My mother was reading this book at our grandparent's holiday house. She mentioned some crazy space battles and pirates, etc. "What do they do with the prisoners?" I asked.

"They kill them." she said. I was a little taken aback at this, being about 7, but I thought, fair enough, and read it after she was finished.

A hell of a lot of fun.

There are quite a few more Lensmen now. They are all incorruptible heroes, or they would not be given the Lenses by the Arisians. Think hardcore take-no-prisoners Green Lanterns on a lot lower power scale.

Kimball Kinnison is a young officer, that has just graduated, gained a Lens, being of the right stuff and is given command of a ship with some probably dodgy new technology.

The pirate organisation the Eddorians influence has a name, Boskone. Kinnison's job is to infiltrate. He does, and barely escapes alive thanks to his talents and his Lens.

A bodacious redhead nurses him back to health, and tells him off enough to get his attention. You know what happens next.

A better prepared, trained, and upgraded Kinnison will venture forth as a more powerful type of Lensman to fight the Boskonians some more.

Guilt-ridden whiners or conflicted vigilantes need not apply to the Patrol. A classic of Space Opera, although obviously of its time.

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2006/1... ( )

Although it is the third book in the Lensman series, Galactic Patrol, along with Gray Lensman, forms the heart of the series and revolves around the exploits of Lensman Kimball Kinnison. The stories in this volume were the first parts written as part of the Lensman saga - although portions of Triplanetary were written earlier, they were not originally part of the Lensman story and was only later revised to connect it to the rest of the series. First Lensman was written later to bridge the events in Triplanetary to those in Galactic Patrol.

Kimball Kinnison, the hero of the book, graduates first in his class from the Academy, and is fitted for a Lens - the quasi-living symbol of authority that allows a Lensman to communicate telepathically (among other sundry powers). He is offered a big but dangerous assignment captaining an experimental ship with orders to capture a "pirate" Boskonian ship and extract information concerning a new power source that is allowing the pirates to run roughshod over the hapless patrol. Kimball is successful in capturing a ship, but must flee the converging pirate raiders. Much of the first third of the book is taken up with his efforts to evade his villainous pursuers and return his priceless information to Tellus (as Earth is known to the inhabitants of Civilization). In the process, Kinnison frees a previously unknown enslaved race from their previously unknown masters, making valuable allies. He also destroys several pirate ships, completely frustrates the main villain of the book "Helmuth speaking for Boskone" and deduces the location of one of the pirates' secret bases.

Kinnision, of course, successfully returns to Earth, and is promoted again, to the exalted rank of "Gray Lensman", endowed with virtually unlimited powers. He immediately sets out to infiltrate what he believes to be the main pirate base. Unfortunately, Kinnison is in over his head and the telepathically inclined "Wheelmen" who man the base discover and almost kill him before he can escape. At this point, the 1930s sensibilities of the story kick in, as Kinnision is assigned the pretty but tough nurse Clarissa MacDougall to help him convalesce. He behaves badly and is rude and condescending to her, but this is, of course, excused with a sort of "boys will be boys" attitude. Kinnison, once recovered, goes to Arisia to learn how better to use his Lens (unknowingly following an earlier trip by Helmuth to the planet, although Helmuth's purpose was to uncover the secret of the Lens for nefarious purposes). Kinnison is the first Lensman to be accepted for further training by the Arisians, and leaves weeks later with numerous additional capabilities.

Kinnison turns these capabilities to infiltrating a Patrol base for practice by controlling the minds of those around him. After he reveals himself to the base commander, he is asked to judge a murder case. At this point, what I consider to be the most disturbing thing about these books comes to the fore: as an incorruptible Lensman, Kinnision reads the minds of the two accused parties, determines which one is guilty, and using his mental powers, kills the culprit. This is accepted by all concerned as reasonable - the apparent incorruptibility of the Lensman is given as the reason for allowing them such summary powers. In effect, the rest of the human race becomes wards of the Lensmen, who are the only parties entrusted with true power. This is a sort of elitism that David Brin was reacting to when he wrote his portion of Star Wars on Trial, and it is just as pernicious in the Lensman books as it is in Star Wars. However, when reading the books one simply has to suspend disbelief and accept the premise of the story that the Lensman are an incorruptible bunch who always have the best interests of humanity in mind.

In the end, the enhanced Kinnison locates the evil Helmuth and arranges to destroy his secret base and kill off the villain with apparent ease – his powers making Helmuth no longer a serious opponent for Kinnision. The only saving grace to this somewhat anticlimactic ending is that Helmuth's defeat is fairly satisfying, and the reader can rest assured in the knowledge that he is not the true power behind Boksone (as evidenced by the three subsequent novels in the series).

Later science fiction is replete with stories that draw upon the Lensman series – in Babylon 5 the organic technology of the Vorlons (standing in for the Arisians) is reminiscent of the quasi-life of the Arisian-made lenses. The shields that form the basis of military technology in the Dune series of books, impenetrable to bullets yet vulnerable to blades, is strikingly similar to the shields found in these books. And the Jedi Knights in the prequels to Star Wars seem to operate in a manner very similar to the unattached, enhanced Kinnision, a parallel I believe that Lucas intended. It is also quite likely (in my mind) that story of the Star Wars prequels, concerning the Jedi fall from grace, was a reaction to the assumed incorruptibility of the Lensmen.

The Lensman series, as the granddaddy of all Space Opera, has proven to be incredibly influential on the field of science fiction, most notably science fiction on the screen (whether television or movies), and as a result, this book is a must read on that basis alone. The fact that the first two-thirds of the book is a series of exciting roller-coaster adventures makes the books that much better. ( )

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. ( )

http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2007/09... ( )