The Voyage of the Space Beagle
by A. E. van Vogt, Bruce Jensen · first published 1950
57% recommend43% neutral
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
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…Ringworld Niven and Pournelle: The Mote in God's Eye, Footfall Gibson: Neuromancer Stephenson: Snow Crash, The Diamond Age Bear: The Forge of God, Eon Sagan: Contact van Vogt: The Voyage of the Space Beagle Lem: Solaris Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale LeGuin: The Left Hand of Darkness Lewis: Out of the Silent Planet Some of these are the beginnings of series or have sequels, or exist in a larger…
on “Beginnings of Science Fiction” ↗A.E. Van Vogt wrote it. Brilliant author. I am sure one of the tales in "The Voyage of the Space Beagle" was the inspiration for "Alien".
on “Man's brain turned to glass by hot Vesuvius ash cloud” ↗Wait till you read "Voyage of the Space Beagle"! https://www.amazon.com/Voyage-Space-Beagle-van-Vogt/dp/07653...
Voyage of the Space Beagle (A. E. van Vogt)
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?” ↗In A.E. van Vogt’s “The voyage of the space beagle” these were called Nexialists. In 1995 I started a company I called Nexial Systems.
on “Carving a Career Path as a Generalist” ↗…Wikipedia is an authoritative source, but existence of FTL is not the sole determinant. That would make 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' space opera. Space Opera is any true descendent of Van Vogt's "Voyage of the Space Beagle" or EE Doc Smith Lensman series, Horatio Hornblower but in space, etc. It requires the space opera quality, not the soap opera style. Star Trek is in, Star Gate (core, not including their Universe and…
on “William Gibson and the trademarking of cyberspace” ↗I believed that Alien was inspired by The Voyage of the Space Beagle, but Dan O'Bannon (the screenplay writer) denied it: "I didn't steal Alien from anybody. I stole it from everybody!" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(film)#Origins
on “Emerald cockroach wasp - Reproductive behavior and life cycle” ↗Aliens is more of a vanilla monster movie than scifi. I don't recall any science in it, other than the setting. Alien was based on a short story in "Voyage of the Space Beagle", though the implementation of it was fresh. The discovery and exploration of the alien's life cycle was good scifi.
on “The $55M saga of the Netflix series nobody will never see” ↗Some TOS episodes were based on classic scifi stories, like "Voyage of the Space Beagle". Also, Roddenberry employed established scifi authors like David Gerrold to script episodes. An annoying facet of ST episodes is the morality lessons they push, like on every episode of The Brady Bunch.
on “Patrick Stewart has died” ↗