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Lensman #4
Gray Lensman
The action in Gray Lensman picks up immediately where Galactic Patrol left off, in the middle of the battle to destroy Helmuth's Main Base and, it is hoped, fully end the threat of Boskone. After the base falls, Kinnison finds some clues that lead him to think that Helmuth was perhaps not the head of Boskone after all. The clues lead Kinnison to mount an expedition aboard the newly constructed super-dreadnought Dauntless, into the Second Galaxy where he thinks the true head of Boskone might reside. The Dauntless locates a planet under attack and comes to its aid, destroying the Boskonian forces and discovering that the entire planet is capable of going "free" (that is, inertialess, the method used in the Lensman books to achieve interstellar and intergalactic space travel). The Lensman returns to the First Galaxy with the space-faring planet and its grateful residents.
306 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
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1372 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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January 2, 2024
Series Read 2023/2024
Hmm, so my review in 2015 was quite brief, but also very true. I have enjoyed all of them so far but yes, this is the best. More of a storyline, and unbelievably more action. Our hero Kim Kinnison, possibly the most accomplished Lensman ever is intent on tracking down the evil doers in the galaxy, that are disrupting the peace and benevolence of the Galactic Patrol. Infiltrating the "Zwilnik" organisation and bases, he traces the bosses and leaders clear out of the Galaxy. Using all the latest technology gained from befriending races across the whole of the first galaxy, the Galactic Patrol try to erase the bad guys for good.
During this adventure Kim is badly injured but the woman who loves him, and who just happens to be the chief nurse of the military wing of the Galactic Patrol, stands by him, and with the help of new techniques in limb re-growth is there through all his recuperation.
However the course of true love never does run smooth and Kim Kinnison is too stubborn to see that the woman loves him regardless and that being the hero does not mean always having to be alone.
And now onto the next !
Series Read 2015
One of the best so far
Hmm, so my review in 2015 was quite brief, but also very true. I have enjoyed all of them so far but yes, this is the best. More of a storyline, and unbelievably more action. Our hero Kim Kinnison, possibly the most accomplished Lensman ever is intent on tracking down the evil doers in the galaxy, that are disrupting the peace and benevolence of the Galactic Patrol. Infiltrating the "Zwilnik" organisation and bases, he traces the bosses and leaders clear out of the Galaxy. Using all the latest technology gained from befriending races across the whole of the first galaxy, the Galactic Patrol try to erase the bad guys for good.
During this adventure Kim is badly injured but the woman who loves him, and who just happens to be the chief nurse of the military wing of the Galactic Patrol, stands by him, and with the help of new techniques in limb re-growth is there through all his recuperation.
However the course of true love never does run smooth and Kim Kinnison is too stubborn to see that the woman loves him regardless and that being the hero does not mean always having to be alone.
And now onto the next !
Series Read 2015
One of the best so far
June 8, 2013
Sometimes, I'm a fool. I thought, perhaps, that the "so called" golden age of sci-fi before Heinlein would be as painful to read as the old Jules Verne. I even tried to read the first ten pages of the first book of the Lensman of E. E. Smith PHD and cringed down to my soul. I was thinking that nothing would be worth the pain of reading this trash. And yet, all of my favorite past couple of generations of sci-fi authors swore by the old doc, and there are still generations of readers that are surprised and delighted by the stories. Heck, the fourth book is considered by some to be the 98th best sci-fi book of all time. I buckled down, gritted my teeth, and picked up the fourth without so much as reading eleven pages of the first three.
I WAS DUMBFOUNDED. I was awestruck. I was plainly amazed and giddy in the reading of these little serialized bubblegum stories of sci-fi heroes. I'm too young to have watched Flash Gordon, but I understand the draw. I'm certainly old enough to have sat amazed through all the Star Wars at the inception. I've watched all of the original Star Treks, (not to mention every iteration after). I was forced to re-evaluate my entire internal consistency engine of sci-fi idea sources and lineage, and all of a sudden, the mitochondrial eve of sci-fi tropes (at least the best surviving eve) is FOUND. Now I understand. The light shines upon my mind. The great cosmic egg lights up like a big bulb.
So I asked in a small voice... "So the Lensman series is what encouraged the Green Lantern Comics into being? It also encouraged the biggest space operas? It took over as the sci-fi successor to all westerns and greek hero myths?" And E. E. Smith replied, "Yes, you dumbshit."
AAaaahhhh... ok... I feel like a moron now, but at least I didn't proliferate that weird-ass idea about galaxies colliding... whew... I'm back on my moral high ground again. :)
I might just have to read them in order again and ignore, dutifully, the Really Bad Physics in favor of the Great Fun.
Update:
I can't get this out of my head: The proper term for the collision of two planets is "Squishingly". I can't unread what I have read, so I pay it forward. :)
I WAS DUMBFOUNDED. I was awestruck. I was plainly amazed and giddy in the reading of these little serialized bubblegum stories of sci-fi heroes. I'm too young to have watched Flash Gordon, but I understand the draw. I'm certainly old enough to have sat amazed through all the Star Wars at the inception. I've watched all of the original Star Treks, (not to mention every iteration after). I was forced to re-evaluate my entire internal consistency engine of sci-fi idea sources and lineage, and all of a sudden, the mitochondrial eve of sci-fi tropes (at least the best surviving eve) is FOUND. Now I understand. The light shines upon my mind. The great cosmic egg lights up like a big bulb.
So I asked in a small voice... "So the Lensman series is what encouraged the Green Lantern Comics into being? It also encouraged the biggest space operas? It took over as the sci-fi successor to all westerns and greek hero myths?" And E. E. Smith replied, "Yes, you dumbshit."
AAaaahhhh... ok... I feel like a moron now, but at least I didn't proliferate that weird-ass idea about galaxies colliding... whew... I'm back on my moral high ground again. :)
I might just have to read them in order again and ignore, dutifully, the Really Bad Physics in favor of the Great Fun.
Update:
I can't get this out of my head: The proper term for the collision of two planets is "Squishingly". I can't unread what I have read, so I pay it forward. :)
March 27, 2019
Although the events of Book 4 in E. E. "Doc" Smith's famed LENSMAN series, "Gray Lensman," pick up mere seconds after those of its predecessor, "Galactic Patrol," this latest installment actually first appeared over 1 ½ years later. Whereas "Galactic Patrol" had initially appeared as a six-part serial in the September 1937 – February 1938 issues of "Astounding" magazine, "Gray Lensman" had its debut as a four-part serial (even though it is a longer story than that in Book 3) in "Astounding"'s October 1939 – January 1940 issues, the first two issues featuring beautiful cover artwork for the serial by famed illustrator Hubert Rogers. "Gray Lensman" was first published in book form in 1951 as a $3 hardcover from Fantasy Press, featuring still another minimalist cover from Ric Binkley, and like the other five books in this most famous of all space operas, has seen numerous incarnations since; this reader was fortunate enough to acquire the 1982 Berkley paperback, with beautiful cover art by David B. Maddingly. The book, as it turns out, is a wonderful sequel, expanding on the story line of Book 3 while introducing new characters, new planets, a fresh set of enemies, and the many titanic space battles that readers might be expecting at this point.
As I mentioned, Book 4 commences scant moments after "Galactic Patrol" had wrapped up...but only after author Smith gives his readers a highly detailed, 11-page synopsis of the events that had transpired thus far. And then it's off to the proverbial races, as the book proper delivers an opening page that is meant to stun the reader. In it, we learn that Kim Kinnison's and the Galactic Patrol's destruction of archvillain Helmuth's base in star cluster AC 257-4736, just outside our own galaxy, is being observed by an even more diabolical people known as the Eich; a "scaly...toothy...wingy" race that had been tangentially mentioned in a previous volume as allies of the ancient evil race of the Eddorians. (The 2 billion-year-old conflict between the Eddorians and the benevolent, Lens-giving Arisians is at the heart of all six books, although the Eddorians are never mentioned in Books 3 and 4 at all.) It is indeed a startling moment, as the reader is made to realize that Helmuth had been just a small-potato hireling in a much bigger game. As critic John Clute eloquently tells us in his introduction to the 1998 Old Earth Books edition of "Galactic Patrol," "This first paragraph must have had an astonishing impact, one we can never quite replicate in our own imaginations...in 1939, sequels were still uncommon in the sf world, and nothing would have prepared readers for the explosive vista of this opening, which swallows its predecessor whole...." After the destruction of Helmuth's base, and the inadvertent obliteration of much of the planet, Kinnison makes a preliminary investigation of the nearby "second galaxy," Lundmark's Nebula, from which communications had been sent to Book 3's archnemesis. While there, he and his crew of the Dauntless come to the aid of planet Medon, which is under attack by the so-called space pirates of Boskone, and later receive the welcome gift of advanced technology from that beleaguered world...including an apparatus that will enable an entire planet to travel at faster-than-light speeds! Using that remarkable machinery, Medon is moved into our own galaxy in record time, while Kinnison begins his new campaign. He has come to realize that although Boskone has been defeated militarily in our own galaxy, their threat remains a very real one, due to the insidious influx of drugs (particularly the hyperaddictive thionite, which had been dramatically showcased in Book 2, "First Lensman").
Kinnison, thus, goes undercover in a variety of guises, working himself ever higher up the chain. He pretends to be a bar bum in the capital city of Ardith, on Radelix; does a lengthy bit of surveillance work on Bronseca; becomes an asteroid miner/alcoholic/eater of the illicit drug bentlam at the Miner's Rest complex on the asteroid Euphrosyne, under the name Wild Bill Williams; rubs elbows with the upper crust at the Crown-on-Shield resort on Tressilia; learns that the galactic head of the Boskonian drug operations is a blue-skinned Kalonian (as Helmuth had been) named Jalte, and infiltrates his desolate base world; and finally, using his gifts of telepathy and mind control, discovers the location of the Eich themselves. And while Kim is not busy with all that, he is convening a scientific conference to construct a new superweapon, the Negasphere, and leading a raid upon the Delgonian Overlords (who were seemingly wiped out in Book 3, but whose remnants have entered into an alliance with the Eich). Oh...and reluctantly furthering his romance with nurse Clarrissa MacDougall, who he'd been squabbling with all throughout "Galactic Patrol." And Kim manages to emerge from all of these adventures relatively unscathed...until, that is, he is captured by the Eich and Delgonians on the Eichian homeworld of Jarnevon, is tortured pretty horrendously, and has such monstrous organisms inserted into his arms and legs that when his body is returned to the Galactic Patrol hospital on Earth, all four of his limbs have to be summarily amputated! But Kim's adventures, and Book 4's, are far from done....
This Book 4 of the LENSMAN series, it should be added, ups the game of previous volumes as regards weapons of superscience and futuristic technology. Thus, besides that Negasphere (a vast circular nothingness of what one can only assume to be antimatter, and that is capable of gobbling whole planets) and the ability to transform abandoned/useless worlds into faster-than-light missiles of war (!), Smith here gives us a vast improvement of the engineering and weaponry in the Patrol's ships (courtesy of those superadvanced Medonians) and, thanks to Phillips the Posenian, a means of regenerating body parts. (You didn't really think Kim was to remain a basket case for the duration of the series, did you?) Kinnison's abilities have also been greatly improved in this installment, as he soon discovers that he is capable of mental marvels even when not wearing his Arisian Lens! And those newfound abilities sure do come in handy here, as he reads secret Boskonian files from a great distance, and communicates with a spider and a worm, on two different occasions, to give him some much-needed assists.
This volume features any number of remarkable space battles, as mentioned; besides the one over Helmuth's base, the one at Medon, and the destruction of the Delgonians, we have the cataclysmic battle in the Bronsecan capital city of Cominoche, during which drug czar Prellin's base--as well as most of the city--is converted to slag; the attack on Jalte's world, using the Negasphere; and the final battle against the Eich, using those "missile worlds" previously described. (Golden Age writer Edmond "the World Wrecker" Hamilton might have beamed at the conclusion of this battle with great approbation.) These battle sequences, and Kim's capture, torture and convalescence, are surely the book's high points. And Smith even makes sure to drop in some occasional glints of humor here and there, such as when he refers to a "crackpot science-fiction writer" of Kim's day as "Wacky Williamson"...a not-so-subtle joke, perhaps, at the expense of another Golden Age writer, Jack Williamson? And if so, Williamson is not the only Golden Age sci-fi author thus mentioned, as there is also a reference that Kim makes to "[Abraham] Merritt's Dwayanu," from his 1932 classic "Dwellers in the Mirage." (Interesting that that novel managed to survive Earth's WW3 devastation in Book 1, "Triplanetary," and that Kim was a reader of such material!)
And speaking of reading science fiction when young, I have heard that many folks seem to have enjoyed these LENSMAN books when they were in their very early teens, and must say that I cannot quite fathom that, as I am finding these books to be rather densely written and complexly plotted...putting aside the $2 words that Smith loves to throw around, such as "bourne," "esurient," "wight" and "yclept." These are hardly Tom Swift novels, to put it mildly! Or maybe I was just a tad slower than the average 8th grader? Personally, I find Smith to be much more than just a merely capable writer; indeed, he is apt at any time to come up with a strikingly lovely passage, such as this description of intergalactic space:
"...There were no planets, no suns, no stars; no meteorites, no particles of cosmic debris. All nearby space was empty, with an indescribable perfection of emptiness at the very thought of which the mind quailed in incomprehending horror. And, accentuating that emptiness, at such mind-searing distances as to be dwarfed into buttons, and yet, because of their intrinsic massiveness, starkly apparent in their three-dimensional relationships, there hung poised and motionlessly stately the component galaxies of a Universe...."
For this reader, these books are elegantly written in the best Golden Age manner, and if the characterizations therein take a backseat to the plotting and world building (or, rather, galaxy building), as some have maintained, it is a pardonable offense.
Still, some other minor matters do crop up here and there; some seemingly inevitable flies in the ointment. There are sections of the book that are rather on the dry side, for one thing, and I never could properly visualize that darn Negasphere as it was being constructed in space. (Forget about understanding how it works; as Smith mentions, a whole new system of mathematics had to be invented by those conference scientists when they planned it on paper, and I still have problems with the old system!) And try wrapping your head around how fast Kim's ship, the Dauntless, is said to travel: 100,000 parsecs an hour! And since one parsec equals 3.2 light-years, and one light-year equals 5.8 trillion miles...well, try doing that math (my calculator doesn't go up that high!) and tell me if you can visualize or conceive of that rate of travel! And then there is the matter of the high-powered zap guns that Kinnison is always toting around, the DeLameters. The only problem is, Smith never gives us a good idea of the diameters and the parameters of those DeLameters. (OK, I'm just kidding; I've been wanting to write that since a few books back!)
Quibbles aside, however, "Gray Lensman" is, for the most part, tremendous fun. By its conclusion, the galaxywide drug scourge has been largely eliminated, the Eich have been vanquished, Kim and Clarrissa have avowed their love for one another and are ready to wed, and Kinnison has been put in charge of matters in that entire second galaxy. And thus, with two galaxies' worth of races from which to draw, and the Arisian/Eddorian conflict still very much up in the air (or, rather, ether), wherever can author Smith take us to now? I suppose that I will just have to proceed on to Book 5, "Second Stage Lensman," to find out....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of E. E. "Doc" Smith....)
As I mentioned, Book 4 commences scant moments after "Galactic Patrol" had wrapped up...but only after author Smith gives his readers a highly detailed, 11-page synopsis of the events that had transpired thus far. And then it's off to the proverbial races, as the book proper delivers an opening page that is meant to stun the reader. In it, we learn that Kim Kinnison's and the Galactic Patrol's destruction of archvillain Helmuth's base in star cluster AC 257-4736, just outside our own galaxy, is being observed by an even more diabolical people known as the Eich; a "scaly...toothy...wingy" race that had been tangentially mentioned in a previous volume as allies of the ancient evil race of the Eddorians. (The 2 billion-year-old conflict between the Eddorians and the benevolent, Lens-giving Arisians is at the heart of all six books, although the Eddorians are never mentioned in Books 3 and 4 at all.) It is indeed a startling moment, as the reader is made to realize that Helmuth had been just a small-potato hireling in a much bigger game. As critic John Clute eloquently tells us in his introduction to the 1998 Old Earth Books edition of "Galactic Patrol," "This first paragraph must have had an astonishing impact, one we can never quite replicate in our own imaginations...in 1939, sequels were still uncommon in the sf world, and nothing would have prepared readers for the explosive vista of this opening, which swallows its predecessor whole...." After the destruction of Helmuth's base, and the inadvertent obliteration of much of the planet, Kinnison makes a preliminary investigation of the nearby "second galaxy," Lundmark's Nebula, from which communications had been sent to Book 3's archnemesis. While there, he and his crew of the Dauntless come to the aid of planet Medon, which is under attack by the so-called space pirates of Boskone, and later receive the welcome gift of advanced technology from that beleaguered world...including an apparatus that will enable an entire planet to travel at faster-than-light speeds! Using that remarkable machinery, Medon is moved into our own galaxy in record time, while Kinnison begins his new campaign. He has come to realize that although Boskone has been defeated militarily in our own galaxy, their threat remains a very real one, due to the insidious influx of drugs (particularly the hyperaddictive thionite, which had been dramatically showcased in Book 2, "First Lensman").
Kinnison, thus, goes undercover in a variety of guises, working himself ever higher up the chain. He pretends to be a bar bum in the capital city of Ardith, on Radelix; does a lengthy bit of surveillance work on Bronseca; becomes an asteroid miner/alcoholic/eater of the illicit drug bentlam at the Miner's Rest complex on the asteroid Euphrosyne, under the name Wild Bill Williams; rubs elbows with the upper crust at the Crown-on-Shield resort on Tressilia; learns that the galactic head of the Boskonian drug operations is a blue-skinned Kalonian (as Helmuth had been) named Jalte, and infiltrates his desolate base world; and finally, using his gifts of telepathy and mind control, discovers the location of the Eich themselves. And while Kim is not busy with all that, he is convening a scientific conference to construct a new superweapon, the Negasphere, and leading a raid upon the Delgonian Overlords (who were seemingly wiped out in Book 3, but whose remnants have entered into an alliance with the Eich). Oh...and reluctantly furthering his romance with nurse Clarrissa MacDougall, who he'd been squabbling with all throughout "Galactic Patrol." And Kim manages to emerge from all of these adventures relatively unscathed...until, that is, he is captured by the Eich and Delgonians on the Eichian homeworld of Jarnevon, is tortured pretty horrendously, and has such monstrous organisms inserted into his arms and legs that when his body is returned to the Galactic Patrol hospital on Earth, all four of his limbs have to be summarily amputated! But Kim's adventures, and Book 4's, are far from done....
This Book 4 of the LENSMAN series, it should be added, ups the game of previous volumes as regards weapons of superscience and futuristic technology. Thus, besides that Negasphere (a vast circular nothingness of what one can only assume to be antimatter, and that is capable of gobbling whole planets) and the ability to transform abandoned/useless worlds into faster-than-light missiles of war (!), Smith here gives us a vast improvement of the engineering and weaponry in the Patrol's ships (courtesy of those superadvanced Medonians) and, thanks to Phillips the Posenian, a means of regenerating body parts. (You didn't really think Kim was to remain a basket case for the duration of the series, did you?) Kinnison's abilities have also been greatly improved in this installment, as he soon discovers that he is capable of mental marvels even when not wearing his Arisian Lens! And those newfound abilities sure do come in handy here, as he reads secret Boskonian files from a great distance, and communicates with a spider and a worm, on two different occasions, to give him some much-needed assists.
This volume features any number of remarkable space battles, as mentioned; besides the one over Helmuth's base, the one at Medon, and the destruction of the Delgonians, we have the cataclysmic battle in the Bronsecan capital city of Cominoche, during which drug czar Prellin's base--as well as most of the city--is converted to slag; the attack on Jalte's world, using the Negasphere; and the final battle against the Eich, using those "missile worlds" previously described. (Golden Age writer Edmond "the World Wrecker" Hamilton might have beamed at the conclusion of this battle with great approbation.) These battle sequences, and Kim's capture, torture and convalescence, are surely the book's high points. And Smith even makes sure to drop in some occasional glints of humor here and there, such as when he refers to a "crackpot science-fiction writer" of Kim's day as "Wacky Williamson"...a not-so-subtle joke, perhaps, at the expense of another Golden Age writer, Jack Williamson? And if so, Williamson is not the only Golden Age sci-fi author thus mentioned, as there is also a reference that Kim makes to "[Abraham] Merritt's Dwayanu," from his 1932 classic "Dwellers in the Mirage." (Interesting that that novel managed to survive Earth's WW3 devastation in Book 1, "Triplanetary," and that Kim was a reader of such material!)
And speaking of reading science fiction when young, I have heard that many folks seem to have enjoyed these LENSMAN books when they were in their very early teens, and must say that I cannot quite fathom that, as I am finding these books to be rather densely written and complexly plotted...putting aside the $2 words that Smith loves to throw around, such as "bourne," "esurient," "wight" and "yclept." These are hardly Tom Swift novels, to put it mildly! Or maybe I was just a tad slower than the average 8th grader? Personally, I find Smith to be much more than just a merely capable writer; indeed, he is apt at any time to come up with a strikingly lovely passage, such as this description of intergalactic space:
"...There were no planets, no suns, no stars; no meteorites, no particles of cosmic debris. All nearby space was empty, with an indescribable perfection of emptiness at the very thought of which the mind quailed in incomprehending horror. And, accentuating that emptiness, at such mind-searing distances as to be dwarfed into buttons, and yet, because of their intrinsic massiveness, starkly apparent in their three-dimensional relationships, there hung poised and motionlessly stately the component galaxies of a Universe...."
For this reader, these books are elegantly written in the best Golden Age manner, and if the characterizations therein take a backseat to the plotting and world building (or, rather, galaxy building), as some have maintained, it is a pardonable offense.
Still, some other minor matters do crop up here and there; some seemingly inevitable flies in the ointment. There are sections of the book that are rather on the dry side, for one thing, and I never could properly visualize that darn Negasphere as it was being constructed in space. (Forget about understanding how it works; as Smith mentions, a whole new system of mathematics had to be invented by those conference scientists when they planned it on paper, and I still have problems with the old system!) And try wrapping your head around how fast Kim's ship, the Dauntless, is said to travel: 100,000 parsecs an hour! And since one parsec equals 3.2 light-years, and one light-year equals 5.8 trillion miles...well, try doing that math (my calculator doesn't go up that high!) and tell me if you can visualize or conceive of that rate of travel! And then there is the matter of the high-powered zap guns that Kinnison is always toting around, the DeLameters. The only problem is, Smith never gives us a good idea of the diameters and the parameters of those DeLameters. (OK, I'm just kidding; I've been wanting to write that since a few books back!)
Quibbles aside, however, "Gray Lensman" is, for the most part, tremendous fun. By its conclusion, the galaxywide drug scourge has been largely eliminated, the Eich have been vanquished, Kim and Clarrissa have avowed their love for one another and are ready to wed, and Kinnison has been put in charge of matters in that entire second galaxy. And thus, with two galaxies' worth of races from which to draw, and the Arisian/Eddorian conflict still very much up in the air (or, rather, ether), wherever can author Smith take us to now? I suppose that I will just have to proceed on to Book 5, "Second Stage Lensman," to find out....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of E. E. "Doc" Smith....)
January 24, 2015
This is an old science fiction series and I have experienced difficulty in finding all the volumes at the appropriate time. As a result, I had given up on finding this volume and went ahead and read the remainder. Then surprisingly, just before Christmas, I found Gray Lensman in my local second-hand book store. Being a bit of a completionist, I grabbed it and added it to my stack of sci-fi for 2015.
In all honesty, it was an unnecessary exercise—Gray Lensman is very similar to the book before it and the book after it. Smith found his formula and stuck to it. Interesting to me was the degree to which the romantic relationship between the hero, Kim Kinnison, and his wife-to-be figured in these novels. They reminded me of the westerns of Zane Grey, which my mother owned stacks of and which I read during the long summer holidays during junior high school--the square-jawed, good-guy hero who is reluctant to entangle a “good woman” in his less-than-savoury life. For that reason alone, I actually kind of like these old space operas, which bring me happy memories of my past.
These are not great science fiction novels compared to some of the masters of the genre today, but they are where sci-fi got its start and are interesting to me for that reason. They were ground-breaking at the time that they were written and I can see how they influenced more recent writers, including Robert A. Heinlein.
In all honesty, it was an unnecessary exercise—Gray Lensman is very similar to the book before it and the book after it. Smith found his formula and stuck to it. Interesting to me was the degree to which the romantic relationship between the hero, Kim Kinnison, and his wife-to-be figured in these novels. They reminded me of the westerns of Zane Grey, which my mother owned stacks of and which I read during the long summer holidays during junior high school--the square-jawed, good-guy hero who is reluctant to entangle a “good woman” in his less-than-savoury life. For that reason alone, I actually kind of like these old space operas, which bring me happy memories of my past.
These are not great science fiction novels compared to some of the masters of the genre today, but they are where sci-fi got its start and are interesting to me for that reason. They were ground-breaking at the time that they were written and I can see how they influenced more recent writers, including Robert A. Heinlein.
November 11, 2023
Evil Minions Shocker! Two Planets Plastered as Armada Annihilated! "We've gotta hire better help." - The Eddorian Elucidator.
For the most part, this story was unputdownable, and that's rare for me, but I have quite the quibble with it.
Smith positions a cultural war between 'Civilization,' as exemplified by the 'incorruptible,' Lensmen and the vile, and despicably evil, 'Boskonians.' And yet, the Lensmen operate without constraint. Wielding absolute power without accountability as there is no one to hold them to account - this very system is held in place by their 'incorruptibility,' as determined by the Arisian Master Race. My gut feel is that this actually sucks big time.... I fear a 'genetically-engineered' utopia in which humanity has actually vanished.
Smith's vision of a master race of 'incorruptible,' rulers does not sit well with me.
There is an implicit pessimism about Humanity in these novels. Without the Lens and Arisian (Alien Master Race) intervention, than the future of Humanity would inevitably be one of totalitarian enslavement in a perpetual war of all against all for the barest scrap of selfish advantage (Boskonian culture). It may be oxymoronic to talk about a pessimistic utopian vision but this seems to me to be exactly that.
There but for the grace of the Arisians, goes Humanity.
That said, Smith writes with verve, passion and unbridled exuberance and can pick this reader up and drag him along with a pacey, action-filled narrative.
Plus using concentrated anti-matter and whole planets as weapons was probably ground breaking back in the day.
Strongly recommended. 5 'Unleash the Negasphere,' stars.
For the most part, this story was unputdownable, and that's rare for me, but I have quite the quibble with it.
Smith positions a cultural war between 'Civilization,' as exemplified by the 'incorruptible,' Lensmen and the vile, and despicably evil, 'Boskonians.' And yet, the Lensmen operate without constraint. Wielding absolute power without accountability as there is no one to hold them to account - this very system is held in place by their 'incorruptibility,' as determined by the Arisian Master Race. My gut feel is that this actually sucks big time.... I fear a 'genetically-engineered' utopia in which humanity has actually vanished.
Smith's vision of a master race of 'incorruptible,' rulers does not sit well with me.
There is an implicit pessimism about Humanity in these novels. Without the Lens and Arisian (Alien Master Race) intervention, than the future of Humanity would inevitably be one of totalitarian enslavement in a perpetual war of all against all for the barest scrap of selfish advantage (Boskonian culture). It may be oxymoronic to talk about a pessimistic utopian vision but this seems to me to be exactly that.
There but for the grace of the Arisians, goes Humanity.
That said, Smith writes with verve, passion and unbridled exuberance and can pick this reader up and drag him along with a pacey, action-filled narrative.
Plus using concentrated anti-matter and whole planets as weapons was probably ground breaking back in the day.
Strongly recommended. 5 'Unleash the Negasphere,' stars.
August 19, 2013
Recently I have been revisiting some of the classic science fiction that I read as a teenager via audiobook. I remember the Lensman series fondly and so was looking forward to revisiting the worlds of the Tellurians and Boskonians.
I one way it's still the same. Heroic men and gorgeous women. Space wars spread across galaxies. Evil bad guys. The plot rattles along to it's inevitable climax (good triumphs, hero gets girl).
The one thing that really struck me is how badly written this book is. The prose is leaden and there is no style. Dramatic tension is non-existent as "Doc" Smith suffers from a Superman complex. Whatever dreadful things happen to the good guys then there is (immediately) a scientific breakthrough to make it all as good as new.
The truth is that I have grown out of this sort of childish writing and need something with more depth now that I have reached my adult years. If you were to reclassify this book for teenagers then it may have some worth but it has certainly put me off returning to the other books in the series. Sad.
I one way it's still the same. Heroic men and gorgeous women. Space wars spread across galaxies. Evil bad guys. The plot rattles along to it's inevitable climax (good triumphs, hero gets girl).
The one thing that really struck me is how badly written this book is. The prose is leaden and there is no style. Dramatic tension is non-existent as "Doc" Smith suffers from a Superman complex. Whatever dreadful things happen to the good guys then there is (immediately) a scientific breakthrough to make it all as good as new.
The truth is that I have grown out of this sort of childish writing and need something with more depth now that I have reached my adult years. If you were to reclassify this book for teenagers then it may have some worth but it has certainly put me off returning to the other books in the series. Sad.
December 2, 2015
The continuing tale of Boskone and Kimball Kinnison.
In the opening, he recounts to the Admiral and another high official that he does not know if Boskone was annihilated by their attack. The rest is the somewhat episodic adventures of working out that they did. And fighting onward.
Eichlan speaks for Boskone here -- a harsh, pitiless cold-blood race of Eich being those trying to control the galaxy and rip Civilization's position away. Kinnison poses as both a high society man and as an asteroid prospector with a weakness for booze and the drug bentlam, using planets as weapons, deducing what other galaxy has to be a problem*, a discussion of a Kipling poem, the problems that teething causes when you use a regenerative technology, a Dr. Phillips dubbed so in self-defense, so they didn't have to pronounce his real name, and more.
*Because it's the only other one to have a significant number of planets. Old science said they had to be rare, and Smith posited a collision of two galaxies to provide the number he needed.
In the opening, he recounts to the Admiral and another high official that he does not know if Boskone was annihilated by their attack. The rest is the somewhat episodic adventures of working out that they did. And fighting onward.
Eichlan speaks for Boskone here -- a harsh, pitiless cold-blood race of Eich being those trying to control the galaxy and rip Civilization's position away. Kinnison poses as both a high society man and as an asteroid prospector with a weakness for booze and the drug bentlam, using planets as weapons, deducing what other galaxy has to be a problem*, a discussion of a Kipling poem, the problems that teething causes when you use a regenerative technology, a Dr. Phillips dubbed so in self-defense, so they didn't have to pronounce his real name, and more.
*Because it's the only other one to have a significant number of planets. Old science said they had to be rare, and Smith posited a collision of two galaxies to provide the number he needed.
January 19, 2008
The continuing lensman saga. It is interesting to watch the introduction of "new" scientific concepts into these books as they were developed. This one adds the concept of the positron which had just been discovered in 1932 a few years before this book was first published. Its kind of funny to see the wildly fantastic science and make-up of space smith put together be sidelined by something even more fantastic such as the positron. Bummer the other closely spaced dimensions and hyper and under space never panned out, it might have been fun.
January 11, 2024
4 STARS - I'm sure this had happened to everyone, you learn about something new to you and start seeing aspect of it everywhere.
It's like when you watched Monty Python and realize... 'Yes! That song I've heard everywhere was in this movie' or 'That's where SPAM, the term for unwanted in emails, came from' (or maybe that's just me).
If you have experienced something like that, which how can you not have, than you'll understand what I was feeling when I first learned about these Lensmen books, of which we will speak?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It all started when I was idly wasting time reading a wiki article regarding the DC comic book Green Lantern.
You see I had recently been turned on to the 2005 revival of GL Corps series, as this SF adventure book has become a modern classic [for some of us] as it's very Edgar Rice Burroughs meets Hill Street Blues IN SPACE. The more I read the GLC, the more I was interested in what had happened before I started reading (that's how they get ya'). Of course I turned to the leaders on dubious facts, the interwebs, for information... Partial because the whole Green Lantern books seem to be a strange series, even for the company that gave us Flash & Wonder Woman!? What I found was to take me through the... uh, lens.
As it would turn out, the Green Lantern books were actually inspired by this old SF series called The Lensmen, on top of which the Lensmen series had been adapted into an anime... an anime which I had actually seen as a kid and had fond memories of... though it seems the 'toon was only 'loosely' based on the Lensman books. That was not all, as I read on I discovered that not just one but two SF Conventions, relatively local to me, are named after the two warning factions in the Lensman series of novels:
Arisia
Boskone
While there I had a "wha-?" moment... after all these connections were as interesting as they seemed numerous, yet none of that is not prompted me reading these books.
What did? Well it was actually the synopsis/review of these books, I found online. It was fascinating and apparently most of it comes directly from the forward to this book in the series [see, cheaters may not prosper but their readers might]... so I figured there was nothing for it but to start... but where to? The lore of this series creation was vast, but as it seemed some stories in the current book timeline were not originally part of the Lensmen epic, I started with The First Lensman which is technically book two but was actually sixth (or fifth) written.
The little article, which sparked my curiosity, went into detail about how the Lensman story arc, of course... like how large this story is, how it seemed to encompass all of human history. Even so, some of the more interesting bits (for me) where actually details like how "Doc" Smith never uses computers in the story and how readers might not even notice.
It also talked about how, to the new SF audience, these book seem to have become a largely forgotten part of Golden Age SF while simultaneously being the cornerstone in a popular comic book universe. Being the gem that it is, the writer goes on to note, that this is a huge loss to SF fanatics. The writer even goes on to compare Smith's stories to those of van Vogt, Heinlein and Vinge.
This was the right review for me to read, because those authors penned some of my favorite stories.
More impressively, it turned out, the reviewer was not exaggerating.... The story is so epic, so very different then most of the early SF stories I had read. And Kimball Kinnison, our hero for this and the previous books in this series, is one of the most vicious heroes I've ever been witnessed to.
At one point Kim even goes about on an exterminate procedure on an entire race he deems to be to evil to be allowed to survive. To me it seemed a most mind boggling tact for a "hero" to take, but it works here. And it's the type of moral gray actions that a Lensman may have to take when trying to protect, not just the human race, but all races in this universe striving towards unity and peace (see it's so compelling it even brainwashed me).
Believe me, when I report that after a book or two this will all makes sense to you. You won't believe how accessible these mad SF books are, how easily the story will take you away....
First you must understand that the story of the Lensmen and the Galactic Patrol started long before humans walked on Earth. It involves a struggle between two almost magical alien races. The Arisians, a peaceful race native to this galaxy, and the Eddorians, a dictatorial, power-hungry people from the another galaxy.
Each has tried to influence the words of our galaxy, one trying to keep us as a fractured and lose... a farm for war games. The other helping to build an interplanetary council to keep peace and promote prosperity among all the beings we meet as we dive further and further into the void.
Despite the rich tapestry of the future E. E. "Doc" Smith paints around the Lensman there can be no argument that this book is an action/adventure epic. The Lensmen, graduates of the Galactic Patrol's Academy, are hand picked to receive the symbol of the Patrol's authority: The Lens.
THE LENS, a gift from the Arisians, gives its wearer a variety of mind-reading and telepathic capabilities, including those needed to enforce Galactic Patrol law on alien worlds as well as bridge the communication gap between all life-forms. The Lensman's lens cannot be worn by anyone other than its owner, killing any other wearer, and sublimates shortly after its owner's death.
The action in Gray Lensman (originally the second book in the series, prior to the addition of the two prequels) series picks up immediately where Galactic Patrol left off, in the middle of the final battle to destroy Lord Helmuth's main base and hopefully end the threat of the criminal empire known as "Boskone".
In the aftermath of destruction Kim Kinnison, unattached "Grey" Lensmen of the Galactic Patrol looks for clues to the mysterious origins of Boskone, the clandestine organization that had been controlling drugs and piracy in the galaxy.
From here Kim flies into action as only he can, straight into danger... first with an expedition into Lundmark's Nebula (soon to be known as the second galaxy), then to undercover work, pirate hunter, scout, and finally leader of a vast space fleet.
Yet there are still two more books to go. Kim's adventures may end here but the series has covered billions of years already, more is still to come. And a Kinnison will be at the heart...
I recommend this series for any Space Opera, Classic SF or Adventure fan.
It's like when you watched Monty Python and realize... 'Yes! That song I've heard everywhere was in this movie' or 'That's where SPAM, the term for unwanted in emails, came from' (or maybe that's just me).
If you have experienced something like that, which how can you not have, than you'll understand what I was feeling when I first learned about these Lensmen books, of which we will speak?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It all started when I was idly wasting time reading a wiki article regarding the DC comic book Green Lantern.
You see I had recently been turned on to the 2005 revival of GL Corps series, as this SF adventure book has become a modern classic [for some of us] as it's very Edgar Rice Burroughs meets Hill Street Blues IN SPACE. The more I read the GLC, the more I was interested in what had happened before I started reading (that's how they get ya'). Of course I turned to the leaders on dubious facts, the interwebs, for information... Partial because the whole Green Lantern books seem to be a strange series, even for the company that gave us Flash & Wonder Woman!? What I found was to take me through the... uh, lens.
As it would turn out, the Green Lantern books were actually inspired by this old SF series called The Lensmen, on top of which the Lensmen series had been adapted into an anime... an anime which I had actually seen as a kid and had fond memories of... though it seems the 'toon was only 'loosely' based on the Lensman books. That was not all, as I read on I discovered that not just one but two SF Conventions, relatively local to me, are named after the two warning factions in the Lensman series of novels:
Arisia
Boskone
While there I had a "wha-?" moment... after all these connections were as interesting as they seemed numerous, yet none of that is not prompted me reading these books.
What did? Well it was actually the synopsis/review of these books, I found online. It was fascinating and apparently most of it comes directly from the forward to this book in the series [see, cheaters may not prosper but their readers might]... so I figured there was nothing for it but to start... but where to? The lore of this series creation was vast, but as it seemed some stories in the current book timeline were not originally part of the Lensmen epic, I started with The First Lensman which is technically book two but was actually sixth (or fifth) written.
The little article, which sparked my curiosity, went into detail about how the Lensman story arc, of course... like how large this story is, how it seemed to encompass all of human history. Even so, some of the more interesting bits (for me) where actually details like how "Doc" Smith never uses computers in the story and how readers might not even notice.
It also talked about how, to the new SF audience, these book seem to have become a largely forgotten part of Golden Age SF while simultaneously being the cornerstone in a popular comic book universe. Being the gem that it is, the writer goes on to note, that this is a huge loss to SF fanatics. The writer even goes on to compare Smith's stories to those of van Vogt, Heinlein and Vinge.
This was the right review for me to read, because those authors penned some of my favorite stories.
More impressively, it turned out, the reviewer was not exaggerating.... The story is so epic, so very different then most of the early SF stories I had read. And Kimball Kinnison, our hero for this and the previous books in this series, is one of the most vicious heroes I've ever been witnessed to.
At one point Kim even goes about on an exterminate procedure on an entire race he deems to be to evil to be allowed to survive. To me it seemed a most mind boggling tact for a "hero" to take, but it works here. And it's the type of moral gray actions that a Lensman may have to take when trying to protect, not just the human race, but all races in this universe striving towards unity and peace (see it's so compelling it even brainwashed me).
Believe me, when I report that after a book or two this will all makes sense to you. You won't believe how accessible these mad SF books are, how easily the story will take you away....
First you must understand that the story of the Lensmen and the Galactic Patrol started long before humans walked on Earth. It involves a struggle between two almost magical alien races. The Arisians, a peaceful race native to this galaxy, and the Eddorians, a dictatorial, power-hungry people from the another galaxy.
Each has tried to influence the words of our galaxy, one trying to keep us as a fractured and lose... a farm for war games. The other helping to build an interplanetary council to keep peace and promote prosperity among all the beings we meet as we dive further and further into the void.
Despite the rich tapestry of the future E. E. "Doc" Smith paints around the Lensman there can be no argument that this book is an action/adventure epic. The Lensmen, graduates of the Galactic Patrol's Academy, are hand picked to receive the symbol of the Patrol's authority: The Lens.
THE LENS, a gift from the Arisians, gives its wearer a variety of mind-reading and telepathic capabilities, including those needed to enforce Galactic Patrol law on alien worlds as well as bridge the communication gap between all life-forms. The Lensman's lens cannot be worn by anyone other than its owner, killing any other wearer, and sublimates shortly after its owner's death.
The action in Gray Lensman (originally the second book in the series, prior to the addition of the two prequels) series picks up immediately where Galactic Patrol left off, in the middle of the final battle to destroy Lord Helmuth's main base and hopefully end the threat of the criminal empire known as "Boskone".
In the aftermath of destruction Kim Kinnison, unattached "Grey" Lensmen of the Galactic Patrol looks for clues to the mysterious origins of Boskone, the clandestine organization that had been controlling drugs and piracy in the galaxy.
From here Kim flies into action as only he can, straight into danger... first with an expedition into Lundmark's Nebula (soon to be known as the second galaxy), then to undercover work, pirate hunter, scout, and finally leader of a vast space fleet.
Yet there are still two more books to go. Kim's adventures may end here but the series has covered billions of years already, more is still to come. And a Kinnison will be at the heart...
I recommend this series for any Space Opera, Classic SF or Adventure fan.
May 26, 2009
The Lensman series as a whole is a kind of archaeological dig into a landfill, except probably without toxic outgassing. You have compressed layers of awesome, then quaint silliness, and then just painfully awkward moments.
The awesome (important: this is "awesome" in the summer blockbuster movie sense): science-be-damned space battles that do not screw around, informed from that early 40's "throw enough scientists and engineers at a problem, and they can do absolutely anything" mindset. It occurs to our hero about midway through the book that it'd be handy to have both a planet built entirely out of antimatter (well, "negamatter," no one really had a handle on exactly what antimatter would behave like), and planets made out of regular matter that could be dropped out of inertialess spacedrive to act as a cosmic nutcracker against enemy planets. So he has the Galactic Patrol throw enough scientists and engineers at the problem to fix them both.
Also, at one point he's rousting out the evil drug dealing arm of the opposing civilization off a planet, and does so by arranging to get himself captured, so that they'd learn where the headquarters was upon his transport there. As part of his commandeering of the entire planetary resources of law enforcement, he also asks for a couple "oglons" (or "cateagles") which are your basic Ravenous Bugblatter Beast (only without the towel weakness) vicious alien animal monster template. He requisitions these from the zoo because he can use his psionic powers on them to mind control them and use them as weapons, which he does, in order to maul and kill the guys who captured him. That's not the awesome bit. This is the awesome bit:
Simultaneously with that, the entire planetary law enforcement resources who've been tailing and following his capture to the headquarters in various hypercompetent cloaked ways open up with artillery and precision sniping, instantly destroying the buildings and killing everyone in it. They could have sniped the guys who he allowed to capture himself too, rendering the mauling death by cateagle entirely moot. So basically, he had them mauled to death by alien cateagles simply because he could.
The cutely quaint: This is mostly of the way all old science fiction falls prey to, and the way all modern science fiction will in another 60ish years (if that). You have your astronavigators working feverishly over slide rules. You have breathless descriptions of sorting through library systems with assistants so skilled that they sorted through nearly HUNDREDS of index cards per MINUTE! And so forth.
The painfully awkward: an almost exact quote from way back in the first book: "Forget that I am a woman! For now we are simply three people against a planet of monsters!" The casual misogyny is basically everywhere. (Usually) more subtly, eugenics are everywhere as well.
You never quite know what layer you're going to run into from paragraph to paragraph, too. So far, Gray Lensman is the best of the bunch, mainly because it had more of the awesome and quaint layers, with comparatively fewer pockets of the awkward.
The awesome (important: this is "awesome" in the summer blockbuster movie sense): science-be-damned space battles that do not screw around, informed from that early 40's "throw enough scientists and engineers at a problem, and they can do absolutely anything" mindset. It occurs to our hero about midway through the book that it'd be handy to have both a planet built entirely out of antimatter (well, "negamatter," no one really had a handle on exactly what antimatter would behave like), and planets made out of regular matter that could be dropped out of inertialess spacedrive to act as a cosmic nutcracker against enemy planets. So he has the Galactic Patrol throw enough scientists and engineers at the problem to fix them both.
Also, at one point he's rousting out the evil drug dealing arm of the opposing civilization off a planet, and does so by arranging to get himself captured, so that they'd learn where the headquarters was upon his transport there. As part of his commandeering of the entire planetary resources of law enforcement, he also asks for a couple "oglons" (or "cateagles") which are your basic Ravenous Bugblatter Beast (only without the towel weakness) vicious alien animal monster template. He requisitions these from the zoo because he can use his psionic powers on them to mind control them and use them as weapons, which he does, in order to maul and kill the guys who captured him. That's not the awesome bit. This is the awesome bit:
Simultaneously with that, the entire planetary law enforcement resources who've been tailing and following his capture to the headquarters in various hypercompetent cloaked ways open up with artillery and precision sniping, instantly destroying the buildings and killing everyone in it. They could have sniped the guys who he allowed to capture himself too, rendering the mauling death by cateagle entirely moot. So basically, he had them mauled to death by alien cateagles simply because he could.
The cutely quaint: This is mostly of the way all old science fiction falls prey to, and the way all modern science fiction will in another 60ish years (if that). You have your astronavigators working feverishly over slide rules. You have breathless descriptions of sorting through library systems with assistants so skilled that they sorted through nearly HUNDREDS of index cards per MINUTE! And so forth.
The painfully awkward: an almost exact quote from way back in the first book: "Forget that I am a woman! For now we are simply three people against a planet of monsters!" The casual misogyny is basically everywhere. (Usually) more subtly, eugenics are everywhere as well.
You never quite know what layer you're going to run into from paragraph to paragraph, too. So far, Gray Lensman is the best of the bunch, mainly because it had more of the awesome and quaint layers, with comparatively fewer pockets of the awkward.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 18, 2020
Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 2/5
Gray Lensman starts in the middle of a battle scene. It is clear who the reader is supposed to cheer for and jeer against, but is also clear that you are supposed to know more about the two sides. I read my last Lensman book about three years ago. Obviously that was too long of a withdrawal. The novel refers to events and characters as if the reader knows their motivations and history, and honestly, little of it was bringing back to mind that old information. So E.E. Doc Smith and his publishers probably envisioned this being read closely after the last one. It does not really matter though. There is not that much character building in these books, so there really is not that much to recall. One does not really need to know the stakes, the technological possibilities, or the balance of power. The Gray Lensman, Kim Kennison, is going to save the day! Most of the time, this is going to start with Kennison seeing a problem that no one else recognizes. He’s going to outline the strategic plan for everyone else. And then is he is going to mostly single-handedly solve the problem he recently brought to the attention of others, avoiding the dangers they were not previously aware of, using technology and means which he had built for this specific purpose. Such is pulp science fiction.
There were places, however, where Smith hinted at backstory and development. Every so often, he would turn away from the episodic and escalating drama and throw in some real problem solving. Every now and then, he would have the hero require the help of others. A few times a villain actually momentarily obtained the upper hand. I applauded those moments. I saw them as hints of the future to come in science fiction, when the genre realized that depth and some elements of realism were strengths to be included. Probably the pure pulp fans were already lamenting pulp fiction’s demise, complaining about the turn away from fun and excitement. Not a pulp fan myself, I thought this had some merit. But it was still pulp.
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 2/5
Gray Lensman starts in the middle of a battle scene. It is clear who the reader is supposed to cheer for and jeer against, but is also clear that you are supposed to know more about the two sides. I read my last Lensman book about three years ago. Obviously that was too long of a withdrawal. The novel refers to events and characters as if the reader knows their motivations and history, and honestly, little of it was bringing back to mind that old information. So E.E. Doc Smith and his publishers probably envisioned this being read closely after the last one. It does not really matter though. There is not that much character building in these books, so there really is not that much to recall. One does not really need to know the stakes, the technological possibilities, or the balance of power. The Gray Lensman, Kim Kennison, is going to save the day! Most of the time, this is going to start with Kennison seeing a problem that no one else recognizes. He’s going to outline the strategic plan for everyone else. And then is he is going to mostly single-handedly solve the problem he recently brought to the attention of others, avoiding the dangers they were not previously aware of, using technology and means which he had built for this specific purpose. Such is pulp science fiction.
There were places, however, where Smith hinted at backstory and development. Every so often, he would turn away from the episodic and escalating drama and throw in some real problem solving. Every now and then, he would have the hero require the help of others. A few times a villain actually momentarily obtained the upper hand. I applauded those moments. I saw them as hints of the future to come in science fiction, when the genre realized that depth and some elements of realism were strengths to be included. Probably the pure pulp fans were already lamenting pulp fiction’s demise, complaining about the turn away from fun and excitement. Not a pulp fan myself, I thought this had some merit. But it was still pulp.
January 5, 2019
2.5, rounded down for being somewhat tiresome {though expected for a work from almost 80 years ago}. It reminded me of what would later be The green lantern core with a bit Buck Rogers. It does deal with various questions such as the individual and its relation in society and different societies as a whole. Unfortunately this swashbuckling across the stars had a tendency to be somewhat overly pompous in today's {my} eyes.
PS I have not read the previous books in the series, which may have diminished some of the experience.
PS I have not read the previous books in the series, which may have diminished some of the experience.
April 27, 2022
Enjoyable classic sci-fi!
December 16, 2022
I (and many others) believe the best place to start with Doc Smith’s Lensman series is Galactic Patrol; and as I’ve said why, at length, in my review of that opus, I won’t repeat it here.
Gray Lensman begins where Patrol left off, and never flags, from the start to the finish.
Smith at this point is a massively improved writer from the author of the earlier Skylark series, and much more confident in his characters: Richard Seaton, for instance, never had the moments of self-doubt that trouble Kinnison, and would certainly never have burst into tears (as the latter did when his nurse wouldn’t feed him beefsteak in hospital!).
Even more unexpected is the development of an impish sense of humour, manifested in several places, but most notably in the exploits of Wild Bill Williams of Aldebaran II, in the present volume — surely one of the most entertaining episodes in the whole of Golden Age SF.
I’ve never understood critics — including the normally-perspicacious Brian Aldiss* — who say that Smith couldn’t write. True, he probably never gave T.S. Eliot (his exact contemporary) any sleepless nights, and better authors have certainly stood on his shoulders; but the Lensman series is F-U-N, and without it the SF world would be a much duller place.
*in Billion Year Spree, later revised as Trillion Year Spree.
Gray Lensman begins where Patrol left off, and never flags, from the start to the finish.
Smith at this point is a massively improved writer from the author of the earlier Skylark series, and much more confident in his characters: Richard Seaton, for instance, never had the moments of self-doubt that trouble Kinnison, and would certainly never have burst into tears (as the latter did when his nurse wouldn’t feed him beefsteak in hospital!).
Even more unexpected is the development of an impish sense of humour, manifested in several places, but most notably in the exploits of Wild Bill Williams of Aldebaran II, in the present volume — surely one of the most entertaining episodes in the whole of Golden Age SF.
I’ve never understood critics — including the normally-perspicacious Brian Aldiss* — who say that Smith couldn’t write. True, he probably never gave T.S. Eliot (his exact contemporary) any sleepless nights, and better authors have certainly stood on his shoulders; but the Lensman series is F-U-N, and without it the SF world would be a much duller place.
*in Billion Year Spree, later revised as Trillion Year Spree.
March 29, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in November 1998.
By the second Kimball Kinnison Lensman book, the fourth in the series overall, the path to the final conflict between the Arisians and the Eddorians is set. Each remaining book now contains the downfall of one or more of the races in the lower echelons of the Eddorian scheme of things, with Smith bursting his imagination to come up with every more spectacular weapons to destroy the planetary headquarters of these races. In Grey Lensman, these consist of a planet sized sphere of negative mass, drawn in ever faster by the frantic efforts of defenders to push it away and eating into the planet to leave rubble (none of the vast explosive release of energy which is actually the consequence of the interaction of matter and anti-matter); and a pair of planets released to crush Jarnevon, planet of the Eich, between them.
The ethics of such a destruction are taken entirely for granted, as was generally the case in science fiction of the time; the justification is the self-evident evil nature of the Eddorians and their henchmen (henchbeings?). Human beings are the only species in significant numbers on both sides (this is something that clearly worried Robert Kyle in his series of authorised Lensman sequels); all other species are either black or white as a whole, with no exceptions. The tendency to paint with a broad brush in this way is common even today; there must be many decent Serbs, for example, but we never hear about them and crimes are attributed to "the Serbs" by the media, as though they were all equally culpable.
One cannot really fault Smith for being of his time and not of now; and he does allow Kinnison a moment of self-doubt, for leading good men to their deaths. It is for the exuberance of his story-telling that people still read Smith's space operas, not for his moral philosophy.
By the second Kimball Kinnison Lensman book, the fourth in the series overall, the path to the final conflict between the Arisians and the Eddorians is set. Each remaining book now contains the downfall of one or more of the races in the lower echelons of the Eddorian scheme of things, with Smith bursting his imagination to come up with every more spectacular weapons to destroy the planetary headquarters of these races. In Grey Lensman, these consist of a planet sized sphere of negative mass, drawn in ever faster by the frantic efforts of defenders to push it away and eating into the planet to leave rubble (none of the vast explosive release of energy which is actually the consequence of the interaction of matter and anti-matter); and a pair of planets released to crush Jarnevon, planet of the Eich, between them.
The ethics of such a destruction are taken entirely for granted, as was generally the case in science fiction of the time; the justification is the self-evident evil nature of the Eddorians and their henchmen (henchbeings?). Human beings are the only species in significant numbers on both sides (this is something that clearly worried Robert Kyle in his series of authorised Lensman sequels); all other species are either black or white as a whole, with no exceptions. The tendency to paint with a broad brush in this way is common even today; there must be many decent Serbs, for example, but we never hear about them and crimes are attributed to "the Serbs" by the media, as though they were all equally culpable.
One cannot really fault Smith for being of his time and not of now; and he does allow Kinnison a moment of self-doubt, for leading good men to their deaths. It is for the exuberance of his story-telling that people still read Smith's space operas, not for his moral philosophy.
March 9, 2016
This was my first of the Lensmen series. I've had the first in the series on my multi-paged reading list for ages, but wanted to read this one before the nominations for the Retro Hugo this year.
I like space operas as a group. This one satisfied on some levels. I did begin to like the main characters as the book progressed, but characterization wasn't really the main aim for Smith, I feel. The science was too prevelant for my tastes, but when you're reading print (ereader) you can skim when it gets to be too much.
It does make me wonder if I would have felt closer to the characters if I'd read the previous items in the series; I'll find that out later. By and large, recommended to space opera fans that can appreciate older stories. Remember to keep things in historical perspective; many things have changed, both scientifically and socially, since the book was serialized in 1939-1940!
I like space operas as a group. This one satisfied on some levels. I did begin to like the main characters as the book progressed, but characterization wasn't really the main aim for Smith, I feel. The science was too prevelant for my tastes, but when you're reading print (ereader) you can skim when it gets to be too much.
It does make me wonder if I would have felt closer to the characters if I'd read the previous items in the series; I'll find that out later. By and large, recommended to space opera fans that can appreciate older stories. Remember to keep things in historical perspective; many things have changed, both scientifically and socially, since the book was serialized in 1939-1940!
Read
May 25, 2015Grey Lensman is the fourth book of the Lensman series and written by E.E. "Doc" Smith in 1940.
Despite being the fourth book, I started reading with this book. Currently I’ve just started listening this book, but it has an interesting story. There were two ancient species and they have millions of years history.
I’ve great expectations from this book.
Update: 25.05.2015
I’ve finished listening this novel, as I said above I’ve great expectations but the whole story did not satisfy me. It is a nice novel, nice setting, super talented and charismatic characters but not for me. I guess this kind of sci-fi novels were good while they were written in 75 years ago, but not attract current audience much.
Despite being the fourth book, I started reading with this book. Currently I’ve just started listening this book, but it has an interesting story. There were two ancient species and they have millions of years history.
I’ve great expectations from this book.
Update: 25.05.2015
I’ve finished listening this novel, as I said above I’ve great expectations but the whole story did not satisfy me. It is a nice novel, nice setting, super talented and charismatic characters but not for me. I guess this kind of sci-fi novels were good while they were written in 75 years ago, but not attract current audience much.
June 7, 2020
It's the OG space opera. Sample Text:
"Into the plates stared hard-faced young firing officers, keen eyes glued to crossed hair-lines, grimly steady right and left hands spinning controller-rheostats by touch alone, tensely crouched as though by sheer driving force of will they could energize to even higher levels the ravening beams which were weaving beneath and around the Patrol’s super-dreadnought a writhing, flaming pattern of death and destruction."
....
"He poured a stiff three fingers, downed it at a gulp, shuddered ecstatically, and emitted a wild yell. “Yip-yip-yippee! I’m Wild Bill Williams, the ripping, roaring, ritoodolorum from Aldebaran II, and this is my night to howl. Whee . . . yow . . . owrie-e-e!”
If that sounds, fun, read it.
"Into the plates stared hard-faced young firing officers, keen eyes glued to crossed hair-lines, grimly steady right and left hands spinning controller-rheostats by touch alone, tensely crouched as though by sheer driving force of will they could energize to even higher levels the ravening beams which were weaving beneath and around the Patrol’s super-dreadnought a writhing, flaming pattern of death and destruction."
....
"He poured a stiff three fingers, downed it at a gulp, shuddered ecstatically, and emitted a wild yell. “Yip-yip-yippee! I’m Wild Bill Williams, the ripping, roaring, ritoodolorum from Aldebaran II, and this is my night to howl. Whee . . . yow . . . owrie-e-e!”
If that sounds, fun, read it.
July 4, 2016
I've been reading a lot of books from this era recently and I have to say that even for the time it feels markedly old fashioned. The storyline has trouble keeping focus, the characters overwrought and the whole thing was less an exciting space adventure than talky info-dumps and capture-escape padding. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this more if it wasn't my first foray into the Lensman stories but I don't think so.
Essentially the plot is a police officer doing an undercover investigation into the drug trade as a war builds up in an old Western style of the future. Nothing feels radical or interesting to me and I don't think I am likely to return.
Essentially the plot is a police officer doing an undercover investigation into the drug trade as a war builds up in an old Western style of the future. Nothing feels radical or interesting to me and I don't think I am likely to return.
April 25, 2008
The things you can do when you learn to manipulate inertia... This is probably the grittiest of the Lensman books thus far, with the hero having to go to some dark places to track down Boskone. And as much as I've come to dislike the "he needed killing" thought in characters, at least the Lensmen have the necessary conceits to do it.
September 9, 2016
Re-read!
I read the Lensman series years ago, and figured the time had come to re-read them. The books are just as fun, just as captivating now as then. The language is outdated occasionally, the science is really fiction, but the story is still great. Strongly recommended!
I read the Lensman series years ago, and figured the time had come to re-read them. The books are just as fun, just as captivating now as then. The language is outdated occasionally, the science is really fiction, but the story is still great. Strongly recommended!
April 30, 2011
Best of the series so far. Quite good, actually. Some of the weapons in this book make the Death Star look like a BB gun. Good fun, I'm curious to see what happens in the next book.
March 13, 2019
Grand space opera at its finest (with an odd philosophical reflection thrown in for good measure)
October 3, 2021
A galáxia está sob ameaça de um poder vindo do exterior. A ameaça militar foi travada pelas forças da patrulha espacial, mas os atacantes usam o tráfico de drogas como forma de enfraquecer os defensores. Os ataques vêm de outra galáxia, já sob domínio do poder ameaçador. A missão da patrulha espacial é dupla: expulsar os inimigos do seu interior, caçando os traficantes, e levar os combates às bases espaciais inimigas na outra galáxia.
Uma missão que conta com uma ajuda especial, o corpo de Lensmen, agentes com capacidades super-humanas, ativados por uma civilização alienígena que espalhou pela galáxia as sementes deste poder físico e mental. Destes, destaca-se o Lente Cinzenta, cujas capacidades se sobrepõem aos restantes, e age com total autonomia. Partirá numa missão quase suicida, entre comandar forças de ataque às bases e frotas inimigas, ou infiltrar-se nos redutos criminosos para expor as redes às forças de segurança. Missões que irão colocar à prova as capacidades físicas e mentais do Lensman.
Sob este título algo infeliz está Grey Lensman, um dos livros da série Lensman de E.E. Doc Smith. Space opera clássica, típica aventura espacial pulp que se esforça por criar vastos mundos ficcionais, povoados por criaturas humanas ou alienígenas que se defrontam num enorme tabuleiro de jogo galáctico. A leitura vale pela referência histórica, para se ficar a conhecer as raízes quer da Ficção Científica moderna quer da space opera, bem como a influência na origem dos populares personagens de comics que são os Lanternas Verdes (troquem Arisia e os Arisianos por Oa e os seus Guardiões, os Lensman pela tropa de Lanternas Verdes, e não irão notar muita diferença).
Uma missão que conta com uma ajuda especial, o corpo de Lensmen, agentes com capacidades super-humanas, ativados por uma civilização alienígena que espalhou pela galáxia as sementes deste poder físico e mental. Destes, destaca-se o Lente Cinzenta, cujas capacidades se sobrepõem aos restantes, e age com total autonomia. Partirá numa missão quase suicida, entre comandar forças de ataque às bases e frotas inimigas, ou infiltrar-se nos redutos criminosos para expor as redes às forças de segurança. Missões que irão colocar à prova as capacidades físicas e mentais do Lensman.
Sob este título algo infeliz está Grey Lensman, um dos livros da série Lensman de E.E. Doc Smith. Space opera clássica, típica aventura espacial pulp que se esforça por criar vastos mundos ficcionais, povoados por criaturas humanas ou alienígenas que se defrontam num enorme tabuleiro de jogo galáctico. A leitura vale pela referência histórica, para se ficar a conhecer as raízes quer da Ficção Científica moderna quer da space opera, bem como a influência na origem dos populares personagens de comics que são os Lanternas Verdes (troquem Arisia e os Arisianos por Oa e os seus Guardiões, os Lensman pela tropa de Lanternas Verdes, e não irão notar muita diferença).
December 25, 2024
Not quite as entertaining as the previous books in the series mostly due to the undercover sections of the book being a real slog to get through.
August 9, 2020
Love a novel about the future with a positive view of man's destiny
September 24, 2019
I hate to admit it, but this book was quite enjoyable in a Boy’s Own / Biggles sort of way. I am either getting re-used to Smith’s prose or he actually got better as a novelist.
Although the book, as with its predecessors is jam packed with Flash Gordon type adventure, at least in this book descriptions of space battles didn’t appear on just about every page. There was some plot development too! To be fair, as a series these books have pretty clever plots at more than 1 level, but to me it seemed more noticeable in this book to the others I have read so far.
Still, I do find it difficult to reconcile the mix of anachronistic technologies. For example, individuals use slide rules on starships going faster than light, (itself a physical impossibility) which essentially turns the novels into Steampunk books (if my understanding of that word is correct).
Nevertheless, this series has taken me back to my early reading days and the books are fun and easy to read. It is this combination which I enjoy most.
Although the book, as with its predecessors is jam packed with Flash Gordon type adventure, at least in this book descriptions of space battles didn’t appear on just about every page. There was some plot development too! To be fair, as a series these books have pretty clever plots at more than 1 level, but to me it seemed more noticeable in this book to the others I have read so far.
Still, I do find it difficult to reconcile the mix of anachronistic technologies. For example, individuals use slide rules on starships going faster than light, (itself a physical impossibility) which essentially turns the novels into Steampunk books (if my understanding of that word is correct).
Nevertheless, this series has taken me back to my early reading days and the books are fun and easy to read. It is this combination which I enjoy most.
February 5, 2020
THIS REVIEW HAS MINOR SPOILERS...
The fourth in the Lensman series is one of the more memorable for me. All of the books in this saga are jam-packed with so many things going on that events quickly start to blend into each other after a read. But for some reason, this one has stuck out over the others.
This may be perhaps because the themes are much darker and the action is a little more varied than just the epic spaceship battles peppered with pseudoscientific jargon in earlier entries. Kim Kinnison, the titular Lensman, is involved in infiltrating an intergalactic drug-ring by posing as an asteroid miner who is a drunkard and addict in need of a fix. He actually has to use the drugs so the baddies around him don't suspect that he's some kind of narc, which has its own set of consequences. There also are the despicable Eicks living on the planet Jarnevon with their sponsored thugs, the Overlords, an alien race who has perfected the sadistic arts of the most vile and cruel tortures. Without spoiling much, our hero has a ruthlessly vile encounter with these Overlords that is actually quite shocking and sickening, which again underlies my main point that this novel represents a major shift in tone for the series which previously had been very vanilla, optimistic, and kid-friendly. If I had been a child following this series in its heyday, I think I would have been shocked and traumatized for life at the stuff that happens in this entry.
In fact, the abrupt and jarring tonal shift in "Gray Lensman" is both one of it's strengths and weaknesses. It is a weakness because you can't really have it both ways. You can't have a tame adventure for children that suddenly erupts into a dark and grisly horror novel, and then try to walk it back. An audience of children and especially of adults will no longer believe the writer when it is tried to set things right in the end. Sure Han Solo is rescued from the carbonite and the Lion triumphantly comes back from the dead, but these are scenarios penned by much more talented writers than Doc Smith who I think pushed things a bit too far here. Comic book fans know what I'm talking about.
But speaking of writing, the Doc is in better form here than in other entries, and as I alluded to earlier, this novel feels more mature and memorable overall. So I consider this one of the best of the series.
The fourth in the Lensman series is one of the more memorable for me. All of the books in this saga are jam-packed with so many things going on that events quickly start to blend into each other after a read. But for some reason, this one has stuck out over the others.
This may be perhaps because the themes are much darker and the action is a little more varied than just the epic spaceship battles peppered with pseudoscientific jargon in earlier entries. Kim Kinnison, the titular Lensman, is involved in infiltrating an intergalactic drug-ring by posing as an asteroid miner who is a drunkard and addict in need of a fix. He actually has to use the drugs so the baddies around him don't suspect that he's some kind of narc, which has its own set of consequences. There also are the despicable Eicks living on the planet Jarnevon with their sponsored thugs, the Overlords, an alien race who has perfected the sadistic arts of the most vile and cruel tortures. Without spoiling much, our hero has a ruthlessly vile encounter with these Overlords that is actually quite shocking and sickening, which again underlies my main point that this novel represents a major shift in tone for the series which previously had been very vanilla, optimistic, and kid-friendly. If I had been a child following this series in its heyday, I think I would have been shocked and traumatized for life at the stuff that happens in this entry.
In fact, the abrupt and jarring tonal shift in "Gray Lensman" is both one of it's strengths and weaknesses. It is a weakness because you can't really have it both ways. You can't have a tame adventure for children that suddenly erupts into a dark and grisly horror novel, and then try to walk it back. An audience of children and especially of adults will no longer believe the writer when it is tried to set things right in the end. Sure Han Solo is rescued from the carbonite and the Lion triumphantly comes back from the dead, but these are scenarios penned by much more talented writers than Doc Smith who I think pushed things a bit too far here. Comic book fans know what I'm talking about.
But speaking of writing, the Doc is in better form here than in other entries, and as I alluded to earlier, this novel feels more mature and memorable overall. So I consider this one of the best of the series.
April 3, 2018
Kimball Kinnison has defeated Helmuth of Boskone, the pirate leader. However this does not end crime in the galaxy; indeed there is evidence that Helmuth was in contact with the “Second Galaxy” aka “Lundmark’s Nebula”.
Kinnison, on the assumption that all crime is being run by Boskone, decides to go undercover to infiltrate the drug trade, which is not only unaffected by the end of Helmuth but expanding. It turns out he’s right. The drug operation was run separately from the piracy*, and takes over the shattered remnants. In between he finds time to investigate the second galaxy (full of Boskonians, although they find the technologically advanced planet of Medea which they bring back with them), hold a scientific conference to create a new super-weapon, the negasphere, and go through the fourth dimension to defeat his old enemies, the Overlords of Delgon.
Kinnison gets quite badly injured (again), so badly in fact that it breaks the fourth wall, with the narrator informing us that Kinnison doesn’t think the readers would like to hear about it. Fortunately there’s a new treatment to the pineal gland that allows him to regenerate the missing body parts,so he’s okay in time for the final battles, and then to ride off into the sunset with Clarissa MacDougall, who he finally accepts is worth marrying despite the risks of death.
I don't think I phrased that right.
Read This: If you are already on board the Lensman train, then this is mostly more of the same – more layers of bad guys, who are worse, bigger spaceships, a larger scale, more elaborate undercover work and some mega weapons.
Don’t Read This: If this sounds like a lot of boring nonsense.
* Since this was actually a war between “Civilisation” and “Boskonia”, it was actually commerce raiding, so the practise of sending the “pirates” to the death chamber, which led to the bloody no-quarter fights between the Patrol and their enemies, would have been a war crime. I’m just saying.
On the other hand the zwilniks who operate the narcotics rings are actually agents of a foreign power, out of uniform, in wartime, making them traitors, spies, or saboteurs depending, so they can probably be shot out of hand.
Kinnison, on the assumption that all crime is being run by Boskone, decides to go undercover to infiltrate the drug trade, which is not only unaffected by the end of Helmuth but expanding. It turns out he’s right. The drug operation was run separately from the piracy*, and takes over the shattered remnants. In between he finds time to investigate the second galaxy (full of Boskonians, although they find the technologically advanced planet of Medea which they bring back with them), hold a scientific conference to create a new super-weapon, the negasphere, and go through the fourth dimension to defeat his old enemies, the Overlords of Delgon.
Kinnison gets quite badly injured (again), so badly in fact that it breaks the fourth wall, with the narrator informing us that Kinnison doesn’t think the readers would like to hear about it. Fortunately there’s a new treatment to the pineal gland that allows him to regenerate the missing body parts,so he’s okay in time for the final battles, and then to ride off into the sunset with Clarissa MacDougall, who he finally accepts is worth marrying despite the risks of death.
I don't think I phrased that right.
Read This: If you are already on board the Lensman train, then this is mostly more of the same – more layers of bad guys, who are worse, bigger spaceships, a larger scale, more elaborate undercover work and some mega weapons.
Don’t Read This: If this sounds like a lot of boring nonsense.
* Since this was actually a war between “Civilisation” and “Boskonia”, it was actually commerce raiding, so the practise of sending the “pirates” to the death chamber, which led to the bloody no-quarter fights between the Patrol and their enemies, would have been a war crime. I’m just saying.
On the other hand the zwilniks who operate the narcotics rings are actually agents of a foreign power, out of uniform, in wartime, making them traitors, spies, or saboteurs depending, so they can probably be shot out of hand.
August 7, 2014
‘Duel to the Death in Outer Space
Somewhere among the galaxies was the stronghold of Boskone – a network of brilliant space-criminals whose hunger for conquest threatened the continued existence of all known civilisation.
But where was this stronghold? Boskonian bases were scattered across the universe – shielded by gigantic thought-screens that defied penetration. The best minds in the Galactic Patrol had tried. And failed. Now it was up to Lensman Kim Kinnison, using his fantastic powers, to infiltrate the Boskonian strongholds, find the location of the enemy’s Grand Base – and smash it forever.
But Kinnison didn’t know then that the power of Boskone reached further than anyone had dreamed – into the Galactic Patrol itself...’
Blurb from the 1973 Panther paperback edition.
Kim Kinnison is now an unattached Grey Lensman, uniformed in the stark drab grey that, paradoxically, appears to the rest of The Patrol (and seemingly the entire galaxy) to be the sexiest outfit known to sentient life. Smith doesn’t use the word ‘sexy’ of course, since the men of the Patrol are very prim and proper about that sort of thing. Oddly, his fellow Lensmen Tregonsee and Worsel, don’t appear to wear grey leather suits, or any other clothing for that matter, perhaps on the grounds that oddly shaped aliens would look a little silly visualised wearing a grey leather coverall.
Kinnison once more goes undercover to trace the drug-traffickers of the galaxy back to Boskone, which has now been discovered to be in the second galaxy.
There’s the return of the Overlords of Boskone, the usual space-battles, as well as a slightly cringey sub-plot where two senior Patrol Officers plot to push Kim and Clarissa into each other’s arms.
There is also a brilliant finale where the entire Patrol Fleet attack the Boskone base and then the planet of The Eich which is spectacularly crushed between two planets which are set into motion for that very purpose.
Somewhere among the galaxies was the stronghold of Boskone – a network of brilliant space-criminals whose hunger for conquest threatened the continued existence of all known civilisation.
But where was this stronghold? Boskonian bases were scattered across the universe – shielded by gigantic thought-screens that defied penetration. The best minds in the Galactic Patrol had tried. And failed. Now it was up to Lensman Kim Kinnison, using his fantastic powers, to infiltrate the Boskonian strongholds, find the location of the enemy’s Grand Base – and smash it forever.
But Kinnison didn’t know then that the power of Boskone reached further than anyone had dreamed – into the Galactic Patrol itself...’
Blurb from the 1973 Panther paperback edition.
Kim Kinnison is now an unattached Grey Lensman, uniformed in the stark drab grey that, paradoxically, appears to the rest of The Patrol (and seemingly the entire galaxy) to be the sexiest outfit known to sentient life. Smith doesn’t use the word ‘sexy’ of course, since the men of the Patrol are very prim and proper about that sort of thing. Oddly, his fellow Lensmen Tregonsee and Worsel, don’t appear to wear grey leather suits, or any other clothing for that matter, perhaps on the grounds that oddly shaped aliens would look a little silly visualised wearing a grey leather coverall.
Kinnison once more goes undercover to trace the drug-traffickers of the galaxy back to Boskone, which has now been discovered to be in the second galaxy.
There’s the return of the Overlords of Boskone, the usual space-battles, as well as a slightly cringey sub-plot where two senior Patrol Officers plot to push Kim and Clarissa into each other’s arms.
There is also a brilliant finale where the entire Patrol Fleet attack the Boskone base and then the planet of The Eich which is spectacularly crushed between two planets which are set into motion for that very purpose.
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