Triplanetary: The Lensman Saga, Book 1 (Lensman Sagas) [Mass Market Paperback]

First the preliminaries: this is THE classic space opera series, not full of cliches, but the wellspring of all space opera cliches. Horribly dated (or wonderfully so depending on your viewpoint) in its literary taste, social values, and science, it is a hoot nonetheless.

As is sometimes the case in popular series, after the capstone book (Children of the Lens), the author went back to do a prequel to tie up some of the loose ends and answer some of the questions fans had, and that is this book. And, it is good read in its own right. However, the series arguably stands better in publication order (2,3,4,5,6,1) than in narrative order (1,2,3,4,5,6), because this book lets the cat out of the bag. The original fans followed along with the author's expanding vision of the series, from a straightforward but innovative space adventure to a teleological history of the universe.

With _Triplanetary_ E.E. "Doc" Smith established a path for science fiction that still shows in today's sci-fi. Admittedly the science theory is woefully out-of-date, but hasn't it been said that one should never let science get in the way of a good story? As to that, what better story could you tell? The concepts of good and evil, responsibility, desire for human greatness (as a civilization, not as individuals), as well as socio-political theories of democracy and despotism are all covered here.

Following sci-fi greats drew strongly from Doc's work, as evidenced by Gene Rodenberry's love of the words Space-Time Continuum, which Doc was using before the fifties ever rolled around. Also, Heinlein's 1950's "juvies" included many of the same values, and even some very similar plot-lines (read _Have Spacesuit Will Travel_ and tell me I'm wrong). However, Doc's biggest influence came in the area of the powers of the mind. While everyone else was sitting around talking about the wonders of atomic energy, going to the moon, or breaking the sound barrier, Doc was dreaming up insane applications for the theories concerning the powers of the mind. He beat Asimov's Foundation by years to the idea of statistical psychology, or psychological statistics. He was playing with the idea of telepathic, telekinetic, tele-whatever you want, at least a decade before it became mainstream sci-fi material. He was an original, and, like so many true originals, had been forgotten to the point that only hard-core sci-fi junkies managed to glean bits and pieces of his work through the 90's. Now, however, he is being returned to print (Thank God) and his bloody fisted, swashbuckling, death-defying, self-sacrificing, and sometimes remorse-ridden heroes of space can return to people like me, average Joe's who never knew Doc existed until we got to digging through our college library stacks for sci-fi treasures after becoming utterly disgusted with trying to find anything decent on the mall bookstore's shelves.

So, I thank goodness for Amazon, and thank Doc Smith for sci-fi as I love it.

Brain set to off position. Enjoy. Brings tears to my eyes when I'm not shaking my head with chagrin. I read this series in 6th grade and have dreamed of larger than life space heros ever since. As an adult, I find it more comical than moving sometimes, but the Lensman saga fills the reader with big dreams not small ones. Accept: Incorruptablity is possible, absolute goodness and truth exist, the bad guys know they are bad but don't care, killing bad guys is good, the more technology you have the better off you are. If you are ok with these then you will love this series.