sonofthunder's review against another edition
3.0
Speaking of classic sci-fi...this novel was originally published in serialized form in...wait for it...1934! So back we go! My paperback version I picked up was a 1949 version. Still four years before Dad was born!! This is another book that isn't a masterpiece, but still highly enjoyable, partly just for getting a window into the 1930s mindset! This book has a lot of great action pieces that are a bit ridiculous but...hey, it's still good old fashioned fun. You can tell when it was written because one of the most deadly weapons in the book (used twice) is a type of nerve gas (still very much on the minds of people back in the post Great War days). The dialogue in this book is fantastic...mostly because it's really not how people talk today, but it tickled my imagination to have all these futuristic characters using 1930s American slang! Love it. I haven't yet decided if I will get any more books in this series, but I definitely enjoyed reading it. A good book to read on the airplane as I flew to Tampa a few weeks ago...
trike's review against another edition
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.
tarana's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this. Pulp fiction at its best. Listening to the original audiobook, read by Reed mc something (fix name) is excellent!
metaphorosis's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews
In a collision of galaxies, two powerful races begin eons-long opposition, played out through manipulation of lesser races, including humans. Much later, the Triplanetary government of Earth, Mars, and Venus, deploys its immense fleet against pirates, but is devastated by a number of mysterious and unexpected opponents.
E. E. Smith's Lensman series, which begins here, is a classic of pulp science fiction. It's one I grew up with, several decades after its first appearance. It's a great, fun series, but only if taken in the context of its time - the leadup to World War II, and a time with very different values than we enjoy today. The women are smart, plucky, and essentially decorative. The men are strong, brilliant, and brave. Most moral decisions are clearcut, and when they aren't, the way forward is nonetheless obvious. Government is good and always acting for the best.
The two powerful races that start the story (in epically dense prose), the Eddoreans and the Arisians, encapsulate the ethos perfectly. The Eddoreans are selfish, arrogant, greedy - the epitome of everything cruel and evil. The Arisians are wise, generous, kind - they can do no wrong, even as they see their own shortcomings and plan for a stronger successor. That's pretty much the style of the series, and certainly of this first book (retrofitted to the series when novelized) - you'll never be in much doubt as to whom to root for. There's an attractive simplicity to that. In a time when we are blessed with SFF characters who travel in shades of grey, it can be relaxing to return to a series where good is good, and that's all there is to it.
The sexism in the series is a pervasive product of its time. It's not as easy to settle into that aspect of the book, but give Smith the benefit of his time, and focus more on the plot action, and you'll get past it. The characters here aren't deep - they're staunch and loyal, and they always do the right thing. It's the tractor beams and blaster fire that are important.
I'd forgotten just how rapidly the technology develops here. I could have sworn that shears and pressors and the inertialess drive took much longer to emerge, but they all come in right in this first book, seemingly developed over a matter of weeks by geniuses who need only one look at an enemy's polycyclic shield to immediately understand both its foundational principles, and the technology needed to go it one better.
Again, though, the Lensman series is not about credibility. It's about good beating evil. That was something people needed to hear in the middle of the last century. It's something we can stand to dream about again now. If you haven't read this series, you should. It's Science Fiction 101, and if you read it as a creature of its time, it's a lot of fun.
In a collision of galaxies, two powerful races begin eons-long opposition, played out through manipulation of lesser races, including humans. Much later, the Triplanetary government of Earth, Mars, and Venus, deploys its immense fleet against pirates, but is devastated by a number of mysterious and unexpected opponents.
E. E. Smith's Lensman series, which begins here, is a classic of pulp science fiction. It's one I grew up with, several decades after its first appearance. It's a great, fun series, but only if taken in the context of its time - the leadup to World War II, and a time with very different values than we enjoy today. The women are smart, plucky, and essentially decorative. The men are strong, brilliant, and brave. Most moral decisions are clearcut, and when they aren't, the way forward is nonetheless obvious. Government is good and always acting for the best.
The two powerful races that start the story (in epically dense prose), the Eddoreans and the Arisians, encapsulate the ethos perfectly. The Eddoreans are selfish, arrogant, greedy - the epitome of everything cruel and evil. The Arisians are wise, generous, kind - they can do no wrong, even as they see their own shortcomings and plan for a stronger successor. That's pretty much the style of the series, and certainly of this first book (retrofitted to the series when novelized) - you'll never be in much doubt as to whom to root for. There's an attractive simplicity to that. In a time when we are blessed with SFF characters who travel in shades of grey, it can be relaxing to return to a series where good is good, and that's all there is to it.
The sexism in the series is a pervasive product of its time. It's not as easy to settle into that aspect of the book, but give Smith the benefit of his time, and focus more on the plot action, and you'll get past it. The characters here aren't deep - they're staunch and loyal, and they always do the right thing. It's the tractor beams and blaster fire that are important.
I'd forgotten just how rapidly the technology develops here. I could have sworn that shears and pressors and the inertialess drive took much longer to emerge, but they all come in right in this first book, seemingly developed over a matter of weeks by geniuses who need only one look at an enemy's polycyclic shield to immediately understand both its foundational principles, and the technology needed to go it one better.
Again, though, the Lensman series is not about credibility. It's about good beating evil. That was something people needed to hear in the middle of the last century. It's something we can stand to dream about again now. If you haven't read this series, you should. It's Science Fiction 101, and if you read it as a creature of its time, it's a lot of fun.
adamdavidcollings's review against another edition
An interesting classic sci-fi read. I was surprised how well a science fiction book from 1948 stood up. It was an enjoyable space adventure with a fascinating aquatic alien race. Behind it all, the slow burning story of two advanced races, playing the less developed races, like humans, as puppets - one for good, the other for evil.
The story itself was bit disjointed, but the author pulled the threads together into a satisfying conclusion in the end.
The story itself was bit disjointed, but the author pulled the threads together into a satisfying conclusion in the end.
reddrabbbit's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
angiediane's review against another edition
2.0
Did I finish this? Honestly, no. And I don't think I ever will. I got more than halfway done, which I think was an accomplishment, considering the writing. I understand that this is important in the sci-fi canon, and that it was a precursor to many other sci-fi developments. But it is basically pulp fiction, and being that I had no nostalgic connections to it having read it the first time this year, I got nothing out of it. The hysterical woman, the "manly" men, the constant psychedelic action - it was simply too much for this reader. Because of its place as a classic on many sci-fi lists and its significance as an early sci-fi read and the first space opera, it gets an extra star and winds up with 2 instead of 1. Will I be recommending it to anyone? No, not ever, I'm afraid.