The Voyage of the Space Beagle

The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Cover of the first edition
AuthorA. E. van Vogt
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherSimon & Schuster
Publication date
September 8, 1950[1]
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages240
OCLC1240657
LC Class50-14253

The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950) is a science fiction novel by American writer A. E. van Vogt. An example of space opera subgenre, the novel is a "fix-up" compilation of four previously published stories:

  • "Black Destroyer" (cover story of the July 1939 issue of Astounding magazine—the first published SF by A. E. van Vogt) (chapters 1 to 6)
  • "War of Nerves" (May 1950, Other Worlds magazine) (chapters 9 to 12)
  • "Discord in Scarlet" (cover story of the December 1939 issue of Astounding magazine—the second published SF by A. E. van Vogt) (chapters 13 to 21)
  • "M33 in Andromeda" (August 1943, Astounding magazine, later published as a story in the book M33 in Andromeda (1971)) (chapters 22 to 28)

In the novel, a huge globular spaceship, populated by a chemically castrated all-male crew of almost a thousand, who are on an extended scientific mission to explore intergalactic space, encounters several, mostly hostile, aliens and alien civilizations. On board the spaceship during its journey, both political and scientific revolutions take place.

The title of the book is a reference to The Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin's book about his five-year voyage around the world on HMS Beagle. The book was republished in 1952 under the title Mission: Interplanetary.

  1. ^ "Books Published Today". The New York Times: 29. September 8, 1950.