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Vault of the Beast
It came to Earth to find a genius mathematician . . . the one human in the solar system capable of understanding the ultimate prime number. Time is running out. The time-lock on the Beast's millennia-old Martian cage is about to open, and mankind will never be able to deal with the threat!A classic from the Golden Age of science fiction, originally published in the August, 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
30 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 1940
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64 people want to read
About the author
A.E. van Vogt
648 books458 followersAlfred 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' romances, but then moved to writing science fiction, a field he identified with. His first story was Black Destroyer, that appeared as the front cover story for the July 1939 edtion of the popular "Astounding Science Fiction" magazine.
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' romances, but then moved to writing science fiction, a field he identified with. His first story was Black Destroyer, that appeared as the front cover story for the July 1939 edtion of the popular "Astounding Science Fiction" magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 27, 2024
A explosive and inexpensive tour de force by an early master of science fiction! It’s a whopper of a story, and comes to us from the first Golden Age of Sci-Fi: the 1940’s, when Terror was everywhere.
In essence, it’s a Parable.
You see, as that great giant of depth psychology Carl Jung once said, we moderns are a Divided People. We have divorced our intellects from our natural (and often chthonic) selves.
My own natural self was Autistic (a condition still unknown back then) - AND Chthonic, because it went Underground after the rebukes of my unsympathetic stern teachers.
It was, you see, my Jungian Daemon.
Prospero has divorced his Caliban, because he can be awful, along with all his inner magic.
We need to REUNITE with our Beast - but only Sotto Voce - for our Beast is the Source that gives life to our dreams, as Cocteau shows symbolically in Belle et la Bête! And seeing him clearly is understanding that we’re ALL misfits.
Hey. Know why the magic has disappeared from our humdrum lives?
Simple. Caliban - the Beast - was the FATHER of our magic. It’s in our feeling, more ingenuous, primitive selves. For us moderns, though, our Caliban is translated - in many quarters - into the Biblical story of the Beast of the Apocalypse.
And that’s too much like The Sum of All Fears.
And we FIGHT that Beast, or we love him.
Both extremes are wrong, as recent political developments show. We have to REINTEGRATE with this Quiet Beast, through steadfast forgiveness of our malefactors.
That - or perish in hopelessness.
But it’s not hopeless. Our Prosperos - our magical books - can lead us back to a time when we were able to cope with the Beast, by bringing back the magic of our youth.
We owe it to our health. Caliban can no longer be caged - as we see now all too clearly.
No - he must be TAMED and DOMESTICATED - at least within our own headspace, until he's house trained. Then he can run and leap within our own fortified castle.
And no, it’s “NOT to late to seek a better world.” Even if we’re old and tired of fighting, exactly as Tennyson’s Ulysses was when he said it.
The Beast is part of us. He's a driver. Let’s not view him as THE Apocalyptic Beast alone, as Van Vogt so masterfully does here.
No! We must -
READ long and hard.
SHARE with friends how these stories tell you the story of your life, and -
LIVE that story out loud!
OPEN UP - with yourself and others.
***
This morning I awoke as the Beast, after a long, deep sleep. I had lost my logic. I was once again a misunderstood autistic BLOB. It was scary - until I realized the dream was the product of profound subconscious imagery.
But everything was OK. I now Knew it to be a personal Archetype for me!
If we see the Beast can once again be a personal Pet - as Caliban was for Prospero - we’ll once more sail smooth seas.
As with Androcles, charming the Lion with his enchanted tales.
Don’t cage him, whatever you do.
Oh, and one more thing…
Invite PROSPERO back to your Tight Little Island, to restore your personal MAGIC - if you’ve lost that idyllic imagination of yours, and so -
Bring your Life Back to VIVID LIFE with healing Books and Stories.
And - oh, yes - love your Caliban: your Beast.
In essence, it’s a Parable.
You see, as that great giant of depth psychology Carl Jung once said, we moderns are a Divided People. We have divorced our intellects from our natural (and often chthonic) selves.
My own natural self was Autistic (a condition still unknown back then) - AND Chthonic, because it went Underground after the rebukes of my unsympathetic stern teachers.
It was, you see, my Jungian Daemon.
Prospero has divorced his Caliban, because he can be awful, along with all his inner magic.
We need to REUNITE with our Beast - but only Sotto Voce - for our Beast is the Source that gives life to our dreams, as Cocteau shows symbolically in Belle et la Bête! And seeing him clearly is understanding that we’re ALL misfits.
Hey. Know why the magic has disappeared from our humdrum lives?
Simple. Caliban - the Beast - was the FATHER of our magic. It’s in our feeling, more ingenuous, primitive selves. For us moderns, though, our Caliban is translated - in many quarters - into the Biblical story of the Beast of the Apocalypse.
And that’s too much like The Sum of All Fears.
And we FIGHT that Beast, or we love him.
Both extremes are wrong, as recent political developments show. We have to REINTEGRATE with this Quiet Beast, through steadfast forgiveness of our malefactors.
That - or perish in hopelessness.
But it’s not hopeless. Our Prosperos - our magical books - can lead us back to a time when we were able to cope with the Beast, by bringing back the magic of our youth.
We owe it to our health. Caliban can no longer be caged - as we see now all too clearly.
No - he must be TAMED and DOMESTICATED - at least within our own headspace, until he's house trained. Then he can run and leap within our own fortified castle.
And no, it’s “NOT to late to seek a better world.” Even if we’re old and tired of fighting, exactly as Tennyson’s Ulysses was when he said it.
The Beast is part of us. He's a driver. Let’s not view him as THE Apocalyptic Beast alone, as Van Vogt so masterfully does here.
No! We must -
READ long and hard.
SHARE with friends how these stories tell you the story of your life, and -
LIVE that story out loud!
OPEN UP - with yourself and others.
***
This morning I awoke as the Beast, after a long, deep sleep. I had lost my logic. I was once again a misunderstood autistic BLOB. It was scary - until I realized the dream was the product of profound subconscious imagery.
But everything was OK. I now Knew it to be a personal Archetype for me!
If we see the Beast can once again be a personal Pet - as Caliban was for Prospero - we’ll once more sail smooth seas.
As with Androcles, charming the Lion with his enchanted tales.
Don’t cage him, whatever you do.
Oh, and one more thing…
Invite PROSPERO back to your Tight Little Island, to restore your personal MAGIC - if you’ve lost that idyllic imagination of yours, and so -
Bring your Life Back to VIVID LIFE with healing Books and Stories.
And - oh, yes - love your Caliban: your Beast.
July 11, 2016
A.E. van Vogt, he of the weird, but memorable name, really rocks. Like his name, his stories, too, are often weird and more importantly, very memorable.
It's really a testament to his writing that he is still read while many of his contempories, especially from the Golden Age of science fiction (late 30s to 50s) are long forgotten, sometimes with good reason. It is usually one the bigger names, that are and still heavily marketed, like Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, that are still remembered, but if you have ever read an A.E. van Vogt story, it'll stick with you.
I hadn't read the short story, "Vault of the Beast," before, and while it's science is very dated -- that wasn't his strong suit anyway -- the creepiness of the tale, of an alien blob-like creature that can take form and any object or person, is almost palpable. It is often said van Vogt's work is a precursor to many contemporary popular works, like "Star Wars," and in this case, you can clearly see the roots of the 2nd "Terminator" movie with it's shape-changing robot.
Also interestingly, as horror writer Stephen King has written that he is a fan of van Vogt, you can see with similarities with this story to King's epic novel "It" as they both deal with some evil otherwordly presence disrupting human lives. But not only that, you can tell King writing style is inspired from van Vogt.
For a pulp-era science fiction story, this is worth a read (very cheap on the Kindle). Sometimes the transitions between scenes can be jarring or the introduction of new characters very abrupt, but overall, it's an entertaining horror sci-fi story that has a very good pace.
It's really a testament to his writing that he is still read while many of his contempories, especially from the Golden Age of science fiction (late 30s to 50s) are long forgotten, sometimes with good reason. It is usually one the bigger names, that are and still heavily marketed, like Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, that are still remembered, but if you have ever read an A.E. van Vogt story, it'll stick with you.
I hadn't read the short story, "Vault of the Beast," before, and while it's science is very dated -- that wasn't his strong suit anyway -- the creepiness of the tale, of an alien blob-like creature that can take form and any object or person, is almost palpable. It is often said van Vogt's work is a precursor to many contemporary popular works, like "Star Wars," and in this case, you can clearly see the roots of the 2nd "Terminator" movie with it's shape-changing robot.
Also interestingly, as horror writer Stephen King has written that he is a fan of van Vogt, you can see with similarities with this story to King's epic novel "It" as they both deal with some evil otherwordly presence disrupting human lives. But not only that, you can tell King writing style is inspired from van Vogt.
For a pulp-era science fiction story, this is worth a read (very cheap on the Kindle). Sometimes the transitions between scenes can be jarring or the introduction of new characters very abrupt, but overall, it's an entertaining horror sci-fi story that has a very good pace.
October 26, 2021
It was fine, neat even at times
December 3, 2013
Short. Some very iffy math. But fun stuff.
September 2, 2011
It was fun to read some old classic science fiction from a master.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews