July Group Read 2 - The Voyage of the Space Beagle

[Cheryl]

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 adventure.

Cute how the bridge resembles a university lecture auditorium.

And there's an argument against the Prime Directive here: "It's unwise for birds--or men--to live too specialized an existence. I broke down their resistance to new ideas..."

Interesting commentary voiced by the character named Smith: "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."

And what I really get a kick out of is the line "Resistance, however, will be useless."

[Jim]

I have to agree that it wasn't the best writing, but there are a lot of ideas that were picked up by later works in it. It's always been one of my old favorites. I like the idea of an overarching science that stitches all of the others together. Van Vogt did that in The Silkie with a system of logic, too. These were his ideas while his friend Hubbard came up with his own.

I'm also a fan of the warnings against over-specialization. It was a theme of several books around that time. It's really needed today.

[Peter]

Ooh, van Vogt! Space Beagle! 🚀 🦖 ⚡️ 骁
Should root around for my (ancient, yellowing) copy). At least my notes.....