I Read Books: Skylark DuQuesne

Retcon ahoy! Some forty years after writing the first three Skylark novels* Smith returned to the series at the end of his career in the 1960s. He places the events of the novels in (probably) the 1980s (an off hand comment on American and Russian moon artefacts of the 50s and 70s). The women are subtly updated, and they get more page space. Crane’s manservant Shiro is promoted to full Skylarker (all household tasks can be accomplished by using a headset to direct automated forces), and also gets a wife, a San Francisco-born Japanese-American woman called (sigh) Lotus Blossom.

Anyway, shortly after Seaton and Crane solve all the problems in Skylark of Valeron, the Norlamins do some calculations and realise that the pod carrying the disembodied intelligences off into eternity will inevitably fail within a year. They predict that the full time immortals of the group will probably clear off, but Seaton’s nemesis and former dictator of Earth, Marc C DuQuesne probably won’t. (He’s American, it’s pronounced do-kane).

DuQuesne promptly runs into two different alien species, both of which have enslaved numerous human planets. Meanwhile Seaton et al, deciding that they need more science and stuff, and having discovered that the sixth order of force includes vibrations on the level of thought, send out a thought to try and contact friendlies with information, something that has unexpected results.

Anyway, psychic powers. But also then genocide (despite the book having brought back one race of beings who were wiped out in Skylark Three) and eugenics. It’s in the hands of the Jelm (who have been bred by their alien captors for passivity, and want Earth genes to reinvigorate their race) and DuQuesne, who is still a villain even if, finally, he learns and grows up. But still, Smith should really have known better by the time he wrote this.

Read This: For a strange but still interesting end to the series.
Don’t Read This: If yet more weird random nonsense coming out of nowhere puts you off your space opera.

* My reviews:
The Skylark of Space
Skylark Three
Skylark of Valeron