin used to draw Haviland Tuf, one of my favorite SF characters of all time.

In the end, I would only recommend "The Voyage of the Space Beagle" to people who have an interest in the history of the genre and are willing to overlook some of the flaws common in older genre fiction. ...more

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Feb 12, 2008 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

I have just started reading old, classic science fiction. I have an old pretty well beat up 1970 version (so old that it still has an ad for Kent cigarettes in the middle of it). I also have a thing for really cool sci-fi cover art, so when I'm buying these things, I look for the cover art to see if it's entertaining. I was surprised to find out, was very likely the basis for one of my favorite movies ever, Alien. It is divided up into four stories, all of them tied together by the fact that the I have just started reading old, classic science fiction. I have an old pretty well beat up 1970 version (so old that it still has an ad for Kent cigarettes in the middle of it). I also have a thing for really cool sci-fi cover art, so when I'm buying these things, I look for the cover art to see if it's entertaining. I was surprised to find out, was very likely the basis for one of my favorite movies ever, Alien. It is divided up into four stories, all of them tied together by the fact that they all happened on this particular voyage of the Space Beagle -- a craft and crew which was put together to explore new worlds & galaxies.

The stories are as follows:
1. There is an encounter with a cat-like creature with tentacles who feeds on "id" on a desolate planet who threatens the ship & its crew (and possibly humanity);

2. an attack through psychic means by a bird-like population of aliens living in an outer galaxy;

3. third (and probably the best) the discovery of a bizarre creature who has no home except in space, pulled and pushed by the cosmic forces, and as you might guess, starving -- this one is outstanding.

4. another encounter with an attacking alien creature.

Another factor that ties all of these stories together is one Dr. Elliott Grosvenor, who was the first person to have graduated from "the Nexial Foundation." Grovesnor has been taken on board as a scientist (this expedition is filled with scientists) representing the field of nexialism -- a sort of integration of thought and science combined with mind and body control techniques. Where other scientists had problems trying to figure out what to do during each crisis listed above, Grovesnor could step back and use his education to solve the problems.

So here's what I didn't like about these stories: if you have absolutely no clue who Oswald Spengler was you may not understand how nexialism relies on inferences from Spengler's theories.

If you want some really fine classic sci-fi, then you may enjoy this one. It is dated, for sure, but still fun. ...more

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Jul 07, 2009 Jim rated it really liked it

Shelves: scifi, reread

Lest we think of ourselves as too sophisticated and pooh-pooh out of hand some old (1950) science fiction with a somewhat clunky name, perhaps we should reconsider. A.E. van Vogt's The Voyage of the Space Beagle is a collection of four short stories cobbled together. From this unlikely source came the idea for Gene Roddenberry’s "Star Trek" and all its spin-offs and movies. From the third story came the idea for the movie Alien.

You remember the words that started the show: “Space, the final fron ...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Jay rated it it was amazing

"Voyage of the Space Beagle" ("VOSB") is one of the seminal works of early "hard" science fiction by this master. Although the "science" in the work might be considered "quaint," by today's standards, its influence on the genre and later television and film can't be understated. One of the aliens - named Coeurl - even shows up in a couple of video game. Such is the impact of this book.

VSOB is really a compilation of four related, not-so-short stories - 3 written in 1939 and 1 written in 1943 an ...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Philipp rated it liked it

Fun! I mean, look at that name!

It's 4 short-stories with the same main character and the same spaceship woven into one book. The main guy seems to be the proto-Spock - a guy trained in a new science called Nexialism, some kind of "all-sciences-into-one" with hints of individualism/libertarianism with a healthy dose of what science-fiction in the 50s was like (electronic telepathy, mind-controlling, funky big machines etc).

Each story is about the crew encountering an unknown, but superior alien o ...more

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Mar 21, 2019 Cheryl rated it it was ok

For a group read, Evolution of SF:

Ok I've finally read this. The ideas are nifty. The writing improves over the course of the four 'episodes.' Darwin learned more from his creatures than these men do, and *Star Trek* has a lot more heart & wisdom & diversity. At least it's better, imo, than *Foundation* in its exploration of cyclic history and esp-ish forces than Asimov's 'psychohistory.' Basically it's unrecommendable outside this group though... so dated and so wrong... and mostly just adventu ...more

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Jan 30, 2020 Dan rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

Back in the pulp science fiction age, authors were restricted to writing short stories for specialist magazines at modest rates. A. E. van Vogt wrote many of these cheap stories, four of which eventually came to be in this novel:

Black Destroyer (July 1939) [Astounding Science Fiction] My rating: 4.5 (Chapters 1-6)
Discord in Scarlet (December 1939) [Astounding Science Fiction] My rating: 3.5 (Chapters 13-21)
M 33 in Andromeda (August 1943) [Astounding Science Fiction] My rating: 2.5 (Chapters 10-1 Back in the pulp science fiction age, authors were restricted to writing short stories for specialist magazines at modest rates. A. E. van Vogt wrote many of these cheap stories, four of which eventually came to be in this novel:

Black Destroyer (July 1939) [Astounding Science Fiction] My rating: 4.5 (Chapters 1-6)
Discord in Scarlet (December 1939) [Astounding Science Fiction] My rating: 3.5 (Chapters 13-21)
M 33 in Andromeda (August 1943) [Astounding Science Fiction] My rating: 2.5 (Chapters 10-12)
War of Nerves (May 1950) [Other Worlds Science Stories] My rating: 2 (Chapters 7-9, 22-28)

In 1950, van Vogt was given the opportunity to make a novel out of the first three Space Beagle stories. The first two stories above were the first two pieces of fiction van Vogt published. "Black Destroyer", in particular, is a wonderful horror/science fiction hybrid story that was Astounding's cover story when it was published despite its author's name being then entirely unknown.

"Discord in Scarlet" is so similar a story to "Black Destroyer" that I am amazed Astounding published it just five months later. It's virtually a repeat of the earlier story--accidentally encountered alien being turns out to be hostile, kills crew members, and tries to take over ship, only to be cleverly and narrowly defeated at the end by a trick.

"M 33 in Andromeda" is an unexciting story of a war fought between two telepaths. The problem with it is that it's a struggle fought only in the adversaries' heads. Worse, it turns out to all be the result of a misunderstanding.

In 1950, van Vogt must have realized that to make a novel out of these three stories they had to be expanded and better tied together. Van Vogt decided to base the theme of the novel on an internal power struggle that takes place among the crew of the Space Beagle based mostly on politics between academics as well as between scientists and military men. This was at most only hinted at in the short stories but becomes the main focus of the novel.

This revision works out well and made for an exciting novel. Lost along the way was the focus or theme of the three individual stories. This is not a big loss since the third story's theme is weak in any event, and the second story's was a repeat of the first's. My only regret was that some of the good horror of the alien takeover attempt in the first story gets watered down by the shift in focus to the internal politics.

After completing the novel and writing all the filler material to link the chapters, van Vogt must have realized that he had written a lot of new material he had never sold before. If one can resell short stories as a novel, he must have figured, why not resell the filler material of the novel linking the stories together as a short story?

Thus the abomination of a short story titled "War of Nerves" was created. It made no sense since so much was changed internally in the three stories to link them to the theme that could not make its way into "War of Nerves." I imagine van Vogt tried to rewrite the filler material he excised from the novel into a coherent short story, but he completely failed. I then suspect he tried to sell the failure to Astounding, which would have had no problem quickly and easily rejecting it despite the fact it was written by such a figure as van Vogt. Thus it ended up being published by a start-up magazine happy to include an author with van Vogt's star power in its line-up.

So, what about the fix-up novel? It's surprisingly good given its dubious three short story origins. Van Vogt clearly worked very hard on it. In fact, the novel bears so little resemblance to the short stories that inspired it and so changed were those stories that I had to unexpectedly read the entire novel anew despite having previously read the four short stories. I enjoyed the internal politics and conflict among the crew of the Space Beagle and the portrayal of the new science of Nexialism, which struck me as a blatant ripoff of Asimov's psychohistory. The novel only bogs down, in fact, when the unpromising material of the short stories is brought in word for word. A battle fought only in the heads of telepaths can never become exciting, for example.

This was the first time (1950) van Vogt wrote a fix-up novel out of his previously published short stories, but it would not be his last. Van Vogt would use this formula for six more novels, unless I miscount. After all, why not get paid twice for the same work if one can? However, on none of his subsequent fix-up novels would van Vogt work as hard as he did on this occasion. That means his fix-up novels all were written with real problems left intact, most of the seams clearly showing, even though some of the short stories they were made from were pure magic. ...more

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Dec 24, 2014 Timothy Boyd rated it liked it

Great classic SiFi. The four adventures of the crew were originally short stories published in digest and rewritten into book form. One of the stories is the basis for the movie Alien and the entire book is obviously the germ of the idea for Star Trek. The Main character is Spock to a large degree. Nice easy and entertaining read. Recommended

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Oct 20, 2014 Trekscribbler rated it really liked it

Recently, I picked up a book from SciFi author Alfred Bester that made me aware of particular run of what were being termed ‘SciFi Masterworks.’ I did a quick Google search, and – after reviewing the lists of titles and authors that were part of the series – I realized that there were quite a few of them I had either never read or never even heard of. (I’ve mentioned before that I’m not what you would classify as a ‘long-time’ reader; I started reading fairly voraciously about twenty years ago, Recently, I picked up a book from SciFi author Alfred Bester that made me aware of particular run of what were being termed ‘SciFi Masterworks.’ I did a quick Google search, and – after reviewing the lists of titles and authors that were part of the series – I realized that there were quite a few of them I had either never read or never even heard of. (I’ve mentioned before that I’m not what you would classify as a ‘long-time’ reader; I started reading fairly voraciously about twenty years ago, and I have a pretty long bucket list of titles to get through.) I decided it was time that I make my way through a few of these and/or a few others that had been recommended via other sites, so A.E. Van Vogt’s THE VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE is the next one up in my adventures.

(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last two paragraphs for my final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)

From the product packaging: “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.”

The release I have does site a bit more on the back cover, but methinks you get enough from the above synopsis for me to cover what I’d like to about SPACE BEAGLE. Basically, what you have here is a series of mostly ship-based adventures, one could say something even in the same vein as TV’s wildly popular franchise, STAR TREK, but written in the 1950’s before the Gene Roddenberry property. From what I’ve researched about the tome, it was originally a series of short stories penned by Van Vogt that eventually were linked together by some supporting material and released in a single collection. I can say that knowing this simple fact does alleviate some of the abruptness of ending one chapter before starting the next, so consider yourself properly prepared.

That said, SPACE BEAGLE differs from STAR TREK fairly significantly in tone; instead of having a grandly adventurous and morally-schooled command staff in charge of the ship, what Van Vogt envisions here is a more Democratic process – there’s a captain, but many of the vessel’s decisions are made by consensus of the travelers. They’ll get together, debate an issue, and – yes, that’s right – vote on what course of action is best. As the crew contingent is made up almost exclusively of scientists, this can make for some curious back-and-forth that – while resembling comedy – methinks Van Vogt intended as more tongue-in-cheek satire. (I could be wrong there, but from what reading I’ve done I haven’t come across anything ‘scholarly’ that would make me conclude otherwise.)

So instead of having the grand cowboy (i.e. Capt. Kirk) at the helm, you have pretty much the pushover of an executive officer who essentially allows this population to engage in all sorts of political and/or politicizing shenanigans one might expect more so from a high school student council than you would a legitimate governing body. There’s a fair amount of backstabbing that takes place amongst the figureheads of the larger science-based departments, and it does make for a vastly different dynamic than what one probably expects from the world of space opera these days.

As all stories do require some central protagonist, SPACE BEAGLE has one: Elliott Grosvenor is the ship’s sole Nexalist, an expert representing an all-new science known as Nexialism which (as best as I can describe it) is a discipline that combines the thinking and strategies of all known specialties in order to achieve the best plausible solution for any particular problem. Whereas a biologist may recommend dissecting a specimen of a newly-discovered species so that mankind could best learn more about it, by contrast a Nexialist might better suggest allowing it to roam free in order for its demonstrated behaviors to teach us just how to deal with it. Naturally, this makes for an interesting counterpoint … except when you have to allow the creature to roam your ship at its own pleasure while dining on your shipmates!

Therein lie the element of satire I believe Van Vogt intended. As much as he pokes some obvious fun at specific modes of study or entire doctrines of science, he positions Grosvenor in situation after situation that requires a heavy amount of political play in order for him to achieve any measure of success. Instead of playing the specialist as a ‘know-it-all,’ it’s very clear that others simply perceive him that way, and he’s only intending to do what he perceives is best for the ship and its survival. Granted, not all of it may make perfect sense for a fast read, but I thought the author mostly intended to send up scientists who were firmly entrenched in their particular field of study as being the unintentional ‘curse’ of mankind while also showing that the shortcomings of personal bias are just as deadly for the educated as they are for the more common man.

It’s a terrific experience, though I found the first half of the novel a bit of a ‘slog’ only because it wasn’t as interesting as the latter half. Perhaps that’s because the stakes were raised as the greater adventures came into play, or perhaps that’s even because the more Van Vogt toyed with these ideas he got closer and closer to perfection with subsequent tales as opposed to the first few. Whatever the truth may be, SPACE BEAGLE is clearly worth the time and effort; occasionally meaty because of narrative shifts of view, it’s a much more honest look at what Earth’s collective march to the stars might inevitably look like.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. I have no problem whatsoever admitted that THE VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE probably wouldn’t have meant all that much to me when I was much younger because I tend to think a lot of what’s meaningful in there needs a fair amount of maturity to be fully appreciated. Some of the moments play out like soft satire, and methinks a younger mind might’ve missed the point. However, this old dog enjoyed it more and more as the stories wore on, and – by the end – it’s easy to see why some folks consider this one of the better SciFi novels written from a certain era.
...more

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Oct 08, 2020 Debra rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobooks, science-fiction-fantasy

Narrated by Fred Major, this space ship meets alien novel will not make any new SF fans. Borrowed from the National Library for the Blind and Print Disabled.

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Jan 14, 2018 Michael rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Sci fi fans, van Vogt fans, 20th century historians

Recommended to Michael by: Wayne Barlowe

Shelves: science-fiction

When I was in college, learning about the history of sci fi, I developed a pretty strong prejudice against A.E. van Vogt. He represented the “bad old days” of sci fi, before the New Wave of the 1960s, when everything was hypermasculine, uncritical, optimistic. His work was dismissed with the pejorative “Space Opera” and ignored. In fact, I don’t know that I even read any of it, maybe part of one novel, I can’t recall now. In the years since, I’ve come to be more appreciative of the earlier histo When I was in college, learning about the history of sci fi, I developed a pretty strong prejudice against A.E. van Vogt. He represented the “bad old days” of sci fi, before the New Wave of the 1960s, when everything was hypermasculine, uncritical, optimistic. His work was dismissed with the pejorative “Space Opera” and ignored. In fact, I don’t know that I even read any of it, maybe part of one novel, I can’t recall now. In the years since, I’ve come to be more appreciative of the earlier history of sci fi, but for some reason I never gave van Vogt a chance. I think the impression left in my brain was too strong: he had to be bad, because I had decided he was bad years ago and never examined it.

I’m saying all that to explain that I didn’t exactly come to this book with very high expectations, but I did finally come to it. It’s flawed, but it’s not the worst example of sci fi I’ve read, or even the most blatantly sexist or imperialist. It is those things, mind you, but not to the extreme I might have imagined. The book was not written as a novel, but as a series of four short stories published over more than a decade, which partly explains why the overall plot never really comes together. In each story, the all-male scientific crew of the “Space Beagle” encounters an alien far more powerful than they are prepared for, which threatens humanity and the Universe if allowed to take over the ship. In each case, the one person who can figure out how to stop the alien is the protagonist, a practitioner of a new holistic science called Nexialism, and in each case he is ignored almost until it is too late. There is something of an “arc” for him, however, because his confidence in his ability to put his plan forward grows each time, and by the end he is the de facto captain of the ship.

As I said, it’s pretty familiar stuff, but it’s handled in an interesting way. I kept hoping that Nexialism would get more exposition: from what we see in this book, it mostly seems to be rather aggressively applied psychology, reminding one of the concept of “brain washing” that was popular at the time, but applied with a certain internal ethic. The aliens tend to be so super-powered as to be hard to take seriously, although I liked the race of telepathic bird-men, the only one whose culture is really considered in detail. For D&D nerds like me, one trivia fact of interest is that the alien in the first story in this novel was the inspiration for the “displacer beast” of the 1st Ed. Monster Manual. Another alien was depicted in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials. Van Vogt seems to have been a competent wordsmith, though in this case parts of the story are definitely under-developed. I’d be willing to give him another try, despite all I thought of him as a younger person. ...more

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May 05, 2017 Dario rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This is a solid example of 1950s science fiction. While I didn't like the fact that four short stories where pasted together ('fix-up novel' apparently is the correct term for these publications), overall it was an entertaining read - I particularly enjoyed the first story (Space Beagle vs Coeurl aka "pussy") and the last one (Space Beagle vs Anabis, the carnivore galaxy). The ones in between I found a bit boring. All stories can be summed up like this:

Grosvenor: "Guys, this alien entity is evil ...more

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Apr 08, 2020 Col rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, xenofiction, barlowes-guide-to-extraterrestrials, fixups

An interesting and well-done example of American "Golden Age" SF, following the crew of a massive scientific ship, and their encounters with mostly hostile alien creatures. It displays excellent imagination and thoughtful joining of its constituent parts, which I found almost as impressive as the story itself. It's an oddly influential yet simultaneously obscure novel, being held up as a precursor to both Star Trek and Alien, and also leaving its DNA in Dungeons & Dragons and the Final Fantasy s ...more

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Dec 27, 2016 Jaymee Goh rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction-fantasy

One reads the classics not to be entertained, but to learn the foundations of the genre (an especially important endeavour for those of us whose academic lives revolve around genre). I am rarely entertained by such works--they're rooted in certain assumptions of humanity that can only elicit "a white man totally wrote this" for someone like myself. The protagonist is the Gariest Stu I've read in a while (only because I avoid white male protagonists these days) and while I find Nexialism the conc ...more

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Feb 17, 2010 James Henderson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, science-fiction, sf-group

One of my favorites among the many novels of Van Vogt I have read is this classic. The story, like that told in The World of Null-A, has as its protagonist a superhero. In this case it is a genius scientist who is a Nexialist (one skilled in the science of joining together in an orderly fashion the knowledge of one field of learning with that of other fields). As a Nexialist, Dr. Elliott Grosvenor, is continually endeavoring to unite the disparate, sometimes warring, factions of scientists on th ...more

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Feb 13, 2017 Charles van Buren rated it it was amazing

Obvious inspiration for Star Trek, June 26, 2016

This review is from: The Voyage of the Space Beagle (Paperback)

I first read Voyage of the Space Beagle in high school and became an immediate and lasting fan of Van Vogt. The stories comprising this book are obviously at least partial inspiration for much that followed - Star Trek; The Thing; Alien; It, The Terror From Beyond Space and numerous books and stories. You should read this classic of golden age scifi and see for yourself. Incidentally, o ...more

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Feb 28, 2010 Pamela Lloyd rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

I read this when I was still a kid and I loved the fact that the hero was a scientist whose "specialization" was generalization. He was the one who saw the whole picture, instead of just a narrow slice. ...more

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Jan 05, 2011 Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, my-must-reads

This book had a strong influence on my ideas whilst I was training as a teacher. The early stories are particularly good (one of them could have been a strong contender for being the original "Alien" story). Highly entertaining and full of interesting ideas. ...more

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May 22, 2018 Leothefox rated it did not like it

A story about mad scientists competing for control of The Death Star on an intergalactic mission while being attacked by ghosts and monsters really should have been more entertaining!

Whiz-kid Elliot Grosvenor is the new kid on the block in a huge spherical ship packed with 800 scientists. He's a “Nexialist” which is some kind of hooey about all scientific disciplines thrown together and used by guys who learn wicked-fast through hypnosis and other methods. He's the only Nexialist aboard and t A story about mad scientists competing for control of The Death Star on an intergalactic mission while being attacked by ghosts and monsters really should have been more entertaining!

Whiz-kid Elliot Grosvenor is the new kid on the block in a huge spherical ship packed with 800 scientists. He's a “Nexialist” which is some kind of hooey about all scientific disciplines thrown together and used by guys who learn wicked-fast through hypnosis and other methods. He's the only Nexialist aboard and the rest of the crew are pretty doubtful about Elliot and his ravings... That is, until he totally shows them how smart he is and shoves it right down their dumb throats!

This book might have more fittingly been titled “Told You So” or “Who's Stupid Now?” It's dry “hard” science-fiction, at least on the surface, but the real core is a wish-fulfillment fantasy. This is exaggerated competence fodder for any smart or smartish kid who's ever had sand kicked in his face. Sadly, it's really little more than that. If I'd read this when I was 9 I might have been into it, but these days I need a better brand of childish pap.

The book is 4 stories stuck together, each one with a different threat. There are various psychic attacks, a red devil-thing that can pass through walls, and a cat-monster with tentacles that the crew only ever refers to as “pussy” (it kills like 50 people and they keep calling it that!). Meanwhile, Grosvenor struggles to get his ideas listened to and the crew debate over who should be “director” (lead scientist, there are elections).

I've read fix-up “novels” before, and they can be pretty good sometimes. Van Vogt's drags, though, since all 4 stories are pretty long (that type is pretty small too. Phonebook, anyone?). All of the creatures have their thoughts and motivations revealed, which pretty much eliminates potential suspense. Monsters plot to take over the ship and make mistakes, meanwhile a chemist named Kent plots to take over the ship and targets Grosvenor. The book tries to build this into a drama, but really there's nobody to root for.

If I seem unduly harsh to this book, one of the reasons is that Van Vogt sued the creators of the 1979 masterpiece “Alien” over what he thought was plagiarism. A story seven blue-collar space-truckers who get sent to a desolate planet by their computer and then confront horror from a biological parasite with a weird life-cycle and find out one of their number is a robot... it bares almost no resemblance to this book! The only solid similarities are that they both have a spaceship and a monster. One of the monsters in Van Vogt's book puts eggs in people, but he has to insert them manually (no face-hugger) and none of the creatures look a thing like Giger's Alien. I think Van Vogt saw “Alien” and saw that it made money, so he decided to pull a Harlan Ellison and sue to be a nuisance.

One of the things that really makes “The Voyage of the Space Beagle” fail for me is the hero, Grosvenor and how his frustrations at not being listened to result in him doing things like openly challenging people, coaxing others to assault him, taking over the ship, etc. He is supposed to be a master at all sciences, and yet he refuses to subtly employ sociology or psychology. Doc Savage was equally overpowered and smarter than his own team of experts, but he didn't alienate them because he also know how to display humility and to be patient with others. Grosvenor believes somehow that rather than subtly work with other human beings and display patience, that he should use his talents to simply rule over them. How does this not just make him an asshole?

Anyhow, didn't like this. It's Svengali in space with a chip on his shoulder. I know that Van Vogt is supposed to be a big deal, but this one did not sell me.

“Alien” is still an original and it's only tangible influences are “It! The Terror from Beyond Space”, Bava's “Planet of the Vampires”, and Lovecraft's “At the Mountains of Madness”. ...more

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Aug 23, 2017 John Bohnert rated it it was ok · review of another edition

The message of this science fiction novel seems to be that mankind should never leave this solar system. I was hoping that a space ship with over 800 scientists, intent on exploring new worlds, was exactly the novel I wanted to read. They encountered great danger over and over. I'm looking for a positive science fiction novel about exploring the stars. ...more

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About A.E. van Vogt

A.E. van Vogt

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Alfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born science fiction author regarded by some as one of the most popular and complex science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century—the "Golden Age" of the genre.

van Vogt was born to Russian Mennonite family. Until he was four years old, van Vogt and his family spoke only a dialect of Low German in the home.

He began his writing career with 'true story' ro ...more

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“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.” — 3 likes

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