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The Voyage of the Space Beagle

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Author: A. E. Van Vogt
Publisher: Orb Books
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$14.95~~
Buy New: $8.49
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Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

26 reviews
Sales Rank: 421809

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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - The VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE
•	Hardcover - The Voyage of the Space Beagle
•	Paperback - The Voyage of the Space Beagle
•	Mass Market Paperback - The Voyage of the Space Beagle (Macfadden SF, 60-146)
•	Kindle Edition - Voyage of the Space Beagle
•	Mass Market Paperback - The Voyage of The Space Beagle
•	Unbound - Voyage of the Space Beagle
•	Unknown Binding - The voyage of the Space Beagle
•	Hardcover - Voyage of Space Beagle

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Editorial Reviews:

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.

Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Nexialism November 16, 2008
This book is about wo different things. The first is the four episodic plots where the crew meets a different alien in each plot, then it proceeds to try to kill them, and they find some way to stop it. That to mee felt like a bunch of Star Trek episodes. And, yes, one of the episodes inspired Alien, but the movie alien is scarier, while that particular plot is more thoughtful.

The other plot of the book is far more interesting, and that is the plot of Nexialism versus the other sciences, and the arrogant scientists onboard who don't consider Nexialism a real science. Nexialism is supposed to be a superscience, which is wholeistic, in that one has to be a master of all other sciences and understand how they relate together. Part of this is maximizing a person's ability to learn massive amounts of information. If found this part of the book to be far more entertaining than the Star Trek plots, and much more devloped. Reading it, I wish such a science did exist. It would be awesome to be able to learn everything there is to know about chemistry in a month, then move on to another topic the next month.

4 out of 5 stars

Not Free SF Reader July 19, 2008
The original scary Alien is Black Destroyer - the rest isn't up to that standard of this old space opera, as the crew tries to solve alien problems - best when they are desperately trying to do so, such as in War of Nerves, not sitting around scientisting at each other.

Although a 3.25, we'll round up for Black Destroyer.

Voyage of the Space Beagle : Black Destroyer - A. E. van Vogt
Voyage of the Space Beagle : Discord in Scarlet - A. E. van Vogt
Voyage of the Space Beagle : War of Nerves - A. E. van Vogt
Voyage of the Space Beagle : M 33 in Andromeda - A. E. van Vogt

A ship's crew lands on a planet and meets an alien with extraordinarily dangerous abilities.

3.5 out of 5

Can you boys agree on the aliens, please?

3 out of 5

"How in the name of all the hells can anything live in intergalactic space?"

Or, a guul you will be.

3.5 out of 5

Ethics and Anabis.

3 out of 5

3.5 out of 5

5 out of 5 stars

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.

5 out of 5 stars

Into the Unknown October 15, 2007
9 out of 9 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

5 out of 5 stars

A classic... September 18, 2007
1 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.

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