Saturday, February 13, 2010

The Voyage of the Space Beagle and other works of A.E. Van Vogt

Last month my Associate gave me a book, The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A.E. Van Vogt.

The book is made up of four sections that were originally published as individual short stories from 1939 - 1950. However, when placed together they form a coherent whole. The book follows the ship Space Beagle and its crew as they journey through space on a mission of exploration. A.E. Van Vogt was inspired by reading Darwin's account of his research expedition in The Voyage of the Beagle.

The book was a direct inspiration for several science fiction works that came afterward.

I liked the book and wanted to read more of Van Vogt's works. There was a time when I would have immediately rushed out and bought a few of his books. Instead I did a more sensible thing; I went to the library and checked out a couple books.

I read Slan, which is about a boy who is a Slan, a race of beings that are being hunted and killed by humans. The other book was The World of Null-A. In this novel everyone tells the main character he is not who he says he is, then they try to kill him. I would explain things more, but I do not want to give away anything important in either book. Of the two I liked Slan better. It was easier to follow and made more sense when I was reading it.

To summarize, the A.E. Van Vogt books I read include:

The Voyage of the Space Beagle
1/21-24

Slan
1/25-30

The World of Null-A
2/2-9

If you are interested, go to the library and check out Slan by Van Vogt.

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