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3.13 AVERAGE
3.13 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It was originally a serialized story in a magazine I'm sure was marketed for young boys. The third part of the novel was the best part.
Reading this requires some major perspective adjustment in the 21st century. You've gotta pretend you're a boy in the 1930s, coming home to your ranch after picking tumbleweeds in the dustbowl all day (or whatever they did), and reading about hundreds of space battleships forming a gigantic 3-dimensional cone of destruction, super-powerful aliens reducing the fleets of the solar system into liquid iron, and actually start having fun. The macro-beam and ultra-shield battles between giant capital ships here must've been the closest thing kids back then could get to mecha anime. The "romance" is completely perfunctory, the "science" ludicrous, and the characters are pulled right off the gruff action hero assembly line. Even so, if this book were solely composed of book three, in which all the space battling takes place, I might even say it's decent.
Unfortunately, when the book was retconned into a prequel to the author's later Lensman series, a bunch of cruft was grafted on, forming the first half of the book. It starts with probably the earliest example of a god-like precursors plot, with the struggle between the pure evil Eddorians and the good Arisians, then moves to tepid historical fiction, book-ended by MAD inspired cold war scifi, including a scene where an "Atlantean" politician named "Marxes" complains that the greed of the capitalists is the cause of the instability of the international system. Truly riveting historical commentary Mr. Smith. The only upsides to this first section were twinges of amusement at the obscure gods the Roman gladiators swear to, and a very imaginative nuclear missile defence system composed of a manned atmospheric rocket shooting down incoming missiles.
In the end, the book's value is now mostly historical. One can see the seeds of later space opera here, and I was surprised to see the now unbearably cliche tractor beams used here so early - turns out the author invented them in an earlier story of his. There was also a clear effort to make space combat not just oceanic battleships IN SPACE!, and the author appears to have partly anticipated the concept of drone warfare with remotely controlled "dirigible torpedoes". As cliche as the whole thing is, it does have a couple of surprises. It's no Star Maker (published the same year as the serial), but this isn't purely hackwork.
I didn't read the whole original serial, but from what I saw, the main differences were additions to scenes of Roger the space pirate, establishing him as a mind-puppet of Gharlane the Eddorian, and a few scenes in which the Triplanetarian Special Service is described as conducting shadowy off the books killings of inconvenient targets. I guess the later Lensmen will have a license to kill or something? There are also a few scattered references to atomic fission in the novel version, but overall it seems mostly identical except for additions and some slight wording changes. This is not a rewrite.
I only picked up this up off my pile because of my now-burdensome pledge to read every novel in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, and it was the only book on the pile I couldn't remember which alien was in it. Imagine my surprise when I finished the novel, nothing rang any bells, and checking the guide, I found the entry in question appears in the final book in the series. Now I have to decide whether my pledge requires me to read a full series up to the entry in question, or if I can just skip to the last. From what I gather the Lensmen books aren't much more intellectually challenging than this one, so I could probably just fill in the gaps.
Unfortunately, when the book was retconned into a prequel to the author's later Lensman series, a bunch of cruft was grafted on, forming the first half of the book. It starts with probably the earliest example of a god-like precursors plot, with the struggle between the pure evil Eddorians and the good Arisians, then moves to tepid historical fiction, book-ended by MAD inspired cold war scifi, including a scene where an "Atlantean" politician named "Marxes" complains that the greed of the capitalists is the cause of the instability of the international system. Truly riveting historical commentary Mr. Smith. The only upsides to this first section were twinges of amusement at the obscure gods the Roman gladiators swear to, and a very imaginative nuclear missile defence system composed of a manned atmospheric rocket shooting down incoming missiles.
In the end, the book's value is now mostly historical. One can see the seeds of later space opera here, and I was surprised to see the now unbearably cliche tractor beams used here so early - turns out the author invented them in an earlier story of his. There was also a clear effort to make space combat not just oceanic battleships IN SPACE!, and the author appears to have partly anticipated the concept of drone warfare with remotely controlled "dirigible torpedoes". As cliche as the whole thing is, it does have a couple of surprises.
Spoiler
First contact between Triplanetary and the Nevians goes disastrously wrong, with Pittsburgh totally annihilated, and multiple Nevian cities gassed to death. Just as the two opposed capital ships are seemingly about to come to blows - rationality prevails and peace is made. There's also an amusing corollary to faster than light travel. Here it's achieved by removing all inertia from objects, and it then follows that a ship travelling at superluminal speeds can impact another ship at maximum speed and stop on a dime, causing no damage. Cute.I didn't read the whole original serial, but from what I saw, the main differences were additions to scenes of Roger the space pirate, establishing him as a mind-puppet of Gharlane the Eddorian, and a few scenes in which the Triplanetarian Special Service is described as conducting shadowy off the books killings of inconvenient targets. I guess the later Lensmen will have a license to kill or something? There are also a few scattered references to atomic fission in the novel version, but overall it seems mostly identical except for additions and some slight wording changes. This is not a rewrite.
I only picked up this up off my pile because of my now-burdensome pledge to read every novel in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, and it was the only book on the pile I couldn't remember which alien was in it. Imagine my surprise when I finished the novel, nothing rang any bells, and checking the guide, I found the entry in question appears in the final book in the series. Now I have to decide whether my pledge requires me to read a full series up to the entry in question, or if I can just skip to the last. From what I gather the Lensmen books aren't much more intellectually challenging than this one, so I could probably just fill in the gaps.
Die meisten SF Fans werden von der Lensmen Reihe gehört haben. Bei ihrem Erscheinen war sie bahnbrechend und der vielbeschworene Sense of Wonder wird häufig mit ihr verbunden. Worum geht's?
Vor 2 Milliarden Jahren gibt es nur zwei intelligente Rassen im Weltall: die friedvollen Arisianer und die aggressiven, machthungrigen Eddorianer. Es kommt zur allerersten Begegnung und die Arisianer erkennen schnell, dass sie den eroberungswütigen Eddorianern im Moment nichts entgegenzusetzen haben. Sie entwickeln einen langfristigen Plan: die erste Begegnung wird aus dem Gedächtnis der Eddorianer gestrichen und behutsam sollen neue Völker, die sich erst noch entwickeln werden, verändert werden, um gegen die Eddorianer bestehen zu können. Sie werden die galaktische Patrouille bilden und die Galaxien beschützen.
Kleines Quiz zwischendurch: wer wird wohl die Patrouille bilden? :)
In verschiedenen Teilen wird erzählt, wie sowohl die Arisianer als auch die Eddorianer die Vergangenheit der Menschen beeinflusst haben und in der nahen Zukunft beeinflussen werden. Mir hat die Vision gefallen, dass zwei mächtige Zivilisationen um die Macht kämpfen und dazu normale Menschen / Aliens manipulieren. Die einzelnen Geschichten sind relativ kurz gehalten, aber sehr spannend geschrieben und sie treiben die Rahmenhandlung Stück für Stück voran. Die Charaktere sind durchweg sympathisch, wenn auch etwas stereotyp.
Der Auftakt zur Lensmen Reihe ist ein gelungenes Stück SF Geschichte. Man merkt dem Buch sein Alter zwar an, aber es liest sich sehr flott und hat einige interessante Ideen. Als Überblick über die Serie eignet sich am besten der Wikipedia Eintrag.
Vor 2 Milliarden Jahren gibt es nur zwei intelligente Rassen im Weltall: die friedvollen Arisianer und die aggressiven, machthungrigen Eddorianer. Es kommt zur allerersten Begegnung und die Arisianer erkennen schnell, dass sie den eroberungswütigen Eddorianern im Moment nichts entgegenzusetzen haben. Sie entwickeln einen langfristigen Plan: die erste Begegnung wird aus dem Gedächtnis der Eddorianer gestrichen und behutsam sollen neue Völker, die sich erst noch entwickeln werden, verändert werden, um gegen die Eddorianer bestehen zu können. Sie werden die galaktische Patrouille bilden und die Galaxien beschützen.
Kleines Quiz zwischendurch: wer wird wohl die Patrouille bilden? :)
In verschiedenen Teilen wird erzählt, wie sowohl die Arisianer als auch die Eddorianer die Vergangenheit der Menschen beeinflusst haben und in der nahen Zukunft beeinflussen werden. Mir hat die Vision gefallen, dass zwei mächtige Zivilisationen um die Macht kämpfen und dazu normale Menschen / Aliens manipulieren. Die einzelnen Geschichten sind relativ kurz gehalten, aber sehr spannend geschrieben und sie treiben die Rahmenhandlung Stück für Stück voran. Die Charaktere sind durchweg sympathisch, wenn auch etwas stereotyp.
Der Auftakt zur Lensmen Reihe ist ein gelungenes Stück SF Geschichte. Man merkt dem Buch sein Alter zwar an, aber es liest sich sehr flott und hat einige interessante Ideen. Als Überblick über die Serie eignet sich am besten der Wikipedia Eintrag.
A love letter to the patriarchy of the 50’s , “future tech” is no longer even interesting, dialogue is bad, all the way to the end.
fast-paced
adventurous
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This is definitely a product of its time. But I just couldn't deal with the sexism, the simplicity of the plot later in the book, and overall old style and triumph of humans. In the first several sections of the book, it is supposed to be showing the conflict between the two elder races via proxies, but it is totally unclear that that is happening. The events in Atlantis and ancient Rome seem totally unrelated to the rest of the book.
I wonder if anyone ever counted how many times words like "violently" and "furiously" appeared in this book? Rated at three stars because it serves as an example of how NOT to write. Now I understand why Stephen King gets so triggered by adverbs. :)