First Lensman is the second book in the classic Lensman series, picking up more or less where Triplanetary left off. The story follows the doings of the "First Lensman" Virgil Samms, an incorruptible paragon of bravery and virtue chosen by the Arisians to be the first individual to wear their super-science "Lens".

Virgil Samms has a dream. He wants to establish the Galactic Patrol and protect civilization from the forces of evil. He needs to have a symbol for the incorruptible men he wants to be in his Patrol. Finally, he is guided (by the intuition of one of his trusted subordinates) to Arisia, a heretofore off-limits planet where he is tested by the benevolent and telepathic Arisians who award him a "Lens". Those who wear a Lens, a super-science device that can only be worn by the truly virtuous attuned exclusively to its intended wearer that allows him to communicate telepathically with any being, become the focus of all the remaining stories in the series. Samms is charged with locating all "Lens worthy" individuals and directing them to Arisia to have the boon bestowed upon them. In a bit of sexism that firmly attaches the story to the 1920s, women aren't psychologically able to wear a Lens, but that's okay, because any Lens worthy woman will apparently have such highly developed "women's intuition" that they won't need one.

Once he has a cadre of Lensmen available to defend civilization, Samms uses them to combat drug traffickers. Oddly, despite the various evil designs being plotted against the Earth, including the attempt to politically take over the planet, threaten it with an invading fleet, and assassinate Lensmen, the Lensmen consider the trade in "thionite", a mind altering drug, to be the most pressing problem needing to be addressed. Since they are the good guys, breaking the thionite ring turns out to be the key to handling all the other threats, but it seems odd to be using the sorts of resources the Lensmen have at their disposal to try to break up what amounts to an interstellar coke smuggling operation.

On the way, though, the Lensmen visit alien planets and encounter bizarre life forms (and attempt to recruit representative members of many species as Lensmen), build a massive fleet, and engage in a satisfyingly massive space battle before winning the crucial election that ensures the creation of the Galactic Patrol and the safety of Civilization.

Although the perfection of the Lensmen is annoying at times, and the sexist attitudes of the 1920s crop up here and there (such as the amazingly easy dispatch of a a pair of supposedly dangerous female mercenaries) the story carries the reader through the action at a pace that never lets up. Just as one has to simply accept the benevolence of the Arisians to make the story work, one must also accept the goodness and incorruptibility of the Lensmen as well: otherwise some of their actions in the crucial North American election look a lot like voter intimidation.

First Lensman kicks the Lensman series in high gear, building the actual Lensman organization that with be the background for all the remaining books, while at the same time delivering an exciting story chock full of exotic aliens, evil villains, and space battles. ( )

In which Kimball Kinnison, highly evolved stud muffin and general all round galaxy good guy, graduates top of his class from Wentworth Hall, and sets off across the void to fight valliantly against the evil space-pirates of Boskone.

The Lensman books transcend hyperbole. I cannot bring myself to describe them as Science Fiction. Kim vaults from one swashbuckling battle to the next, aided by super-aliens Worsel,Tregonsee, and Nadreck. All of these chaps have been selectively bred for generations by the Arisians to fight the forces of Evil in the universe. Mentor of Arisia is your God-like omnipotent know-it-all, and there strong religious good vs evil undercurrent underlying the space opera schmaltz.

The post modern feminist in me cannot read these books. So Clarissa MacDougall has a highly evolved brain equal in every respect to her male counterpart's, and she gets to be a NURSE?

Even worse, with the quasi religious subtext, the red-headed uber chick cannot bring herself to ever meet Mentor of Arisia because she feels uncomfortable about being in the presence of a being who would consider her in a non-gendered way.

Way to go girls. You have no personhood independent of your sex. It's OK. You can go shopping for your trousseau with unlimited credit.

Happy now?

I was unable to properly reread these books (I read them in my teens.) I haven't even reflipped through Children of the Lens, but from memory there is a fabulous Oedipal scene where Kit Kinnison obligingly sorts out his Mother's brain (because she is unable to go and visit GOD to be mentally enhanced like all the male lensmen).

Thanks, but you can have Kim. My dance card is too full to bother with Gray Lensmen. I'll take off with Worsel the dragon, and go find something more fun to do.

(Oh but you MUST read them, of course. They are classics of the genre! ) ( )

See Triplanetary. ( )

The last book book I read of the series, and by far the weakest; it has none of the kludgy charm of Triplanetary, little of the vast scope of the subsequent entries, and it's a civil libertarian's nightmare to boot. The supermen start to gear up, basically; the series doesn't really get rolling in earnest until Galactic Patrol. Some good scenes, but the cadence doesn't work.

http://nhw.livejournal.com/937871.htm...

The Lensman books are sitting on the shelf, looking at me; and every time I feel I need to cut down the "unread" pile by another notch, they look like an easy quick option. I will probably trudge through them all in the end, but this is another whinge: awful style, awful plotting (especially the way in which important concepts and characters are just plonked into the story without introduction), and the political message being that democratic institutions should be taken from the corrupt ordinary humans and handed over to the control of supermen. *rubs his eyes wearily* ( )