Came By Post Today

 

On a whim a few days ago I ordered this book – First Lensman, © 1950, by E. E. “Doc” Smith. It’s been two months since I’ve read some good ol’ SF, and for some reason this book popped into my mind. Now, it’s not exactly a classic, in the sense that Asimov’s Foundation, Clarke’s Childhood’s End, or Heinlein’s Starship Troopers is. Indeed, Smith is not of that Holy Trinity of Science Fiction, that Pantheon of the Gods. But if Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein (and also Bradbury and Silverberg, I would argue) are the Olympians of Science Fiction, E. E. “Doc” Smith was a member of the Titans, their predecessors.

First Lensman is actually the second of seven interrelated novels, which in turn evolved from stories Smith published in the pulps in the ‘’40s. The first novel, I am told, is not essential to the story, but the others should be read in sequence.

Unfortunately, I first came across Smith fourteen years ago when I picked up – again on a whim, always on a whim – the seventh and final book in the series, Children of the Lens. I liked it, sorta, but was kinda lost, and I’m thinking it was because, well, I’m reading the final book of the series and there’s a whole galaxy of stuff referenced in it that I’m quite unaware of. So it was always in the back of my mind to start at the beginning, or close to it, at some undefined future point in time.

That time is now. I think.

 

 

In a nutshell, Smith is the quintessential “space opera” guy. The writer whose books George Lucas and Steven Spielberg devoured when they were wee lads. Children of the Lens struck me as very Flash Gordon-esque. I have a neat little memory of my father getting all excited introducing Flash Gordon to my brother and I one afternoon when he caught it on the black and white TV. I enjoyed it, as much as one could who was in the thrall of Star Wars, before Star Wars was known as Episode IV: A New Hope.

So that’s what I envisioned when I read Children of the Lens a decade-and-a-half ago, piecing together the plot and the setting as best I could while fighting my employer, raising a three year old and dealing with a pregnant wife, and trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Soon after I had all my heart issues and the basement flooded – the one and only time it did because the sleep-deprived Mrs. forgot to shut off a water valve – a flood which resulted in the destruction of numerous books, Children of the Lens included.

One of my aunts somehow learned of this and bought me a replacement copy. Which, to this day, sits in the On Deck circle on the shelf behind me. (Well, until it got packed away a few weeks ago as we prepare for The Move.) I’d like to revisit it, this time prepared. Hence, First Lensman now in my hands.

A review to follow in the next couple of weeks …