I Read Books: Triplanetary
Time for a re-read of E E “Doc” Smith’s “Classic” Lensman series. First a bit of background:
Publication History
Smith wrote four lensman novels for serial publication in Astounding Stories. They were:
Galactic Patrol
Gray Lensman
Second Stage Lensman
Children of the Lens
When re-released as paperback novels he added two prequels, Triplanetary and First Lensman. There’s also a seventh spin-off novel Masters of the Vortex.
Triplanetary, which this post is about, was originally serialised in Amazing Stories before becoming part of the Lensman series; it was re-worked and had several historical (-ish) chapters at the beginning added.
The Series Background
Two Thousand Million years ago there were only two or three planets in the galaxy*. On one of them arose the Arisians, a race of beings with super-minds. Then the galaxy passed through another one, and lots of planets were formed on which would undoubtedly arise lots of beings who would be descended from Arisian spores.
Arriving from another space-time continuum at this point are the Eddorians, looking for planets to conquer. But since most galaxies only have two or three they stop here. The Arisians are not pleased and so make a ridiculous plan to defeat them, a plan that co-incidentally creates two galaxies designed for maximum space opera.
And so to Triplanetary
The first chapter details the background above which ends with the Arisians creating breeding lines for extraordinary people on four planets, one of which is Earth. Earth gets two; one is the Kinnisons and the other is characterised by "red-bronze-auburn hair and gold-flecked, tawny eyes". They are psychologically antithetical to each other so they will not get together until the end of the breeding program (book 6 Children of the Lens). We then see these lines through history; Atlantis falls, thanks to Eddorian meddling, so does Rome. We get WW1, WW2 and finally WW3, after which Gharlane of Eddore thinks he**’s dealt with the problems of Earth and takes a break. He’s wrong.
The second part of the book is a straightforward space opera story and by straightforward I mean it has twists and turns as space pirates turn out to be much more, the climactic battle is just a prelude as interstellar amphibians turn up, super-technology is upgraded to hyper-technology and there is just time for a bit of romance between hardboiled Triplanetary Agent Conway Costigan and socialite Clio Marsden.
There’s a few entertaining examples of retro-technology (data is sorted on punch cards at one point) and the attitudes of the day towards women are fully on display. It’s still a lot of fun. The advances in science seem very rushed, and yet it’s worth remembering that Smith was a chemical engineer during World War Two, in which the US did put prototypes into production extremely quickly.
In fact the most interesting chapter is the WW2 chapter in which Ralph Kinnison, a chemical engineer, works for a explosives and munitions plant. Smith, who spent the majority of his career as a food chemist, spent the war working for the US in explosives. If I say that this chapter feels more real than the rest it’s not because of, say, the lack of adepts of North Polar Jupiter or inertialess space cruisers.
Read This: For some “classic” Space Opera, classic not meaning brilliant and timeless, but foundational. Also kind of fun, even if Pittsburgh does get destroyed.
Don’t Read This: If the breathless pulp prose and slightly off hand megadeaths occurring are not for you.
This post is supported by my Patreon, which also hosts my own space opera stories.
* Only rare interactions between stars formed planets; this was a not unreasonable position to take back in 1948.
** In fact Eddorians “...were asexual: sexless to a degree unapproached by any form of Tellurian life higher than the yeasts. They were not merely hermaphroditic, nor androgynous, nor parthenogenetic. They were completely without sex. They were also, to all intents and purposes and except for death by violence, immortal. For each Eddorian, as its mind approached the stagnation of saturation after a lifetime of millions of years, simply divided into two new-old beings. New in capacity and in zest; old in ability and in power, since each of the two "children" possessed in toto the knowledges and the memories of their one 'parent.'”
Publication History
Smith wrote four lensman novels for serial publication in Astounding Stories. They were:
Galactic Patrol
Gray Lensman
Second Stage Lensman
Children of the Lens
When re-released as paperback novels he added two prequels, Triplanetary and First Lensman. There’s also a seventh spin-off novel Masters of the Vortex.
Triplanetary, which this post is about, was originally serialised in Amazing Stories before becoming part of the Lensman series; it was re-worked and had several historical (-ish) chapters at the beginning added.
The Series Background
Two Thousand Million years ago there were only two or three planets in the galaxy*. On one of them arose the Arisians, a race of beings with super-minds. Then the galaxy passed through another one, and lots of planets were formed on which would undoubtedly arise lots of beings who would be descended from Arisian spores.
Arriving from another space-time continuum at this point are the Eddorians, looking for planets to conquer. But since most galaxies only have two or three they stop here. The Arisians are not pleased and so make a ridiculous plan to defeat them, a plan that co-incidentally creates two galaxies designed for maximum space opera.
And so to Triplanetary
The first chapter details the background above which ends with the Arisians creating breeding lines for extraordinary people on four planets, one of which is Earth. Earth gets two; one is the Kinnisons and the other is characterised by "red-bronze-auburn hair and gold-flecked, tawny eyes". They are psychologically antithetical to each other so they will not get together until the end of the breeding program (book 6 Children of the Lens). We then see these lines through history; Atlantis falls, thanks to Eddorian meddling, so does Rome. We get WW1, WW2 and finally WW3, after which Gharlane of Eddore thinks he**’s dealt with the problems of Earth and takes a break. He’s wrong.
The second part of the book is a straightforward space opera story and by straightforward I mean it has twists and turns as space pirates turn out to be much more, the climactic battle is just a prelude as interstellar amphibians turn up, super-technology is upgraded to hyper-technology and there is just time for a bit of romance between hardboiled Triplanetary Agent Conway Costigan and socialite Clio Marsden.
There’s a few entertaining examples of retro-technology (data is sorted on punch cards at one point) and the attitudes of the day towards women are fully on display. It’s still a lot of fun. The advances in science seem very rushed, and yet it’s worth remembering that Smith was a chemical engineer during World War Two, in which the US did put prototypes into production extremely quickly.
In fact the most interesting chapter is the WW2 chapter in which Ralph Kinnison, a chemical engineer, works for a explosives and munitions plant. Smith, who spent the majority of his career as a food chemist, spent the war working for the US in explosives. If I say that this chapter feels more real than the rest it’s not because of, say, the lack of adepts of North Polar Jupiter or inertialess space cruisers.
Read This: For some “classic” Space Opera, classic not meaning brilliant and timeless, but foundational. Also kind of fun, even if Pittsburgh does get destroyed.
Don’t Read This: If the breathless pulp prose and slightly off hand megadeaths occurring are not for you.
This post is supported by my Patreon, which also hosts my own space opera stories.
* Only rare interactions between stars formed planets; this was a not unreasonable position to take back in 1948.
** In fact Eddorians “...were asexual: sexless to a degree unapproached by any form of Tellurian life higher than the yeasts. They were not merely hermaphroditic, nor androgynous, nor parthenogenetic. They were completely without sex. They were also, to all intents and purposes and except for death by violence, immortal. For each Eddorian, as its mind approached the stagnation of saturation after a lifetime of millions of years, simply divided into two new-old beings. New in capacity and in zest; old in ability and in power, since each of the two "children" possessed in toto the knowledges and the memories of their one 'parent.'”
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