This is the story of a research space vessel travelling through the universe in a great scientific endeavor obviously named after Darwin\u2019s ship HMS Beagle.\u00a0 The ship is filled up with scientists of various disciplines; chemists, physicists, biologists, etc.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But one of the scientists is a generalist, or to be precise a Nexialist.\u00a0 This man, Elliot Grosvenor is the story\u2019s protagonist and the book is just as much about his struggle to proselytize his fellow scientists about the wonders of Nexialism as it is fighting various interstellar monsters.<\/p>\n
This Nexialism is akin to the synthesists that Heinlein sometimes mentions in his writing.\u00a0 They are able to rise above the narrow expertise of the subject matter experts in each of the sciences and see the big picture.\u00a0 Gregory Kent, the head of the Chemistry Department is Grosvenor\u2019s nemesis.\u00a0 He uses all methods normal or criminal to prevent Grosvenor from spreading the gospel of Nexialism but, inexorably, Grosvenor\u2019s string of victories in figuring out the nature of the threats that each of the alien monsters presents bring more and more of the scientists on his side until by the end of the story Grosvenor is able to take control of the mission and bend it to his purpose.<\/p>\n
Interestingly one of the monsters, the Ixtl, is the source for the creature in Alien.\u00a0 The creature takes its victims alive and implants an egg in each to reproduce its kind.\u00a0 The other threats are less frightening; a cat-like predator, a hive mind that sends out its thought telepathically and finally a giant gas cloud that feeds off the life of a whole galaxy at a time.<\/p>\n
Re-reading this book so many decades later it\u2019s plain to see that as a kid I never noticed how badly A. E. van Vogt\u2019s writes people.\u00a0 In some ways it reminds me of the phenomenon I sense in Lovecraft\u2019s writing.\u00a0 There is a fertile mind that can create images that are striking but the dialog and the characters are flat and lifeless.\u00a0 His human characters are not very interesting.\u00a0 But a ten-year-old boy isn\u2019t really interested in reading deathless prose.\u00a0 Surprisingly, his monsters are livelier.\u00a0 Perhaps he wrote from the point of view of the aliens.\u00a0 And the science fiction in the stories can be quite entertaining.\u00a0 The scientists have to jury rig all sorts of science projects to outwit their enemies in each chapter and the technical mumbo jumbo is a lot of fun.<\/p>\n
So, do I recommend this book.\u00a0 Let\u2019s do it this way.\u00a0 If you are from the literary camp of science fiction then forget it.\u00a0 The Space Beagle won\u2019t work for you.\u00a0 If you like space opera of the old school then by all means give it a shot.\u00a0 Just don\u2019t get mad if you find out A. E. van Vogt isn\u2019t Bill Shakespeare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is the story of a research space vessel travelling through the universe in a great scientific endeavor obviously named after Darwin\u2019s ship HMS Beagle.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,237,242],"tags":[2403,2405,981,980,2404],"class_list":["post-10355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-a-e-van-vogt","tag-alien","tag-photogs-rule-for-what-makes-good-space-opera","tag-space-opera","tag-the-voyage-of-the-space-beagle"],"yoast_head":"\n