(Drivebycuriosity) - I like to read science fiction. I have done it over many decades. But today´s scifi is disappointing - with few exceptions (Liu Cixin, Andy Weir, James L. Cambias, Alastair Reynolds). The genre got occupied by the woke zeitgeist and today`s celebrated authors don`t care about the genre and about science.
Therefore I reread some of the classics. I just finished "The Voyage Of The Space Beagle" by A.E. Van Vogt (first published 1950 amazon ). The name refers to Darwin`s ship of course. The space opera belongs to the most influential works of Science Fiction and is seen as the inspiration for movie franchises like "Alien" & "Star Trek".
The book is a synthesis of 4 novellas. A huge spaceship cruises through distant galaxies to explore the universe. On board are about 1,000 people: scientists, military & auxiliaries. They encounter beings which are predatory, extremely smart & powerful (this is a spoiler free blog).
In the foreground are the adventures; the fights against superpower enemies, but "Space Beagle" is more. Van Vogt wrote an ambitious novel and described how a large group of people responds to existential threads and how they deal with conflicting opinions. It´s a treaty on mini sociology & democracy (constrained on about 1,000 people). Several parts of the novel cover the intense quarrels about competing strategies to fight the enemies.
The book was written in the golden time of science fiction. The authors delivered optimism, belief in technological progress & can-do thinking. They wrote about humans exploring the universe and mastering any challenge with logical thinking & science.
"Space Beagle" it partly a fairy tale because Van Vogt neglected Einstein´s verdict that nothing can travel faster than light. The "Space Beagle" moves light years distances in hours and stopped sometimes suddenly in space. Otherwise the author filled his tale with a lot of physics, chemistry & biology and many encounters are based on elaborated references to evolution & human history.
The book is passably entertaining & spiced with a lot ambitious ideas, but it didn`t age too well.
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