Lensman

Series created by E E (doc) Smith

Description

This series of stories is part of the reason that I got interested in science fiction in the first place. My dad had quite a few s.f. books around the house and I just picked them up, read them and became interested (understatement). Two books which I read and re-read were Triplanetary and Voyage Of The Space Beagle?. When my dad got rid of a lot of his books, I HAD to replace them into a collection of my own starting with these two books. My next stage was to complete the series and then go on to get other books by the same authors. From then on my collection just grew from E E Smith to Stephen Goldin who wrote another gripping series Family d'Alembert based upon one of E E (doc) Smith's novellas, Imperial Stars.

As a youth I just wanted to be in the lensman world and re read the books frequently. Now I'm older I realise just how dangerous such a place would be, but is well written and a set of stories the reader can get into - a little unusual for the s.f. pulp fiction times.

This space opera series is remarkable in a number of ways, most notably it is the first set of science fiction stories written to be issued as a series.

Originally the series consisted of four stories, Galactic Patrol, Gray Lensman,Second Stage Lensman and Children Of The Lens each of which were originally serialised in was added as part of the series when Smith rewrote a story originally serialised in Astounding in 1934 and then in 1950, First Lensman was written to join the stories together.

TheVortex Blaster was written in 1960 by merging together Storm Cloud On Deka and Votex Blaster Makes War both written in the Lensman universe but not part of the original series. Originally published in 1942, this final story was rewritten and republished in 1968 under the title Masters Of The Vortex.

In 1965, Smith gave written permission to William B Ellern to continue the Lensman series, which led to the publishing of New Lensman in 1976.

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.

Stories in Lensman series:

1. Triplanetary (1934?)
2. First Lensman (1950?)
3. Galactic Patrol (1937?)
4. Gray Lensman (1939?)
5. Second Stage Lensman (1941?)
6. Children Of The Lens (1947?)
7. The Vortex Blaster (1941?)

Omnibus editions of titles in Lensman series:

Other titles in Lensman series:

• New Lensman (1976?)

Cover Images: