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Robot Nemesis
The War of the Planets ended in stalemate. Both fleets were so horribly shattered that the survivors despaired of continuing hostilities. Instead, the few and crippled remaining vessels of each force limped into some sort of formation and returned to their various planetary bases. And, so far, there has not been another battle. Neither side dares attack the other; each is waiting for the development of some super-weapon which will give it the overwhelming advantage...
31 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 22, 2022
1 person want to read
About the author
E.E. "Doc" Smith
255 books329 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 9, 2025
Starting to realize space operas really aren't my thing.
Love the idea of these robots being schemers and telepathy having a scientific reasoning, but I just dont care for extended space battles, I find them kind boring.
Love the idea of these robots being schemers and telepathy having a scientific reasoning, but I just dont care for extended space battles, I find them kind boring.
November 10, 2025
Ferdinand Stone, Robot Nemesis!
Beware all ye evil robots and live in fear!!!
I love how the hero of our story is not made of metal like a robot, or flesh and blood like a normal man, he is made of something else stronger. Stone!
So as far as pulp fiction goes, this is a pretty good story. Not great, exciting or even brimming with action. Just pretty good.
I listened to this on the "Lost Sci-Fi Podcast". The story did kind of plod along for the first half. It wasn't boring, it was just plodding.
And then, at 37:20 of the story it became amazing! From then on until 43:00, it took a turn into the mind-blowing. All the ships on an expeditionary force had to turn on one ship that had been taken over by evil robots. They started blasting it with every weapon they had.
And at that point, the descriptive prose went soaring into overdrive into the fantastic. For six minutes came a non-stop stream of the most purplest purple prose that ever graced the pages of a pulp magazine. They were beyond words.
The loving delight EE Doc took in describing the explosions, the fires, the chemical reactions of the non-stop explosions was just out of this world. It made plodding through the first half of the story worth the wait.
After that the story settles back down into plodding, until a brief minute from 49:55 to 50:00 when the lead ship passes close to the sun and our hero, FSRN! gets an unprecedented close up view of the sun in all its glory.
Once again, the purple prose explode on the page. Or..in my ear since...well, never mind.
It is said that EE Doc was a chemist first before he became a sci-fi writer, and it shows. My, oh my how ol' EE Doc loves the excitement and glory of chemical combustion. It is glorious to read his words of praise.
I am recommending that one should check out this story just for those moments alone. It will bring a smile to your face.
As for the rest of the story, it's kind of humdrum.
There were a couple of quirks though....
1. Sometimes the robots are called robots. Other times they are called androids. Technically they are not the same thing. So....which is it?
2. At one point, FSRN! picks up a slide rule and does a distance calculation in KILOMETERS. Five minutes later, the narrator tells us the space ships in the expeditionary force are each 1,000 MILES apart. Hhmmm...I could take guess at why that discrepancy happened.
3. Speaking of slide rulers...after FSRN! used his slide ruler to make a calculation, it is later stated that all ships in the fleet had on board computers....oh wait...they're actually human computers....
Beware all ye evil robots and live in fear!!!
I love how the hero of our story is not made of metal like a robot, or flesh and blood like a normal man, he is made of something else stronger. Stone!
So as far as pulp fiction goes, this is a pretty good story. Not great, exciting or even brimming with action. Just pretty good.
I listened to this on the "Lost Sci-Fi Podcast". The story did kind of plod along for the first half. It wasn't boring, it was just plodding.
And then, at 37:20 of the story it became amazing! From then on until 43:00, it took a turn into the mind-blowing. All the ships on an expeditionary force had to turn on one ship that had been taken over by evil robots. They started blasting it with every weapon they had.
And at that point, the descriptive prose went soaring into overdrive into the fantastic. For six minutes came a non-stop stream of the most purplest purple prose that ever graced the pages of a pulp magazine. They were beyond words.
The loving delight EE Doc took in describing the explosions, the fires, the chemical reactions of the non-stop explosions was just out of this world. It made plodding through the first half of the story worth the wait.
After that the story settles back down into plodding, until a brief minute from 49:55 to 50:00 when the lead ship passes close to the sun and our hero, FSRN! gets an unprecedented close up view of the sun in all its glory.
Once again, the purple prose explode on the page. Or..in my ear since...well, never mind.
It is said that EE Doc was a chemist first before he became a sci-fi writer, and it shows. My, oh my how ol' EE Doc loves the excitement and glory of chemical combustion. It is glorious to read his words of praise.
I am recommending that one should check out this story just for those moments alone. It will bring a smile to your face.
As for the rest of the story, it's kind of humdrum.
There were a couple of quirks though....
1. Sometimes the robots are called robots. Other times they are called androids. Technically they are not the same thing. So....which is it?
2. At one point, FSRN! picks up a slide rule and does a distance calculation in KILOMETERS. Five minutes later, the narrator tells us the space ships in the expeditionary force are each 1,000 MILES apart. Hhmmm...I could take guess at why that discrepancy happened.
3. Speaking of slide rulers...after FSRN! used his slide ruler to make a calculation, it is later stated that all ships in the fleet had on board computers....oh wait...they're actually human computers....
October 11, 2024
Wonderful classic space-opera that set the standard for other space opera writers to follow. E. E. "Doc" Smith wrote over 90% of his life's work within two long series, Skylark, followed by The Lensmen. Finding a work of Smith's written outside these two series is no easy feat. But here, in condensed form, we see everything that made reading Smith worthwhile.
A great war is on. It's humanity, the four inner planets of our solar system, against the machines, or robots, as Smith also calls them, of the outer planets. Fleets of spaceships have reached a stalemate. It comes down to one man, a great physicist to break the tie. The machines have a plan to defeat humans once and for all. Will the great man see the machines' plan in time to counter it?
Read Smith's story to find out!
This story has a lot in common with the starting premise of the opening episode of Battlestar Galactica (BG). Highly recommended for SF lovers of space opera (despite the obvious datedness of the overwrought prose) in order to see the origin of their beloved subgenre clearly.
A great war is on. It's humanity, the four inner planets of our solar system, against the machines, or robots, as Smith also calls them, of the outer planets. Fleets of spaceships have reached a stalemate. It comes down to one man, a great physicist to break the tie. The machines have a plan to defeat humans once and for all. Will the great man see the machines' plan in time to counter it?
Read Smith's story to find out!
This story has a lot in common with the starting premise of the opening episode of Battlestar Galactica (BG). Highly recommended for SF lovers of space opera (despite the obvious datedness of the overwrought prose) in order to see the origin of their beloved subgenre clearly.
October 18, 2025
I decided to go back to some of Smith's lesser known (and, admittedly, lesser ) works. It is -very- short, but I have found that when one goes a while without sitting down to read, getting at least a shorter story out of the way helps start things back up again.
Definitely not up there with Lensman or Skylark (or Spacehounds..or Subspace).. but short and I do not find it as personally awkward as 'Masters of Space' or 'Galaxy Primes')
Definitely not up there with Lensman or Skylark (or Spacehounds..or Subspace).. but short and I do not find it as personally awkward as 'Masters of Space' or 'Galaxy Primes')
September 21, 2022
Good story which also gives an insight into how E E Smith imagines telepathy being transmitted on a high band of electromagnetic radiation similar to and alongside the encrypted digital Wi-Fi which is also used by the robots to communicate at lower frequencies.
Useful in better understanding E E Smith's Lensman and Subspace series where telepathy can also be achieved or amplified mechanically.
Useful in better understanding E E Smith's Lensman and Subspace series where telepathy can also be achieved or amplified mechanically.
June 18, 2025
science fiction short story
May 26, 2024
First published June, 1939. Very good science for a benighted today, a bit off for 1939. Robots will never have the free will necessary for insurrection, it will have to be programmed in by a human or a corvid.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews