Lensman

The Lensman series is a serial science fiction space opera by E. E. Smith. The series is significant because it was the first set of science fiction novels conceived as a series.

Overview

The Lensman series was so innovative and successful at the time of its first publication that it was widely imitated, setting the themes followed by most of the space opera genre since. As a result, to a modern reader it may seem rather dated or clichéd. The modern reader may also feel that it is filled with sexist and racist stereotypes. The series' prose style has also been described as "overly ornate" by modern readers unused to the old pulp style.

Related Topics:
Sexist - Racist

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However, Dr. Smith wrote most of his best work between 1928 and 1954, well before the antiracist and feminist movements of the 1960s. He portrays powerful intelligent women, operating in traditional roles, rather than hackneyed maidens in distress. His minorities are not discriminated against, so much as out of sight and out of mind. He describes alien races sympathetically, by the standards of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, showing that true camaraderie is independent of species, shape and metabolism. Finally, despite its faults, the reader cannot help but notice the evident enthusiasm and enjoyment which Smith had for his subject matter.

Related Topics:
1928 - 1954 - 1960s - 1930s - 1940s - 1950s

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The complete series of books, in sequence, consists of:

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:#Triplanetary

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:#First Lensman

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:#Galactic Patrol

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:#Gray Lensman

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:#Second-Stage Lensmen

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:#Children of the Lens

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Originally the series consisted of the final four novels published between 1937 and 1948 in the magazine Astounding Stories . However, in 1948, at the suggestion of Lloyd Arthur Eshbach (publisher of the original editions of the Lensman books as part of the Fantasy Press imprint), Smith rewrote his 1934 story Triplanetary, originally published in Amazing Stories, to fit in with the Lensman series. First Lensman was written in 1950 to act as a link between Triplanetary and Galactic Patrol and finally, in the years up to 1954, Smith revised the rest of the series to make it internally consistent with the new additions for book publication.

Related Topics:
1937 - 1948 - Astounding Stories - 1934 - Amazing Stories - 1950 - 1954

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Using the same fictional universe, but not as part of the series, he also wrote the Vortex Blaster stories, "Storm Cloud on Deka" and "The Vortex Blaster Makes War" for Astonishing Stories in 1942. This was released in book form, by Gnome Press as The Vortex Blaster in 1960 and later reprinted by Pyramid Books as Masters of the Vortex in 1968.

Related Topics:
Astonishing Stories - 1942 - Gnome Press - 1960 - 1968

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On July 14, 1965, Smith gave written permission to William B. Ellern to continue the Lensman series, which led to the publishing of New Lensman in 1976. However, many consider Ellern's work unequal to Smith's.

Related Topics:
1965 - William B. Ellern - 1976

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Three additional Lensmen novels that feature the alien Second-Stage Lensmen (the Second-Stage Lensman Trilogy) were written by David A. Kyle and published in paperback between 1980 and 1983:

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:*The Dragon Lensman (Worsel, the legendary Velantian dragon)

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:*Lensman from Rigel (Tregonsee, the enigmatic alien from the system of the blue star Rigel)

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:*Z-Lensman (Nadreck the Palainian, strangest of the three non-human Second Stage Lensmen)

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The events in these books take place between Second-Stage Lensmen and Children of the Lens. (A fourth novel, which was to have told the story of the Red Lensman, was discussed, but never completed.) Kyle was a close friend and confidant of Smith, and these novels were written in a style designed to evoke the original series (with the approval of Smith's daughter, Verna Trestrail).

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