A review by ted_funsten
Triplanetary by E.E. "Doc" Smith

2.0

I'm a space opera fan, but wasn't very impressed by "Triplanetary." I didn't find the science very credible. The story is a bit flat. I guess I should be more generous in thinking about it since it was written in the 1930s and ran in installments in an sf magazine. But it didn't do much for me. The section where the hero, Conway Costigan, kills all the inhabitants of one alien city and many in another was disturbing because Costigan shows no hesitation and only a little regret later on. Perhaps it would have been more difficult to write scenes like that after the carnage of World War II and the years leading up to it.