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The Best of E.E. "Doc" Smith
Contents:
To the Far Reaches of Space (1928)
Robot Nemesis (1934)
Pirates of Space (1934)
The Vortex Blaster (1941)
Tedric (1953)
Lord Tedric (1954)
Subspace Survivors (1960)
The Imperial Stars (1964)
To the Far Reaches of Space (1928)
Robot Nemesis (1934)
Pirates of Space (1934)
The Vortex Blaster (1941)
Tedric (1953)
Lord Tedric (1954)
Subspace Survivors (1960)
The Imperial Stars (1964)
285 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1975
36 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
E.E. "Doc" Smith
217 books325 followersEdward Elmer Smith (also E.E. Smith, E.E. Smith, Ph.D., E.E. “Doc” Smith, Doc Smith, “Skylark” Smith, or—to his family—Ted), was an American food engineer (specializing in doughnut and pastry mixes) and an early science fiction author, best known for the Lensman and Skylark series. He is sometimes called the father of space opera.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 14, 2019
I first read this book back in the mid seventies when a number of "Best of" science fiction author books were released by certain publishers here in the UK (I remember Asimov, AE van Vogt, Heinlein to name a few).
It consists of 8 stories from 1934 to 1964, the Golden Age of sci fi encompassing the 40s, 50s and 60s. These stories include a fabulous Robot story from the 30s through a fabulous "Lord Tedric" story written in the mid 50s and a forerunner of the Family D'Alembert series in "The Imperial Stars".
So, if one enjoys Golden Age sci-fi, and /or Space Opera then this Best of book is a great introduction to one of its greatest exponents. I urge you to give it a try.
This review is a continuation of my attempt to write a review for every book GR tells me I have read.
It consists of 8 stories from 1934 to 1964, the Golden Age of sci fi encompassing the 40s, 50s and 60s. These stories include a fabulous Robot story from the 30s through a fabulous "Lord Tedric" story written in the mid 50s and a forerunner of the Family D'Alembert series in "The Imperial Stars".
So, if one enjoys Golden Age sci-fi, and /or Space Opera then this Best of book is a great introduction to one of its greatest exponents. I urge you to give it a try.
This review is a continuation of my attempt to write a review for every book GR tells me I have read.
June 17, 2015
At times the writing approaches grandeur: two humans in a spaceship racing at inconceivable velocity reflect wordlessly on their own insignificance in the sight of star systems racing by. And then someone says something, and the illusion is shattered. Smith can't write dialog that doesn't sound like weirdly out of date slang, clunkily recited by robots.
Elements of Smith's stories repeat to the point were it all runs together: everything has energy projectors and force screens that radiate through the spectrum up to the ultraviolet before failing, the characters are either mighty-chinned hero types--super brainy--and the women equally sharp but undeniably feminine and 'one hot dish', and the settings have the same sort of blandness of white paint and chrome fittings.
The part of this collection that captured me was seeing the material that Smith started before he died, before Gordon Eklund and Stephen Goldin did such terrible violence to them. "Imperial Stars" is virtually unchanged--perhaps Goldin added bulk--but "Tedric" and "Lord Tedric" are unrecognizable from the horrifying drek that Eklund slopped onto the page.
Here, the Tedric series posits a take on time travel and alternate histories, where some meddling future scientist is averting the collapse of civilization by rewriting events of history. This happens, oddly, by giving an ambitious blacksmith named Tedric various metallurgical technologies: case-hardened steel, and later gold leaf. Each change to history pushes out the catastrophe by some hundred years. Like all his work it is propelled by a strange marriage of testosterone and an intellectual/engineering viewpoint, but hints at a complexity of setting completely absent from the earliest examples.
I keep using words like 'velocity' and 'propelled', which are descriptive of Smith's style, though a more correct term would be akin to 'trajectory' or 'ballistic solution'. These stories are going to a place at high speed and precise vector.
Of all the stories, the oddest is "Robot Nemesis", which reads like an excerpt--ripped away from background material and padding, as well as the formative aspects of its protagonist, Doctor Ferdinand Stone--but is actually complete.
Elements of Smith's stories repeat to the point were it all runs together: everything has energy projectors and force screens that radiate through the spectrum up to the ultraviolet before failing, the characters are either mighty-chinned hero types--super brainy--and the women equally sharp but undeniably feminine and 'one hot dish', and the settings have the same sort of blandness of white paint and chrome fittings.
The part of this collection that captured me was seeing the material that Smith started before he died, before Gordon Eklund and Stephen Goldin did such terrible violence to them. "Imperial Stars" is virtually unchanged--perhaps Goldin added bulk--but "Tedric" and "Lord Tedric" are unrecognizable from the horrifying drek that Eklund slopped onto the page.
Here, the Tedric series posits a take on time travel and alternate histories, where some meddling future scientist is averting the collapse of civilization by rewriting events of history. This happens, oddly, by giving an ambitious blacksmith named Tedric various metallurgical technologies: case-hardened steel, and later gold leaf. Each change to history pushes out the catastrophe by some hundred years. Like all his work it is propelled by a strange marriage of testosterone and an intellectual/engineering viewpoint, but hints at a complexity of setting completely absent from the earliest examples.
I keep using words like 'velocity' and 'propelled', which are descriptive of Smith's style, though a more correct term would be akin to 'trajectory' or 'ballistic solution'. These stories are going to a place at high speed and precise vector.
Of all the stories, the oddest is "Robot Nemesis", which reads like an excerpt--ripped away from background material and padding, as well as the formative aspects of its protagonist, Doctor Ferdinand Stone--but is actually complete.
November 19, 2025
I wish “Competent Man” storytelling would come back. Maybe we wouldn’t be waiting for a deus ex machina to save the world
December 12, 2014
‘Few authors have made such an impact as EE ‘Doc’ Smith did at his first appearance in 1928, or have continued so long to delight a host of fans. Indeed, his novel ‘The Skylark of Space’ opened the door for the most extravagant excursions of super-science into the remotest regions and led the way for ‘space opera’. Even now the sweeping epics of ‘Skylark’ arte still relished for their sheer exuberance, their cosmic imagery and the rip-roaring adventure.’
Blurb from the 1975 Orbit paperback edition
To the Far Reaches of Space (from The Skylark of Space, 1928)
Robot Nemesis (Thrilling Wonder Stories 1939)
Pirates of Space (from Triplanetary)
The Vortex Blaster (from Vortex Blasters)
Tedric (Other Worlds Science Fiction Stories – Mar 1953)
Lord Tedric (Universe Science Fiction – Mar 1954)
Subspace Survivors (Astounding July 1960)
The Imperial Stars (from the Imperial Stars)
It was always likely to be a problem producing ‘Doc’s obligatory ‘Best Of..’ volume since although he published prodigiously in the usual American publications his writing was generally serialised and later ended up as various series of novels.
Thus the only piece of singular fiction here is ‘Robot Nemesis’.
Having said that, this volume is a fascinating overview of Smith’s work which is often disparaged by those who think that SF should be somewhat more intellectual, noble and ever-so-slightly sacred. Music fans hold generally the same prejudices, sneering at the work of Chuck Berry or Kraftwerk without knowing or caring that that had it not been for these people the music they currently enjoy might not exist, or would be at the very least, far less complex and diverse.
Ok, I have to confess I have a soft spot for Smith who gave me a whole universe to escape into during some very troubled teenage years, and I owe him for that, but in any case his legacy and influence was immense.
From 1928 when the Skylark first took flight he managed to open up the universe in a way that few writers of the time could manage (many don’t manage it today) and here is a selection of excerpts from most of his major works.
There is a wonderful introduction which gives an overview of Smith’s life. He was a man who suffered financial adversity at various times and who wasn’t afraid of physical work: a man who spent several years working on developing commercial doughnut mixes while all the time dreaming of his next scientifiction adventure story.
In a postscript Smith gives us his own account of how he goes about writing ‘space epics’ and very interesting it is too. It’s fascinating to discover for instance that when writing the Lensman series he used a group of SF fans as essentially a focus group, as well as some actual scientists and fellow SF writers.
Finally there is a very comprehensive bibliography which explains the rather complex publishing history and chronology of the Lensman saga in magazine terms which seemed to start in the middle, then go back to the beginning and was subsequently re-edited for book publication.
For today’s readers, the stilted dialogue and the wholesale transference of Nineteen Fifties American moral standards to Outer Space might seem either jarring or amusing, but the sense of wonder still holds, and I am surely not the only one who finds something very cosy and comforting about flitting out into the galaxy with Kim Kinnison into almost certain deadly peril.
Blurb from the 1975 Orbit paperback edition
To the Far Reaches of Space (from The Skylark of Space, 1928)
Robot Nemesis (Thrilling Wonder Stories 1939)
Pirates of Space (from Triplanetary)
The Vortex Blaster (from Vortex Blasters)
Tedric (Other Worlds Science Fiction Stories – Mar 1953)
Lord Tedric (Universe Science Fiction – Mar 1954)
Subspace Survivors (Astounding July 1960)
The Imperial Stars (from the Imperial Stars)
It was always likely to be a problem producing ‘Doc’s obligatory ‘Best Of..’ volume since although he published prodigiously in the usual American publications his writing was generally serialised and later ended up as various series of novels.
Thus the only piece of singular fiction here is ‘Robot Nemesis’.
Having said that, this volume is a fascinating overview of Smith’s work which is often disparaged by those who think that SF should be somewhat more intellectual, noble and ever-so-slightly sacred. Music fans hold generally the same prejudices, sneering at the work of Chuck Berry or Kraftwerk without knowing or caring that that had it not been for these people the music they currently enjoy might not exist, or would be at the very least, far less complex and diverse.
Ok, I have to confess I have a soft spot for Smith who gave me a whole universe to escape into during some very troubled teenage years, and I owe him for that, but in any case his legacy and influence was immense.
From 1928 when the Skylark first took flight he managed to open up the universe in a way that few writers of the time could manage (many don’t manage it today) and here is a selection of excerpts from most of his major works.
There is a wonderful introduction which gives an overview of Smith’s life. He was a man who suffered financial adversity at various times and who wasn’t afraid of physical work: a man who spent several years working on developing commercial doughnut mixes while all the time dreaming of his next scientifiction adventure story.
In a postscript Smith gives us his own account of how he goes about writing ‘space epics’ and very interesting it is too. It’s fascinating to discover for instance that when writing the Lensman series he used a group of SF fans as essentially a focus group, as well as some actual scientists and fellow SF writers.
Finally there is a very comprehensive bibliography which explains the rather complex publishing history and chronology of the Lensman saga in magazine terms which seemed to start in the middle, then go back to the beginning and was subsequently re-edited for book publication.
For today’s readers, the stilted dialogue and the wholesale transference of Nineteen Fifties American moral standards to Outer Space might seem either jarring or amusing, but the sense of wonder still holds, and I am surely not the only one who finds something very cosy and comforting about flitting out into the galaxy with Kim Kinnison into almost certain deadly peril.
August 24, 2017
Just didn't appeal to me at any level. I don't know what others get out of it. My loss.
August 13, 2016
I certainly enjoyed this collection. I think I especially liked his essay "The Epic of Space" in which he describes his approach to writing. Like so many authors he confirms that while he plans his works his characters have a tendency to walk away from him and do their own thing. One point that I read which do agree with is that his main characters are such superior beings that one never really doubts that they will come through victorious. They are clearly in the same mold as Doc Savage or even of Superman when he first appeared. And that's should not be surprising since they are contemporaries.
For example of these super beings is the Family d'Alembert who are circus peformers from a planet whose gravety is three times that of Earth and who are also an elete family of spies serving the Earth Galactic Empire. At no time do we doubt that they will be victorious. Their only problem is that they can never have a lost interest from a different world since they will break the back of any lover other than their own strength. The only single woman in Smith's universe comes from this series.
For example of these super beings is the Family d'Alembert who are circus peformers from a planet whose gravety is three times that of Earth and who are also an elete family of spies serving the Earth Galactic Empire. At no time do we doubt that they will be victorious. Their only problem is that they can never have a lost interest from a different world since they will break the back of any lover other than their own strength. The only single woman in Smith's universe comes from this series.
September 17, 2021
Nice sampler of some of the novellas and sections of books (/series)
Read
July 4, 2016read some time in 1985
Read
August 22, 2008The Best of E.E."Doc" Smith (Orbit Books) by E.E. Smith (1975)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews