Mission to the Stars

A. E. van Vogt spins a great space opera in this short (157) page volume. Mission to the Stars was originally published under the name The Mixed Men. Here is a brief plot summary: The Lady Gloria Laurr, Gran Captain of the Earth Space ship Star Cluster is sent (initially to map) the renegade civilization (called the Fifty Suns) of Dellians, non-Dellians, and Mixed Men in the Greater Magnetic Cloud. The Mixed Men are second class citizens in the Fifty Suns civilization and have the weigh the benefits and disadvantages of declaring the presence of their culture to the Earth vessel. Maltby, the hereditary leader of the superhuman Mixed Men who is also an officer in the Fifty Suns space fleet is presented with a series of moral choices. I will not give away anymore of the plot but it involves a "forced" (in an interesting way) romantic element. A. E. van Vogt writes with admirable prose for the time (especially the introductory chapter). I was also very impressed with his use of female characters - most importantly the Lady Gloria Laurr. Albeit, the two main characters, Gloria and Maltby aren't particularly well rounded but then again rarely do we find well rounded characters in space opera of this time. Also, the uniqueness of Gloria's position in sci-fi of the time is reduced substantially by the end - i.e. she is a "career woman" who "needs a husband". That said the far future technology is fantastic, the plot moves quickly (a little too quickly in some places to the detriment of interesting detail and depth), the dialogue is almost always pretty weak, and sadly Vogt skimps on many interesting battle scenes involving the powerful Earth ship Star Cluster. All in all, this was a quick, fun, light, and interesting read.

A wild Van Vogt space adventure fixup. Dellian robots aren't, as such, but people with enhanced abilities - but breed with others and you get 'Mixed Men' who have mental superpowers. They are also attempting to hide from the Galactic Empire - but no luck there, unless the woman leading the seek, locate and hopefully not destroy type mission and the leader of the Mixed Men can come to some sort of less violent agreement. Love, telepathy and spaceships. Fun book. Mission to the Stars : Concealment - A. E. Van Vogt Mission to the Stars : The Storm - A. E. Van Vogt Mission to the Stars : The Mixed Men - A. E. Van Vogt Perfect robot disguise. 3.5 out of 5 Mixed man ship smash lure. 3 out of 5 Two brain overrun plan opposition. 3.5 out of 5 3.5 out of 5

This is a book with two titles, Mission to the Stars and The Mixed Men, and as such I'm posting this review under both books. Van Vogt writes about a refugee people who escaped from Earth's clutches thousands of generations ago and mixed, Dellians with non-Dellians. The result of this union is a race of Mixed Men who are telepathic supermen. These people are hiding within the countless stars of the Greater Magellanic Cloud and call themselves Fifty Suns. Into this cloud comes an Earth warship, more powerful than the combined resources and power of the entire Dellianic race. It's the Captain of the Star Cluster, Lady Gloria Laurr, who is determined to subjugate these wayward humans back under Earth's control. The leader of the Mixed Men fights back, falls in love, and then becomes distrusted by his own men. It's a grand drama and one of the earliest space operas I've read. I loved the writing for its simplicity, straight-forward and nothing wasted in advancing the plot. The dialogue is a bit stilted . . . okay, it's a lot stilted . . . but it fits in with the era in which van Vogt wrote the novel. All the characters except Maltby, the leader of the Mixed Men, and Laurr are carboard throwaway characters, reminding me of the legion of red-shirts used up in the many seasons of Star Trek series. It's a fun read, especially if you don't think about it too much. - CV Rick

_Mission to the Stars_ aka _The Mixed Men_ is one of those books I read way back in adolescence and kept reading until my 50 cent Berkley copy became too fragile to keep in anything but plastic. They are reprinting Van Vogt's works, and I check periodically to see if just maybe someone has had the sense to reprint this one. First, you should understand that this is space opera. But it has those quirky Van Vogt twists, like _The War against the Rull_ that give pause for reflection. I'm trying to come up with a useful comparison, and the best I can do is call it a more thoughtful _Flandry_ (Pohl Anderson).The other review gives you a reasonable plot summary and I can only say in addition that I hope you can find a copy in reasonable shape.

Generations after the Dellian "robots" (actually humans whose genetic and molecular makeups have been subtlely modified by their forebears' use of an early model of teleportation device) have fled persecution by starship into the myriad solar systems of the Greater Magellanic Cloud, the Right Honourable Lady Lorr commands an armed starship expedition to ferret them out and return them to Earth's control.She finds them, along with far more than she had bargained for, both romantically and otherwise.The "mixed man" Malxby's effective taming of this delicious intergalactic shrew is instructive for those who wish to coexist romantically with today's strong-willed, demanding feminist professionals.