I Read Books: First Lensman
(I'm reading E E "Doc" Smith's classic Lensman series, and you can read my review of the first book Triplanetary by clicking on that link. That post also explains (some of) the publication history and the conceit of the series).
The second prequel to the Lensman series, set a few years after Triplanetary. Virgil Samms, head of the newly formed Solarian Patrol, has a number of problems. The first is that the inertialess drive makes interstellar travel easy, so that criminals can commit crimes and then flee to strange planets where tracking them down is impossible. Other than that there’s dirty politics (Operation Maltese), illegal narcotics (Operation Zwilnik), piracy (Operation Boskone), and, um, odd signals coming out of space (Operation Zabriska).
Samms is able to solve one of the problems with the help of the mysterious Arisians (not mysterious if you’ve read Triplanetary or the introduction to this book). Going there he receives a Lens, which acts as a telepathic communicator, an unforgeable identification, and a guarantee of integrity, becoming First Lensman.
This has something of an ensemble cast, some coming back from Triplanetary, others being new characters, mostly from the younger generation. Most of them become lensmen; one major exception being the only major female character Jill* Samms, Virgil Samms' daughter. Women, it seems, can’t become lensmen although the Arisian mentor is very nice about it, telling her she doesn’t need a lens to do what she does. Turns out he’s right though that doesn’t stop her being kidnapped by Herkimer Herkimer III, the sadistic secretary of corrupt Senator Morgan, and having to be rescued.
The novel has, of course, big space battles (a sine qua non of the series), a variety of strange aliens that Samms meets while trying to expand the Solarian Patrol into the Galactic Patrol, and a bit of intrigue. I’m finding the most interesting parts are when the lensmen go undercover; Samms pretending to be his own cousin and Conway Costigan as a disgraced engineer who starts at the bottom of the uranium mines. When there’s a disaster down in the bottom level there’s quite a tense sequence where they dig themselves out using weirdo sounding machines that nevertheless depend on Costigan’s brute strength. Reading through I’m almost thinking I’d prefer a ground level series, in which the whole Civilisation vs Boskonia plot is in the background and we have a 1940s future of manly men solving industrial problems while all the secretaries admire them.
Read This: More over the top space opera, taking on real problems with slightly dubious solutions, though the climax being the newly formed Patrol enforcing a 99.999% fair election was pretty good.
Don’t Read This: If you want something other than old fashioned, somewhat ludicrous science fiction.
This post is supported by my Patreon, where you can find some of my own space opera stories for free.Also crossposted at GoodReads.
* “Virgillia”
The second prequel to the Lensman series, set a few years after Triplanetary. Virgil Samms, head of the newly formed Solarian Patrol, has a number of problems. The first is that the inertialess drive makes interstellar travel easy, so that criminals can commit crimes and then flee to strange planets where tracking them down is impossible. Other than that there’s dirty politics (Operation Maltese), illegal narcotics (Operation Zwilnik), piracy (Operation Boskone), and, um, odd signals coming out of space (Operation Zabriska).
Samms is able to solve one of the problems with the help of the mysterious Arisians (not mysterious if you’ve read Triplanetary or the introduction to this book). Going there he receives a Lens, which acts as a telepathic communicator, an unforgeable identification, and a guarantee of integrity, becoming First Lensman.
This has something of an ensemble cast, some coming back from Triplanetary, others being new characters, mostly from the younger generation. Most of them become lensmen; one major exception being the only major female character Jill* Samms, Virgil Samms' daughter. Women, it seems, can’t become lensmen although the Arisian mentor is very nice about it, telling her she doesn’t need a lens to do what she does. Turns out he’s right though that doesn’t stop her being kidnapped by Herkimer Herkimer III, the sadistic secretary of corrupt Senator Morgan, and having to be rescued.
The novel has, of course, big space battles (a sine qua non of the series), a variety of strange aliens that Samms meets while trying to expand the Solarian Patrol into the Galactic Patrol, and a bit of intrigue. I’m finding the most interesting parts are when the lensmen go undercover; Samms pretending to be his own cousin and Conway Costigan as a disgraced engineer who starts at the bottom of the uranium mines. When there’s a disaster down in the bottom level there’s quite a tense sequence where they dig themselves out using weirdo sounding machines that nevertheless depend on Costigan’s brute strength. Reading through I’m almost thinking I’d prefer a ground level series, in which the whole Civilisation vs Boskonia plot is in the background and we have a 1940s future of manly men solving industrial problems while all the secretaries admire them.
Read This: More over the top space opera, taking on real problems with slightly dubious solutions, though the climax being the newly formed Patrol enforcing a 99.999% fair election was pretty good.
Don’t Read This: If you want something other than old fashioned, somewhat ludicrous science fiction.
This post is supported by my Patreon, where you can find some of my own space opera stories for free.Also crossposted at GoodReads.
* “Virgillia”
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