The expendables by A. E. Van Vogt
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"The Expendables" by A. E. Van Vogt is a science fiction novel written in the early 1960s, emerging from a period when space exploration was a burgeoning theme in literature. The book explores themes of power, survival, and human ingenuity in a high-stakes interstellar setting. It tells the story of a spaceship carrying generations of colonists as they face existential threats from alien beings and internal discord. In the narrative, the spaceship
"Hope of Man" arrives at the alien world of Alta III, where the crew must navigate a complex web of power struggles and alien encounters. When Captain Browne decides to send a lifeboat crew to the planet, tensions rise as John Lesbee, a skilled technician, recognizes that he and his conspiratorial friends are being manipulated into a dangerous situation. Upon encountering the telepathic Karn aliens, Lesbee seizes on the opportunity to turn the tables against Browne, who represents a lineage of command that oppresses his own family. As the tension escalates to a climax involving betrayal, strategic maneuvers, and the quest for supremacy, Lesbee must ultimately decide between power and the well-being of the entire expedition. With themes of betrayal and the question of what it means to be "expendable," Van Vogt's story engages with notions of loyalty, authority, and the moral complexities of leadership. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Van Vogt, A. E. (Alfred Elton), 1912-2000 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Finlay, Virgil, 1914-1971 |
| Title | The expendables |
| Original Publication | United States: Galaxy Publishing Corporation, 1963. |
| Series Title | Centaurus |
| Series Title | Produced from If Worlds of Science Fiction September 1963 |
| Credits | Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 74.7 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Human-alien encounters -- Fiction |
| Subject | Space travelers -- Fiction |
| Subject | Interpersonal conflict -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 70235 |
| ISBN (HTML) | 979-8-238-70235-3 |
| Release Date | Mar 8, 2023 |
| Last Update | Mar 16, 2023 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 584 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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