Rating: 
Summary: Definitely Pre-Trek Quality Sci-Fi
Review: I learned of this book from the illustrations of the Ixtl and the Riim in "Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials" and wanted to read the source material. Any comparisons to Star Trek are "apples to oranges" - By today's standards - this would be considered amateur science fiction but I'm certain was "top of the line" in its day. The characters are underdeveloped and the story lines are forced. The last story ended with something to the likes of "That was exactly what happened". Even the least-liked Star Trek:TOS episode was written with more care.
The Ixtl was definitely the creature that inspired the Alien film series. Although it's reproductive method more closely parallels the Magog in "Andromeda" - another Roddenberry creation.
I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to see what Sci-Fi was and rapidly grew out of. I'd also recommend Barlowe's Guide - excellent concept artwork.
Rating: 
Summary: Coeurl will rock your world!
Review: A novel made by stringing four stories together but you barely notice it. The book is the best action adventure tale in sci fi. You will meet Coeurl in the first story, the finest alien villan sci fi ever produced and my favorite character from the whole genre. The second creature you encounter was the inspiration (rip off) for the movie Alien. You'll love him, too. The third story is a low point...but the last poses an inconceiveble creature bespelling certain doom for our intrepid explorers. Forget about all that "nexialism" stuff, it's about the monsters. You'll see that from the beginning, and that this novel is an exiting unabashed thrillride. I cherish it so, and after I had cast away all my boxes of sci fi novels to get on with my life as a young man, I could not part with just one, this novel. The coolest sci fi adventure ever.
Rating:
Summary: don't be misled by the corny title
Review: A series of adventures for the crew of the Beagle, each more challenging than the previous. Good blend of action, ideas, and a bit of philosophy.
Rating:
Summary: don't be misled by the corny title
Review: A series of adventures for the crew of the Beagle, each more challenging than the previous. Good blend of action, ideas, and a bit of philosophy.
Rating: 
Summary: Patchy, but decent.
Review: A. E. van Vogt, The Voyage of the Space Beagle (Astounding, 1950)The cover of the ebook trumpets this as "the novel that inspired Alien." And, to be fair, van Vogt sued Ridley Scott and co. and won. Okay, you can see the resemblances to the film if you turn your head and squint just right... but that Beagle did more than influence (roughly) the folks who developed the film is, in the final analysis, hogwash. Voyage of the Space Beagle (the ship named, of course, after Darwin's home for a number of years) is only loosely a novel. It is actually three of van Vogt's stories from Astounding combined with some extra material intended, one assumes, to tie the whole thing together. It doesn't work very well in that regard, as the book still comes off as far too episodic to be more than a collection of short stories. The added material is, however, the best-written and most compelling stuff in the book, and should be noted for that. The stories center around one Elliott Grosvenor, paragon of a science called Nexialism, which unites all the sciences into one whole. (One is tempted to think of Nexialism as the science which grows up after the Unified Field equation is discovered.) He's on a very large (thousand-man) ship travelling about the Universe for what one can assume are the purposes of discovery (the ship's purpose is lightly alluded to close to the end of the book, but never spelled out). As with all episodic novels, the crew ends up encountering new creatures, trying to figure out what they are, and trying to figure out how to rid themselves of them once they have figured out what they are. The original stories follow exact patterns in this regard, and are where the source material for those parts of Alien that can be found here stem; everything Alienesque one will find in the book, by the way, happens in the first half hour of the film. What is more interesting here is what came after to tie everything together, the expanded sections of Grosvenor's dynamic with the rest of the crew. The ship is filled with petty disagreements and minor skirmishes for power, each of which is catalyzed into action by the invasion of each of the new species in turn, and Grosvenor's handling of the various power structures is what makes this a truly readable piece of work. Had van Vogt expanded this aspect of the book more, it could have done nothing but improve. As it stands, worth reading for Alien completists. Those who are wondering what all the fuss was about will probably still be wondering after they finish. ** ½
Rating: 
Summary: A precursor to Star Trek?
Review: AE Van Vogt published "The Voyage of the Space Beagle" in 1950, and I often muse that it must have inspired or influenced Gene Roddenberry. I mean, a huge space ship leaves the solar system, bound on a long voyage of discovery, encountering strange and dangerous aliens, going "where no man has gone before". Sounds a bit like Star Trek, doesn't it? Anyway, I think it's one of the best older Science Fiction novels I've ever read, and this book, along with early Heinlein, (Have Space Suit Will Travel), etc. made me an early sci-fi fan back in the early 60's.
Rating:
Summary: Three short stories about the far traveling crew
Review: As a classic Sci-Fi novel it reads pretty good. Much of the futuristic speculative science is not yet either obsolete nor proven impossible 60 years later. Some of the high-tech foreseen by Vogt includes an integration science called Nexialism which integrates all other science including hypnosis and mental conditioning. The crew encounters 3 fantastic beasts and a telepathy planet on their intergalactic voyage, each more fantastic and challenging than the next. In seemingly mindless stupidity they invite the first two unknown beasts on board their ship and then have to find ways to defeat it. Human technology, other than space travel and Nexialism seems pretty undeveloped, while the beasts can change atomic structure of metal by willing it so, pass off electronic "vibration" beams, or walk through walls. Each of the stories, or each of the encounters has our "Nexialist" hero matching wits with the ship director who doesn't understand Nexialism and doesn't trust him, with good reason. Our hero finally hypnotizes the entire crew and effectively takes over, though with altruistic motives. Overall it's entertaining for an afternoon in the hot tub or the exercise bike.
Rating:
Summary: Three short stories about the far traveling crew
Review: As a classic Sci-Fi novel it reads pretty good. Much of the futuristic speculative science is not yet either obsolete nor proven impossible 60 years later. Some of the high-tech foreseen by Vogt includes an integration science called Nexialism which integrates all other science including hypnosis and mental conditioning. The crew encounters 3 fantastic beasts and a telepathy planet on their intergalactic voyage, each more fantastic and challenging than the next. In seemingly mindless stupidity they invite the first two unknown beasts on board their ship and then have to find ways to defeat it. Human technology, other than space travel and Nexialism seems pretty undeveloped, while the beasts can change atomic structure of metal by willing it so, pass off electronic "vibration" beams, or walk through walls. Each of the stories, or each of the encounters has our "Nexialist" hero matching wits with the ship director who doesn't understand Nexialism and doesn't trust him, with good reason. Our hero finally hypnotizes the entire crew and effectively takes over, though with altruistic motives. Overall it's entertaining for an afternoon in the hot tub or the exercise bike.
Rating:
Summary: AE Van Vogt at his best.
Review: For those who have never read AE Van Vogt, this is a good book to start with. AE apparently has written many books, and most are hard to find, except perhaps in stores devoted to science fiction, or used bookstores.
Voyage starts off intriguingly and never lets up on the adrenaline rush. Its main character, Grosvenor, is the kind of strong, resourceful character that you find in the best of AE Van Vogt. No one writes like AE. He is truly in a class with the best sci-fi writers. In fact, there are only two that I really like: AE, and Isaac Asimov.
Voyage is one of his best. Definitely recommended
Rating:
Summary: One of van Vogt's best
Review: I ran across this book in the school library when I was 12 years old. All I can say: oh my. Forget all of van Vogt's goofy ideas about "Nexialism." Just enjoy the ride. The author had this eerie ability to put you in the mind of aliens. Sometimes, they seemed more real than his human characters. And yes, obviously one of the stories in this volume appears to be the uncredited source for the movie, "Alien." After reading about Couerl, a sort of a gigantic intelligent immensely strong alien cat who sucks the marrow out of people's bones, I couldn't look at my parents' cat without thinking of him. Vivid writing. If you're a fan of the Golden Age of science-fiction, you shouldn't miss this one.
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