MathFiction: Vault of the Beast (Alfred Elton van Vogt)

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Vault of the Beast (1940)

Alfred Elton van Vogt
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Contributed by "William E. Emba"

"A creature of vast powers is locked up inside a vault made up of ultimate metal. The key to freeing it turns out to be 'factoring the ultimate prime number', which procedure is given an extended pseudomathematical explanation. (Of course, this is all deliberate 1940 goshwow gibberish.)"

Originally published in Astounding (1940), it has since been reproduced in several van Vogt collections.

Contributed by Anonymous

I enjoyed Vault of the Beast very much. It was probably the best SF read of my otherwise misspent youth.

More information about this work can be found at www.amazon.com.
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Works Similar to Vault of the Beast

According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:

The Second Moon by Russell R. Winterbotham
What Dead Men Tell by Theodore Sturgeon
Misfit by Robert A. Heinlein
The Feeling of Power by Isaac Asimov
The Cube Root of Conquest by Rog Phillips
The Island of Five Colors by Martin Gardner
The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges
Technical Error by Arthur C. Clarke
Into the Fourth by Adam Hull Shirk
The Galactic Circle by Jack Williamson

Ratings for Vault of the Beast:

Ratings

Have you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.

Mathematical Content:
3.5/5 (2 votes)

Literary Quality:
3/5 (2 votes)

Categories:

Genre	Science Fiction,
Motif
Topic	Algebra/Arithmetic/Number Theory,
Medium	Short Stories,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook .

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)