Triplanetary (original 1948; edition 1966)

Don't trust my rating of this book; it's part of my childhood, when I read it over and over again, and I have no way of objectively rating it.

For reasons I no longer recall, I got rid of these books at some point, probably during a house move when I was trying to de-clutter. I found all seven in the series in a second hand book shop a few years ago and, struck by nostalgia, I bought them all. Reading them again, I found that the clunky writing, the cardboard characters, the outdated social mores, the bad science - everything that should make me drop this book like a venomous snake - was just charming. I was a kid again, thrilling to the adventures of Kim Kinninson and his spaceship crew.

The golden glow of summer afternoons in the garden and dimly-lit late nights in bed (I had a thing then for dozing off while reading by candlelight - luckily no fires!) so I could get to the end of a chapter (and just one more... maybe another one), illuminates this book with fond memories. It's just not possible for me, the adult, to betray me, the child, by giving this (and the rest of the Lensman series) anything less than 5 stars. Forgive me, you more discerning readers.
( )

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..................sorry

Starts off good, but gets bad once inter-planetary flight is achieved. Never really get to know why the main male human character seems to be almost immortal (at least by the time I gave up) - e.g. whether he's just a damn good soldier, or something else. Other male is even more characterless. Could complain that the main woman is a wimp, but that would imply that I cared.

Edward E. “Doc” Smith, Ph. D. is one of the few mainstream science fiction authors of the Golden Age with an advanced degree. At least, one of the few to flaunt it. As such, you can expect that his writing is far from more modern “soft sci-fi”, which uses more hand-waving than actual scientific fact or reasonable extrapolation.

Triplanetary, a novel that was first serialized in Amazing Stories, has become a prequel to his popular Lensman series. The book itself, as originally published serially, never seemed to have its copyright renewed, and as such, is one of the gems of public domain work originally published in the last 80 years. As it is, though, this public domain version doesn’t include the aspects later added, which firmly set Triplanetary into the Lensman universe, and gave it a a few chapters detailing a somewhat Lovecraftian/Hubbardian alien eugenics project involving humans.

The story itself has a complex plot: An undercover spy gets caught up between space pirates and a technologically advanced amphibious alien race. He, his captain, and his damsel in distress are constantly being tossed out of the pan and into the fire, only to make it through via sheer luck and ingenuity.

In some ways, I envy Smith, as well as the other Golden Age writers. The corpus of sci-fi was a blank slate, and if you wrote a space adventure about an undiscovered alien race with highly advanced technology, or a story about space pirates, it was new, and exciting. It today’s day and age, a book about those things would seem trite, cliche, or pastiche. It’s good, though, to read such concepts that we have become desensitized to, written under the hand of a pro like Smith. It also has the added benefit of pushing the envelope for today’s writers, giving them a target, a goal, and letting them shoot for the stars.

If you are at all interested in Golden Age sci-fi, when spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were REAL men, women were REAL women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were REAL small furry creatures from Aplha Centauri (to quote a non-Golden Age sci-fi author). ( )

Rather dreadful: for completists only--otherwise start with Galactic Patrol (thus also ignoring First Lensman). The novel is a fixup of a 1934 non-Lensman serial novel.

Note that all Lensman books published prior to 1954 may have internal inconsistencies of chronology, especially as relate to events in Triplanetary.

This is the second book I started in 2010, but it took me so long to read, that it got lost in my review order. I skipped it and am just now reviewing it in April. No it didn't take me 4 months to read, more like 15 days.

This was actually a re-read, and it broke my heart, so I suspect I was also delaying the review on purpose. I was participating in the 75 Book Challenge Lensman Series read. I am way far behind in the reading, so I am not sure if I am still participating.

I wish I could say I loved it, or even that it was a good book, but I can't. The reason for heartbreak is that the books in this series are the first SF books I ever read, back when I was 10 or so. They were my dad's books and I loved them and the SF world they opened to me. I have re-read them before as a young adult, but this is the first time as a mature adult. This book does not hold up well.

Smith is one of the founders of Space Opera and his themes and tropes are used by most of the authors working today. He is rightfully a legend in SF, and in the New England SF community. Our 2 largest cons are called: Arisia and Boskone. One of my fondest moments was writing a note to his family in the memorial book the Boston SF Worldcon (2004) set up. I still well up thinking about it.

This book is supposed to be a prequel to the series. it is chronologically the 1st book, but it was written as the 5th book. What it does is give the background of the conflict between the Arisians and the Eddorians, and how it impacted earth and the growth of human civilization. The book is divided into 3 sections.

Smith uses ancient history (Atlantis, Rome) in the first section to show how we developed with the secret influences of the Eddoirans (bad) and the countermeasures of the Arisians (good).

The next section covers the world Wars, and adds the the use of technology into the mix.

The final section takes us into the future and space. As humans move into space they become aware of others already there. Like many early SF writers Smith thought we would develop technologically faster than we have in terms of becoming a space-faring civilization.

The Eddorians find humans who are willing to be their tools in exchange for unlimited wealth and power. These human tools wreak havoc to further the Eddoiran's goals. The forces for law, order and goodness also become aware of the Eddorians and end up getting help from the Arisians to battle the evil that is the result of the Eddorian's and their human tools.

The Eddorians are interested in power, domination and personal supremacy. Individuals find planets with life and work to subjugate and control them. There are few Eddorians (they killed each other off), and they nominally cooperate with each other to advance the goal of total domination.

The Arisians are those who developed through the stages of civilization and didn't wipe each other out. They learned to be better people with better societies. They watch over others who are developing, and upon discovering the Eddorians, secretly move to counter their evil influences.

Both the Arisians and Eddorians are immortal if not killed by accident or violence.

The book was first published in 1948, I think. Prior to that many of the 'chapters' were published as short stories in SF magazines (1934). That is one of the issues with the book. It is a group of short stories cobbled together with a little bit of connectivity. It jumps around and really lacks cohesion.

The other issue is the writing. It is lacking in feeling, drawn out, and often purple. Its almost like you are reading a purposefully bad parody of SF.

The final issue is the characters and the story. Characters are not developed, they are flat and often just representations of 'hero', 'villain', 'victim' , 'stooge' .... Given how old they are there are no minorities and women are not portrayed in a modern fashion, though they are often intelligent and involved.

The story is very simple tale of good versus evil. Some have called it a western in space.

That said with all the problems and issues, I still fondly remember the joy I had from them previously and love the series still. I just couldn't recommend the book to a new reader. And that too breaks my heart.

I was supposed to read the next one: First Lensman in February and I haven't been able to face it. ( )