narom96's review
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
pinahuiztle's review
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-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? No
3.5
Having never read "traditional" space opera much and with the Green Lantern comics (which I don't really like) as my reference, I was pleasantly surprised with how fun this book was.
Bad parts first: The politics are very pre-WW2-American-liberal, including some casual (but not very prominent, I think) mysogyny and references to eugenics and phrenology. There's clear heroes and villains and neither side hesitates to kill the other. The Galactic Patrol are space cops who get to act as "judge, jury and executioner" on the basis that being able to wear the Lens of Civilization demonstrates their incorruptibility. I'm not sure which edition it was that I had (it was audiobook), but in any case I agree with a certain part of the introduction saying that Lensman was an exercise in avoiding imagining anything which might actually happen in the future. It's pure escapism written for a prior age, which can be interesting in and of itself. The first few chapters are slow and not that interesting compared to the rest of the book, but introduce you to the moving parts of the setting well enough.
The science fiction isn't "hard", but it's pretty internally consistent and sometimes realistic in ways that you wouldn't expect this kind of sci-fi, from this era, to be - E.E Smith had some grasp of physics and seemed mostly aware of when he was writing nonsense. Civilization is comprised of many alien races, some of which are humanoid, some of which are very much not. Surprisingly for me, I think the depiction of the benevolent Arisians must have been influenced by Lovecraft or other weird fiction. Boskone is a caricature, but individual characters are written compellingly and make for convincing villains. Once the plot gets going it rarely stops or slows down (I think the part with Kinnison in the hospital should've been shorter, for instance, but that's a nitpick). Prose is competent enough but not amazing. I will probably finish this series at some point.
Bad parts first: The politics are very pre-WW2-American-liberal, including some casual (but not very prominent, I think) mysogyny and references to eugenics and phrenology. There's clear heroes and villains and neither side hesitates to kill the other. The Galactic Patrol are space cops who get to act as "judge, jury and executioner" on the basis that being able to wear the Lens of Civilization demonstrates their incorruptibility. I'm not sure which edition it was that I had (it was audiobook), but in any case I agree with a certain part of the introduction saying that Lensman was an exercise in avoiding imagining anything which might actually happen in the future. It's pure escapism written for a prior age, which can be interesting in and of itself. The first few chapters are slow and not that interesting compared to the rest of the book, but introduce you to the moving parts of the setting well enough.
The science fiction isn't "hard", but it's pretty internally consistent and sometimes realistic in ways that you wouldn't expect this kind of sci-fi, from this era, to be - E.E Smith had some grasp of physics and seemed mostly aware of when he was writing nonsense. Civilization is comprised of many alien races, some of which are humanoid, some of which are very much not. Surprisingly for me, I think the depiction of the benevolent Arisians must have been influenced by Lovecraft or other weird fiction. Boskone is a caricature, but individual characters are written compellingly and make for convincing villains. Once the plot gets going it rarely stops or slows down (I think the part with Kinnison in the hospital should've been shorter, for instance, but that's a nitpick). Prose is competent enough but not amazing. I will probably finish this series at some point.
flaweddimension's review
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Adventure! Space! Nefarious interstellar warlords! Noble heroes bringing out the best in his alien comrades! It's pulp and it's so good.
danlemke's review
3.0
The biggest issue with this book is its original syndication format makes for a broken narrative -- really a series of short stories, or more precisely, vignettes.
Fun and entertaining to read, to say it is not original misses the point.
Fun and entertaining to read, to say it is not original misses the point.
kesterbird's review
2.0
it was good clean fun till Kinneson got promoted to Jesus (I mean, to gray lensman)
smcleish's review
3.0
Originally published on my blog here in September 1998.
With the third of his Lensmen series, Smith introduces the man who will be the hero of the next four books - Galactic Patrol, [b:Gray Lensman|826525|Gray Lensman |E.E. "Doc" Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178726961s/826525.jpg|513153], [b:Second Stage Lensmen|826520|Second Stage Lensmen |E.E. "Doc" Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178726958s/826520.jpg|1373311] and (to a lesser extent) [b:Children of the Lens|287498|Children of the Lens |E.E. "Doc" Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173423451s/287498.jpg|1319461]. Kimball Kinnison is the one for whom the Arisians have been waiting and working, the culmination of the human breeding programme they set up many centuries earlier. Galactic Patrol deals with the earliest stages of his career, from his graduation as a Lensman from the Patrol's cadet academy.
His graduation comes at a hard time for civilization. Organised pirates, known as Boskonians, have gained a great advantage in a new kind of space drive, making their ships far faster than anything the Patrol can build. That is, with the exception of one ship, the Britannia. New and experimental, she has abandoned the traditional ray armament of a space ship for an offence even older - explosive artillery, fired at an opponent held in place by unbreakable tractor beams. Her mission is to capture a Boskonian ship of the new type intact enough to get the secret of her speed (hence the artillery, which the scientists of the patrol think can damage another ship enough to disable it without destroying the information they want to have). Her experimental nature means that she would be useless to a man with the amount of experience normally required to captain a space ship, so she is given to Kinnison to command.
Galactic Patrol is science fiction of the old heroic, pulp fiction type, and is unashamedly so. It is immensly exciting if you can ignore the over-florid writing style; it is traditional comic book hero material as a novel, but great fun for all that.
With the third of his Lensmen series, Smith introduces the man who will be the hero of the next four books - Galactic Patrol, [b:Gray Lensman|826525|Gray Lensman |E.E. "Doc" Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178726961s/826525.jpg|513153], [b:Second Stage Lensmen|826520|Second Stage Lensmen |E.E. "Doc" Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178726958s/826520.jpg|1373311] and (to a lesser extent) [b:Children of the Lens|287498|Children of the Lens |E.E. "Doc" Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173423451s/287498.jpg|1319461]. Kimball Kinnison is the one for whom the Arisians have been waiting and working, the culmination of the human breeding programme they set up many centuries earlier. Galactic Patrol deals with the earliest stages of his career, from his graduation as a Lensman from the Patrol's cadet academy.
His graduation comes at a hard time for civilization. Organised pirates, known as Boskonians, have gained a great advantage in a new kind of space drive, making their ships far faster than anything the Patrol can build. That is, with the exception of one ship, the Britannia. New and experimental, she has abandoned the traditional ray armament of a space ship for an offence even older - explosive artillery, fired at an opponent held in place by unbreakable tractor beams. Her mission is to capture a Boskonian ship of the new type intact enough to get the secret of her speed (hence the artillery, which the scientists of the patrol think can damage another ship enough to disable it without destroying the information they want to have). Her experimental nature means that she would be useless to a man with the amount of experience normally required to captain a space ship, so she is given to Kinnison to command.
Galactic Patrol is science fiction of the old heroic, pulp fiction type, and is unashamedly so. It is immensly exciting if you can ignore the over-florid writing style; it is traditional comic book hero material as a novel, but great fun for all that.
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