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A review by trike
Triplanetary by E.E. "Doc" Smith
3.0
This is available online at Project Gutenberg here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20782
Apparently this is the original version of the story as serialized in Amazing Stories. At some point Smith revised it to be part of his Lensmen series, which later inspired Star Wars, Independence Day, Mass Effect, and the like.
Triplanetary is pure Space Opera with flawless heroes, a lone plucky girl as love interest, superscience, space pirates and interstellar war. It combines utterly ridiculous over-the-top swashbuckling story bits with some solid science and extrapolation.
I’m fairly impressed by the inventiveness of Smith, although I don’t know how common these ideas were back in the 1930s. (This was published in 1934.) I know that two-way video was fairly common, but Smith also has a form of videotape recording using wire recorders. Wire recording had been around for years by then and commercial decks were available in the early 1920s, but adding the video component is kind of a leap. I mean, we didn’t even have television yet, and talkies (movies) were a pretty recent innovation.
The story is pedal-to-the-metal thrilling, roaring along at breakneck speed. No sooner are we introduced to our first granite-jawed supercompetent hero Conway Costigan and his soon-to-be love interest Clio Marsden than they are attacked by space pirates! Costigan fights against the advancing hordes as the only one to be awake below decks following a sleep gas attack, rescues the damsel in distress and secures her in a lifeboat then hightails it to the bridge, finding the embattled crew being snuffed out by a mysterious beam. Only Captain Bradley and Costigan make it to the lifeboat before their ship is destroyed. Turns out Costigan is a genius commando working undercover for the Triplanetary Secret Service, and he has all sorts of ultra-advanced tech ordinary spacemen don’t have access to. That’s why he was so quick to react to the attack and respond, allowing them to get away on the escape pod in the nick of time. All this is tersely explained and then they’re taken captive by the creepy pirate known as Roger! End of chapter one.
Roger’s space ship is basically the Death Star, and I have no doubt George Lucas read this book as a kid. After our three heroes are captured, Roger monologues at them like a proper supervillain, and Costigan figures out a way to get a message out to the cruiser Chicago, which comes to their rescue. Another Triplanetary Secret Service commando is aboard that ship, and he basically takes over. As the Chicago and Roger’s planetoid do battle, Costigan breaks Clio and Bradley out of their cells so they can all escape. But suddenly an alien vessel appears and starts attacking both the pirate ship and the Chicago! Our three stalwarts barely escape in a smaller lifeboat! But then they are captured by the alien amphibians known as the Nevians!
From here it gets crazy. Like I said, it’s a nonstop rollicking ride.
I did like how Smith employed restarts of certain adventures to fill us in on what happened. I’ve only read a few novels from this era but I don’t think I’ve seen that employed before. For instance, when the Triplanetary League is testing an experimental new ship to combat the aliens, it apparently explodes on launch. The story goes along with the people on the ground and cuts away to Costigan et al being held prisoner, then he skips back aboard the ship to just after the launch to show what happened to it. (Spoiler: it didn’t explode, it just took off so fast it basically teleported, destroying the launch facilities.)
On the other hand, the dialogue is hilariously clunky at times with its fake tough-guy patter.
In one of their scape attempts, Costigan literally kills an entire city of Nevians, but by the end that’s just chalked up to one of those things and golly can’t we all just get along? Gee whiz, we sure can!
So yeah, it’s pretty silly, and it’s easy to see why Space Opera was saddled with so much disdain over the years, but dang if it’s not a whole lot of fun. If you’re a straight white guy from the good ol’ US of A, of course. Dames are for kissing and saving while foreigners are bad guys who work for evil space pirates.
Apparently this is the original version of the story as serialized in Amazing Stories. At some point Smith revised it to be part of his Lensmen series, which later inspired Star Wars, Independence Day, Mass Effect, and the like.
Triplanetary is pure Space Opera with flawless heroes, a lone plucky girl as love interest, superscience, space pirates and interstellar war. It combines utterly ridiculous over-the-top swashbuckling story bits with some solid science and extrapolation.
I’m fairly impressed by the inventiveness of Smith, although I don’t know how common these ideas were back in the 1930s. (This was published in 1934.) I know that two-way video was fairly common, but Smith also has a form of videotape recording using wire recorders. Wire recording had been around for years by then and commercial decks were available in the early 1920s, but adding the video component is kind of a leap. I mean, we didn’t even have television yet, and talkies (movies) were a pretty recent innovation.
The story is pedal-to-the-metal thrilling, roaring along at breakneck speed. No sooner are we introduced to our first granite-jawed supercompetent hero Conway Costigan and his soon-to-be love interest Clio Marsden than they are attacked by space pirates! Costigan fights against the advancing hordes as the only one to be awake below decks following a sleep gas attack, rescues the damsel in distress and secures her in a lifeboat then hightails it to the bridge, finding the embattled crew being snuffed out by a mysterious beam. Only Captain Bradley and Costigan make it to the lifeboat before their ship is destroyed. Turns out Costigan is a genius commando working undercover for the Triplanetary Secret Service, and he has all sorts of ultra-advanced tech ordinary spacemen don’t have access to. That’s why he was so quick to react to the attack and respond, allowing them to get away on the escape pod in the nick of time. All this is tersely explained and then they’re taken captive by the creepy pirate known as Roger! End of chapter one.
Roger’s space ship is basically the Death Star, and I have no doubt George Lucas read this book as a kid. After our three heroes are captured, Roger monologues at them like a proper supervillain, and Costigan figures out a way to get a message out to the cruiser Chicago, which comes to their rescue. Another Triplanetary Secret Service commando is aboard that ship, and he basically takes over. As the Chicago and Roger’s planetoid do battle, Costigan breaks Clio and Bradley out of their cells so they can all escape. But suddenly an alien vessel appears and starts attacking both the pirate ship and the Chicago! Our three stalwarts barely escape in a smaller lifeboat! But then they are captured by the alien amphibians known as the Nevians!
From here it gets crazy. Like I said, it’s a nonstop rollicking ride.
I did like how Smith employed restarts of certain adventures to fill us in on what happened. I’ve only read a few novels from this era but I don’t think I’ve seen that employed before. For instance, when the Triplanetary League is testing an experimental new ship to combat the aliens, it apparently explodes on launch. The story goes along with the people on the ground and cuts away to Costigan et al being held prisoner, then he skips back aboard the ship to just after the launch to show what happened to it. (Spoiler: it didn’t explode, it just took off so fast it basically teleported, destroying the launch facilities.)
On the other hand, the dialogue is hilariously clunky at times with its fake tough-guy patter.
“You two got us out of that horrible place of Roger's, and I'm pretty sure that you will get us away from here, somehow or other. They may think we're stupid animals, but before you two and the Secret Service get done with them they'll have another think coming."
"That's the old fight, Clio!" cheered Costigan. "I haven't got it figured out as close as you have, but I see you, eye to eye. These four-legged fish carry considerably heavier stuff than Roger did, I'm thinking; but they'll be up against something themselves pretty quick, that is NO light-weight, believe me!"
In one of their scape attempts, Costigan literally kills an entire city of Nevians, but by the end that’s just chalked up to one of those things and golly can’t we all just get along? Gee whiz, we sure can!
So yeah, it’s pretty silly, and it’s easy to see why Space Opera was saddled with so much disdain over the years, but dang if it’s not a whole lot of fun. If you’re a straight white guy from the good ol’ US of A, of course. Dames are for kissing and saving while foreigners are bad guys who work for evil space pirates.