I've been meaning to re-read and then review this book for a while, but for some reason I couldn't find it. Then, the other day my sister was looking for something on her bookshelves, and randomly hands it to me. I told her several times I thought she had it, but she didn't believe me... (She had it because, as I've mentioned in the past, she's a huge, huge fan of the Lensman anime movie. Unfortunately, this is the only Lensman book I've actually got easy access to [I don't think the public domain version of Triplanetary counts], and it's the last book in the series, a bombardment of series terminology and obtuse narration that also didn't much suit her tastes generally. Ah, well, you can't be a fan of everything.)
Children of the Lens represents the culmination of years of work by Smith, and the culmination of the original long-running Lensman Arms Race. It is also the culmination of a rather creepy breeding project. And when I say "rather," I mean "extremely." But more on that in a moment.
The ultimate weapons of the original Lensman Arms Race are pretty well ultimate. Number One is a weapon that makes the Death Star look like a pea shooter-a hyperspatial tube opening into enemy territory, out of which a planet from another universe is fired at multiples of c like a huge bullet at the target.
This weapon was fired twice; once at a planet, and then, just for good measure, at the same planet's sun. There wasn't much left.
Number Two was arguably not the same kind of weapon at all. It was not a device, or an implement. It was the massed total mental powers of every Lensman then alive, plus that of the Arisian race, guided and managed by a superhuman telepathic fusion. Keep in mind, the Civilization which the Lensmen were a part of had literally millions of member planets, as it spanned multiple galaxies; a typical good-sized member planet produced a hundred Lensmen a year. Assuming that the majority of Lensmen who graduated in the past twenty years were still active (not a dubious assumption, as the major protagonist of most of the Lensman books, Kimball Kinnison, was at least in his forties in this one), a low estimate puts that at something like 20 billion Lensmen. A fairly typical Lensman can telepathically communicate over interstellar distances and even kill someone by frying their minds at that distance; the Eddorian civilization, despite its age and power, didn't really stand a chance.
This isn't even going into the "loose planets" and "negaspheres" (antimatter planets) that were chucked around rather casually by the good guys, or the supposedly terrifying sunbeam that never gets used in the story. These were all old hat.
You might be wondering about my "rather creepy breeding program" crack earlier. Well, as it happens, the Arisians, using their sufficiently advanced alien license, decided to guide several genetic lineages, not just among humans but among four different potentially useful races in Civilization (humans being one of the four). They decided that humans showed the most promise, so they canceled the breeding programs for the Velantians, the Rigellians, and the Palainians (sorry, no super awesome children for you!), and only humanity gets to advance to the next level. And so, Kimball Kinnison's five children are the first members of a new race of superhumans. ... Think about that.
Yes, it means exactly what it sounds like. Chris "Kit" Kinnison is going to get really close with his sisters.
The first time I read this, I was younger and more naive, and I didn't pick up on the subtexts. Now that I'm better at ferreting these out... Well, let's just say that Wikipedia's remark that there were only a few ambiguous passages referring to this idea was just bull. It was about as ambiguous as a kicked puppy and about as subtle as a bomb blast. Kit and "the kids," as he called his sisters, hit on each other continuously.
For that matter, they also hit on their mother, usually while she was naked.
No, I'm completely serious. That actually happened multiple times.
What really gets me is this idea that, once the breeding program was showing fruit (ARGH), they canceled three of them. The three other races were shown to be immensely complementary to humans. Velantians were relentless, implacable, and tough as heck giant flying snake monsters, and Rigellians and Palainians both displayed analytical capabilities far beyond humans at the same "level." They all got along extremely well. I say, if you're going to have a creepy breeding program where you uplift several lesser species through eugenics, if they all get along then you should finish them all. That's an awful lot of wasted work, guys. (Also, what about the Nevians? They were pretty awesome, too-why didn't they get awesome super-Nevian breeding programs?)
All in all, a bizarre conclusion to one of the first great space operas. (Wikipedia's article was glowing praise obviously written by a huge fan.) Oh, yes, and technically, it was a frame story that was sent by a future Chris Kinnison to some unknown party time capsule style to warn them of the Lensman Arms Race methodologies or something, as it was suspected that there would be new counterparts to the Eddorians in the future.
-Signing off.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query lensman. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query lensman. Sort by date Show all posts
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
East Vs. West: Lensman
Few people argue against the idea that E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series is one of the most defining, most imitated, and most influential science fiction series of all time. Green Lanterns, Star Wars, and dozens that are on the tip of my tongue but not quite coming all draw from concepts first pioneered in the adventures of the Lensmen.
Ironically, despite my love of and familiarity with the variety of space opera most heavily influenced by Lensman, my first encounter with it was something decidedly different:
(NOTE: This dub of it is a very different dub from the one I'm familiar with. Apparently, somebody disliked this dub so much they destroyed it and remade it in their own dark image. The dub I'm familiar with, and have been since childhood, had characters making swears, and I seriously doubt this one does. It also had significantly better soundtrack and voice acting.)
As un-Lensmanlike as the anime movie is, the concepts explored in Lensman are about as anime-like as anime get, and those elements that carry over do so seamlessly. And it's one of the most beautiful pieces of animation ever produced. (Of course, I could be biased-I tend to think that the best anime stylistically was early-to-mid-'80s era.)
My sister, a few years ago, went on a wild crusade to obtain a copy of this movie, as it is one of the greatest influences upon her love of anime in general. (Hovering over my shoulder, she says "It was my sweet sixteen gift.") She did in fact obtain the same version we knew and loved as children, with completely unedited violence, swearing, and galactic warfare between good and evil on a grand scale. A lot like Star Wars, only prettier and much more surreal.
Considering the quality of the film, it is unsurprising that it spawned a series, although the series seems to be much more obscure and difficult to obtain information on.
Aha. Here's more information, courtesy of somebody on YouTube:
This is the openning of a not completed anime series dubbing, Harmony Gold Dubbed this compilation of 4 episodes from an original 25 episode series. The other episodes were never dubbed. there was also a movie with the title Lensman - Secret of The Lens also dubbed by Harmony Gold, the more popular version of this movie was dubbed later by Streamline. Based upon the all time novels by E. E. Doc Smith
(This has been cut and pasted, so yes, the original text lacked the final period.)
That's not that helpful for general purposes, but at least other people know it exists, I guess.
Here's the "openning" this text is associated with.
As kind of an aside, what in the world was up with the music in old dubbed anime? Voltron had some pretty decent music, but almost every other dubbed anime from that era sounded like its soundtrack was created with a possessed ambient theremin or something.
Eh, whatever.
Ironically, despite my love of and familiarity with the variety of space opera most heavily influenced by Lensman, my first encounter with it was something decidedly different:
(NOTE: This dub of it is a very different dub from the one I'm familiar with. Apparently, somebody disliked this dub so much they destroyed it and remade it in their own dark image. The dub I'm familiar with, and have been since childhood, had characters making swears, and I seriously doubt this one does. It also had significantly better soundtrack and voice acting.)
As un-Lensmanlike as the anime movie is, the concepts explored in Lensman are about as anime-like as anime get, and those elements that carry over do so seamlessly. And it's one of the most beautiful pieces of animation ever produced. (Of course, I could be biased-I tend to think that the best anime stylistically was early-to-mid-'80s era.)
My sister, a few years ago, went on a wild crusade to obtain a copy of this movie, as it is one of the greatest influences upon her love of anime in general. (Hovering over my shoulder, she says "It was my sweet sixteen gift.") She did in fact obtain the same version we knew and loved as children, with completely unedited violence, swearing, and galactic warfare between good and evil on a grand scale. A lot like Star Wars, only prettier and much more surreal.
Considering the quality of the film, it is unsurprising that it spawned a series, although the series seems to be much more obscure and difficult to obtain information on.
Aha. Here's more information, courtesy of somebody on YouTube:
This is the openning of a not completed anime series dubbing, Harmony Gold Dubbed this compilation of 4 episodes from an original 25 episode series. The other episodes were never dubbed. there was also a movie with the title Lensman - Secret of The Lens also dubbed by Harmony Gold, the more popular version of this movie was dubbed later by Streamline. Based upon the all time novels by E. E. Doc Smith
(This has been cut and pasted, so yes, the original text lacked the final period.)
That's not that helpful for general purposes, but at least other people know it exists, I guess.
Here's the "openning" this text is associated with.
As kind of an aside, what in the world was up with the music in old dubbed anime? Voltron had some pretty decent music, but almost every other dubbed anime from that era sounded like its soundtrack was created with a possessed ambient theremin or something.
Eh, whatever.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
You're Welcome For The Mental Image
From a chapter of Children of the Lens, the last of E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman novels (context is that it's an excerpt of a story one of the protagonists is writing):
"Qadgop the Mercotan slithered flatly around the afterbulge of the tranship. One claw dug into the meters-thick armor of pure neutronium, then another. Its terrible xmex-like nout locked on. Its zymolosely polydactile tongue crunched out, crashed down, rasped across. Slurp! Slurp! At each abrasive stroke the groove in the tranship's plating deepened and Qadgop leered more fiercely. Fools! Did they think that the airlessness of absolute space, the heatlessness of absolute zero, the yieldlessness of absolute neutronium, could stop QADGOP THE MERCOTAN? And the stowaway, that human wench Cynthia, cowering in helpless terror just beyond this thin and fragile wall..."
...Is it just me, or does this feel like it's basically building towards tentacle fic?
-Signing off.
"Qadgop the Mercotan slithered flatly around the afterbulge of the tranship. One claw dug into the meters-thick armor of pure neutronium, then another. Its terrible xmex-like nout locked on. Its zymolosely polydactile tongue crunched out, crashed down, rasped across. Slurp! Slurp! At each abrasive stroke the groove in the tranship's plating deepened and Qadgop leered more fiercely. Fools! Did they think that the airlessness of absolute space, the heatlessness of absolute zero, the yieldlessness of absolute neutronium, could stop QADGOP THE MERCOTAN? And the stowaway, that human wench Cynthia, cowering in helpless terror just beyond this thin and fragile wall..."
...Is it just me, or does this feel like it's basically building towards tentacle fic?
-Signing off.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Three Branches of Sci-Fi
Popular science fiction has developed three major branches, each derived from a certain science fiction tradition. Each "school" or "family" is distinct and tends to gather a certain number of mutual fans... thought that's hardly a rock-solid rule, and some fans of some works look at anything similar to "their" work is automatically a rip-off.
The three branches are:
The future will be terrible (or terribly cool, or both).
Exploring space will be terrible (or terribly cool, or both).
Let's have war in space. (And it will be terrible, or terribly cool, or both.)
The Future Will Be Terrible: The oldest vein of science fiction is where this finds its roots. H. G. Wells wrote a lot of stories about how tomorrow is going to be terrible. "The Sleeper Awakes" and others strike me as typical of his works in this area. Pop culture approaches to this are almost any science fiction work that doesn't take place in space, such as Terminator, Robocop, Minority Report (never seen it and don't know much about it, but from what I've heard it fits this category perfectly), and Soylent Green.
Exploring Space Will Be Terrible: Space exploration in fiction has always been far too exciting. It probably, however, is derived from travel literature of the Age of Exploration; works like Marco Polo's journals and Gulliver's Travels (admittedly a satire) are the ancient roots, but there's a more recent category, found in works such as The Voyage of the Space Beagle. The early pop culture explorations had enough strong similarities to Voyage, in fact, that author A. E. van Vogt sued their creators for infringement. What were these early works? Star Trek and Alien. (And if you read this, a story that was later integrated into a longer narrative as part of Voyage of the Space Beagle, it's easy to see where he got the idea.) Works such as Predator, where space comes to Earth (in small scale), are similar.
Let's Have War in Space: The first work that can be said to really fit into this category is The War of The Worlds, which was followed shortly by a schlocky, unauthorized (and completely hilarious) sequel that sort of qualified as the first space opera. Other works that set up for this type were the Lensman series and other space operas, and military science fiction such as Starship Troopers. The best-known example of this in pop culture is certainly Star Wars, and there are plenty of others, like Flash Gordon and, well, almost any other thing that has a science fiction label and takes place in space.
I could go on and on, but for now I'm done.
-Signing off.
The three branches are:
The future will be terrible (or terribly cool, or both).
Exploring space will be terrible (or terribly cool, or both).
Let's have war in space. (And it will be terrible, or terribly cool, or both.)
The Future Will Be Terrible: The oldest vein of science fiction is where this finds its roots. H. G. Wells wrote a lot of stories about how tomorrow is going to be terrible. "The Sleeper Awakes" and others strike me as typical of his works in this area. Pop culture approaches to this are almost any science fiction work that doesn't take place in space, such as Terminator, Robocop, Minority Report (never seen it and don't know much about it, but from what I've heard it fits this category perfectly), and Soylent Green.
Exploring Space Will Be Terrible: Space exploration in fiction has always been far too exciting. It probably, however, is derived from travel literature of the Age of Exploration; works like Marco Polo's journals and Gulliver's Travels (admittedly a satire) are the ancient roots, but there's a more recent category, found in works such as The Voyage of the Space Beagle. The early pop culture explorations had enough strong similarities to Voyage, in fact, that author A. E. van Vogt sued their creators for infringement. What were these early works? Star Trek and Alien. (And if you read this, a story that was later integrated into a longer narrative as part of Voyage of the Space Beagle, it's easy to see where he got the idea.) Works such as Predator, where space comes to Earth (in small scale), are similar.
Let's Have War in Space: The first work that can be said to really fit into this category is The War of The Worlds, which was followed shortly by a schlocky, unauthorized (and completely hilarious) sequel that sort of qualified as the first space opera. Other works that set up for this type were the Lensman series and other space operas, and military science fiction such as Starship Troopers. The best-known example of this in pop culture is certainly Star Wars, and there are plenty of others, like Flash Gordon and, well, almost any other thing that has a science fiction label and takes place in space.
I could go on and on, but for now I'm done.
-Signing off.
Friday, August 14, 2009
A Strong Foundation
(One of the roughest things about blogging, I've found, is coming up with titles regularly; hence my heavy use of colons. So if that title makes you groan at all, terribly sorry. I know I groaned.)
I recently re-read Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. (Specifically, the original Foundation trilogy, that is, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation.) Not terribly surprisingly, while the series was written in the '40s and '50s, it's aged very well. It once won the Hugo for "Best All-Time series," whatever the heck that means, which is a sure sign it's quality. (Read the Wikipedia article for a serious discussion-I'm about to digress violently.)
There are things in it, though, that date themselves to greater and lesser degrees. When private messages must be carried from place to place, they're put in sealed capsules which can theoretically only be opened by the intended recipient. This is fine; less fine for the modern reader is that the enclosed message is on paper. (Of course, those clever Foundation scientists figured out how to make paper that automatically oxidizes in air, so the security issue isn't that bad...) Or take the device called the Lens. The Lens is a device used in hyperdrive navigation, making it far quicker and easier than it would be otherwise, with a computer-controlled three dimensional simulation of the galaxy's stars, allowing for what is essentially point-and-click navigation. The odd part? It was brand new, and today there's a multi-platform freeware program called Celestia which does the exact same thing.
Of course, the sharp edge of advancing technology always manages to screw up science fiction; it's all but unpredictable.
The other thing I've been considering is how one might try adapting the Foundation series to other media.
Just looking at it, it'd be hard at least. Foundation is cerebral, concerned with thoughts and ideas rather than things like action and personal interaction. If I were to pick out only a section of it to make a movie out of, it'd almost certainly be the parts surrounding the Mule, but that would be stupid because the Mule's actions don't make sense outside of the larger framework.
But the potential for a great movie or three is in there. Just because Asimov didn't write the framework for one into it doesn't mean it isn't. Therefore, the real question is, how much can be carried over successfully, and what would the central focus of any such work be?
I know how purists get, but I'd tend to say that, other than Hari Seldon and the Mule, there really aren't any important characters in the Foundation series. (The original one, I mean.) The scope of the series is centered on history, and it is the distinct position of the books that it isn't the figures in history, but vast historical forces that generally determine events. And, of course, it is the very rare individual, such as Seldon or the Mule, who disrupts historical forces.
Then, of course, there's the issue of the Second Foundation. The Second Foundation, in case you don't know, is a group of expert psychologist/sociologist/psychohistorian telepaths, whose mission it is to chart history's flow and try to gently tweak it just so to keep the path to the Second Empire in place. These people are rightly resented by the Foundationers, who eventually realize they're being tweaked and set out to get rid of them. But the Second Foundation being what it was, it managed to fake its own death quite effectively, and was still pulling the strings. (And if you're wondering, the Second Foundation felt it was better to fake its death by allowing many of its volunteers to die, than to let the First Foundation believe it still existed, because the First Foundation acted wrong whenever it thought the Second Foundation was acting on it.) Asimov presents the whole thing as part of the flow of history, neither particularly wrong or particularly right... but the Second Foundation was clearly being set up to become the elite of the Second Empire, and that's pretty sick.
Ultimately, the Foundation series isn't particularly likely to be made into a movie, but then again, the Lensman series is getting (another) movie based on it, so anything's possible.
-Signing off.
I recently re-read Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. (Specifically, the original Foundation trilogy, that is, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation.) Not terribly surprisingly, while the series was written in the '40s and '50s, it's aged very well. It once won the Hugo for "Best All-Time series," whatever the heck that means, which is a sure sign it's quality. (Read the Wikipedia article for a serious discussion-I'm about to digress violently.)
There are things in it, though, that date themselves to greater and lesser degrees. When private messages must be carried from place to place, they're put in sealed capsules which can theoretically only be opened by the intended recipient. This is fine; less fine for the modern reader is that the enclosed message is on paper. (Of course, those clever Foundation scientists figured out how to make paper that automatically oxidizes in air, so the security issue isn't that bad...) Or take the device called the Lens. The Lens is a device used in hyperdrive navigation, making it far quicker and easier than it would be otherwise, with a computer-controlled three dimensional simulation of the galaxy's stars, allowing for what is essentially point-and-click navigation. The odd part? It was brand new, and today there's a multi-platform freeware program called Celestia which does the exact same thing.
Of course, the sharp edge of advancing technology always manages to screw up science fiction; it's all but unpredictable.
The other thing I've been considering is how one might try adapting the Foundation series to other media.
Just looking at it, it'd be hard at least. Foundation is cerebral, concerned with thoughts and ideas rather than things like action and personal interaction. If I were to pick out only a section of it to make a movie out of, it'd almost certainly be the parts surrounding the Mule, but that would be stupid because the Mule's actions don't make sense outside of the larger framework.
But the potential for a great movie or three is in there. Just because Asimov didn't write the framework for one into it doesn't mean it isn't. Therefore, the real question is, how much can be carried over successfully, and what would the central focus of any such work be?
I know how purists get, but I'd tend to say that, other than Hari Seldon and the Mule, there really aren't any important characters in the Foundation series. (The original one, I mean.) The scope of the series is centered on history, and it is the distinct position of the books that it isn't the figures in history, but vast historical forces that generally determine events. And, of course, it is the very rare individual, such as Seldon or the Mule, who disrupts historical forces.
Then, of course, there's the issue of the Second Foundation. The Second Foundation, in case you don't know, is a group of expert psychologist/sociologist/psychohistorian telepaths, whose mission it is to chart history's flow and try to gently tweak it just so to keep the path to the Second Empire in place. These people are rightly resented by the Foundationers, who eventually realize they're being tweaked and set out to get rid of them. But the Second Foundation being what it was, it managed to fake its own death quite effectively, and was still pulling the strings. (And if you're wondering, the Second Foundation felt it was better to fake its death by allowing many of its volunteers to die, than to let the First Foundation believe it still existed, because the First Foundation acted wrong whenever it thought the Second Foundation was acting on it.) Asimov presents the whole thing as part of the flow of history, neither particularly wrong or particularly right... but the Second Foundation was clearly being set up to become the elite of the Second Empire, and that's pretty sick.
Ultimately, the Foundation series isn't particularly likely to be made into a movie, but then again, the Lensman series is getting (another) movie based on it, so anything's possible.
-Signing off.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Greatly Belated Book Reviews: The Solar Invasion
Rounding out my reviews of SUPER SCIENCE POWERED pulp scifi novels is The Solar Invasion.
Out of these books, it is interesting to note that The Solar Invasion is far and away in the worst shape. While the others are in very good condition (all things considered), The Solar Invasion has a number of loose pages held in by only friction and good intentions. This is probably, however, more a function of previous owners being rougher with this one than with the other two.
Anyway, on to the meat. The Solar Invasion is (I'm guessing a bit) the twentieth story in the Captain Future series. Here, even though The Solar Invasion was written by Manly Wade Wellman, we are treading familiar territory for Greatly Belated Book Review readers (all two of you)-Captain Future was originally created by Edmond Hamilton, author of The Star Kings. (If this your first time here, The Star Kings was reviewed here a couple of weeks ago, and I linked my review of it in the above paragraph.) Why are there so many Captain Future stories (there were seven after this one)? Partly because, like much early science fiction (and quite a lot of older novels), it was serialized in magazines before being published as novels, and it had its own regular magazine.
Moving on. Captain Future is explicitly aimed at a younger audience, specifically young boys, and thus is light on real continuity and, quite frankly, reads a lot like a Saturday morning cartoon... were it possible to read such. This is not inappropriate, as it was adapted into an anime.
That theme song is so '70s. Anyway, it is almost certainly not a coincidence that the spaceship takes so long to get across the screen-the series came out one year after Star Wars and its famous opening scene. (Incidentally, this is one of those series that is rather obscure to English speakers and very popular in other countries. The German intro is rather better than this one, IMHO.) The existence of this anime is just another thing that this series ends up having in common with Lensman.
Lots of people don't like Saturday morning cartoons. I for one say "more for me." (Wait, watching cartoons doesn't exclude others from the experience. Phooey.) Anyway, The Solar Invasion is just a single episodic event from a long series of episodic events in the Captain Future series. Thus, reading any of the rest of the series is totally unnecessary, and I won't bother dwelling on the existence of such any longer. I promise. (Not really.)
Rather than give a lengthy synopsis of the very basic sort of plot (INVADERS FROM THE FIFTH DIMENSION STEAL THE MOON TO USE FOR INVASION!!!), I'll go into some stuff on the characters. Why? Because like many Saturday morning cartoons, the characters are more interesting than the stories surrounding them.
The central character is (obviously) Captain Future. It's not a wonder he goes with this handle, for his real name is Curtis Newton. Poor boy. Li'l Captain Future didn't have to worry about schoolyard bullying, though, because he was orphaned and then raised by an android, a robot, and a brain in a jar. On the Moon. With no one else on the Moon, because the Moon was only previously inhabited by him, his now-deceased parents, and an android, a robot, and a brain in a jar. Captain Future is the smartest, quickest, and best-trained of all space police or whatever. He was rapidly able to deduce that the Moon had been stolen rather than destroyed, because there was no debris. (Too bad for you if the Legion of Space's keeper of the peace had used AKKA, huh?)
The android is named Otho, and is exceedingly flexible and malleable (think Mr. Fantastic lite). He is a master of disguise, able to, on a moment's notice, disguise himself as almost anyone, using only the wigs and makeup in his utility belt. He also has a fighting style which relies on being hard to punch... and wrapping his legs around people. He sounds kinda gay, actually. (Not in the pejorative sense, although some would say so.) Anyway, as befits such a trickster, he has a pet named Oog, which is a "meteor mimic"-some kind of magic animal that apparently inhabits... meteors. Yes, they inhabit only space debris that is burning up in the atmosphere. (Sorry, my inner science dweeb was just asserting himself.) Oog has the psychic power to track any entity it has ever met, and can also perfectly mimic anything it can imagine or sense in someone else's mind. It frequently turns into things that people are thinking about, which has vast, nigh-untold potential for embarrassing situations. Sadly, as this book is aimed at childrens, this potential is unexploited.
The robot is named Grag, and is massive, dumb, and strong (he is frequently compared to dynamos and tractors). He's so dumb, at one point he fought his reflection. I am not making this up. He has a "moon-pup" named Eek. Moon-pups eat metal. Okay, whose bright idea was it to give the robot a metal-eating pet? Probably Otho's, as he and Grag have a bickering dynamic. (Speaking of eating metal, Grag ate metal too. Hmm...) Hilariously, although Grag is dim-witted, at one point he is monitoring experiments that others set in motion. Also not a good idea.
The brain in a jar, known ever-so-creatively as the Brain (no, not that Brain), was originally Simon Wright, a scientist who worked with Captain Future's parents. He apparently had a terminal illness, and was saved by Cap's scientist parents. (Oyah, they're the ones who built Grag and Otho. Did I not mention that?) In his jar, he is surprisingly not useless, for the jar can fly and is armed with tractor beams-i.e., he has minor telekinesis. He's smart, and amusingly the book seesaws back and forth between him and Captain Future being the smartest in this or that situation.
Then, there is the character who is my favorite female character out of all three of these books I've reviewed-Joan Randall. She's some kind of liason between Captain Future and the law department. She is described as being the equal of any man but Captain Future. And she is really fun, as is demonstrated by this passage:
"Why worry? [N'Rala] flung at him. "You'll not survive the conquest, so it won't make any difference to you."
"I wish that N'Rala would try to escape," said Joan rather dreamily. The gun stirred in her hand, and N'Rala lost her smile.
(She isn't killing her, just intimidating her. Just thought I'd clear that up.) This one moment makes Joan Randall stand out from the other female characters from these books.
Anyway, this stalwart team is arrayed against various enemies, such as Ul Quorn, "magician of Mars," and N'Rala, who are both recurring characters, and are so boring and typical of this kind of fiction I won't really go into them. There was also an emperor guy, who N'Rala and Ul Quorn were allied with, and whom N'Rala accidentally shot.
The invaders, by the way, were invading because their sun was dying, and Captain Future saved the day by crashing their giant superdreadnaught craft into it, causing it to reignite. Awesome.
This book has more of a bunch of random, fun ideas that were violently smashed together than an actual plot. This is not a bad thing-this kind of fiction can be very fun. I know I like it. I think it compares somewhat favorably to the other books, not tremendously better or worse. Its writing, in and of itself, is a tad more basic and "youth-oriented," which is to be expected. It's amusing to note that it has a very not youth-oriented cover for my copy.
Signing off, because I've said enough, though I could say more, and I need to get the heck off now.
Out of these books, it is interesting to note that The Solar Invasion is far and away in the worst shape. While the others are in very good condition (all things considered), The Solar Invasion has a number of loose pages held in by only friction and good intentions. This is probably, however, more a function of previous owners being rougher with this one than with the other two.
Anyway, on to the meat. The Solar Invasion is (I'm guessing a bit) the twentieth story in the Captain Future series. Here, even though The Solar Invasion was written by Manly Wade Wellman, we are treading familiar territory for Greatly Belated Book Review readers (all two of you)-Captain Future was originally created by Edmond Hamilton, author of The Star Kings. (If this your first time here, The Star Kings was reviewed here a couple of weeks ago, and I linked my review of it in the above paragraph.) Why are there so many Captain Future stories (there were seven after this one)? Partly because, like much early science fiction (and quite a lot of older novels), it was serialized in magazines before being published as novels, and it had its own regular magazine.
Moving on. Captain Future is explicitly aimed at a younger audience, specifically young boys, and thus is light on real continuity and, quite frankly, reads a lot like a Saturday morning cartoon... were it possible to read such. This is not inappropriate, as it was adapted into an anime.
That theme song is so '70s. Anyway, it is almost certainly not a coincidence that the spaceship takes so long to get across the screen-the series came out one year after Star Wars and its famous opening scene. (Incidentally, this is one of those series that is rather obscure to English speakers and very popular in other countries. The German intro is rather better than this one, IMHO.) The existence of this anime is just another thing that this series ends up having in common with Lensman.
Lots of people don't like Saturday morning cartoons. I for one say "more for me." (Wait, watching cartoons doesn't exclude others from the experience. Phooey.) Anyway, The Solar Invasion is just a single episodic event from a long series of episodic events in the Captain Future series. Thus, reading any of the rest of the series is totally unnecessary, and I won't bother dwelling on the existence of such any longer. I promise. (Not really.)
Rather than give a lengthy synopsis of the very basic sort of plot (INVADERS FROM THE FIFTH DIMENSION STEAL THE MOON TO USE FOR INVASION!!!), I'll go into some stuff on the characters. Why? Because like many Saturday morning cartoons, the characters are more interesting than the stories surrounding them.
The central character is (obviously) Captain Future. It's not a wonder he goes with this handle, for his real name is Curtis Newton. Poor boy. Li'l Captain Future didn't have to worry about schoolyard bullying, though, because he was orphaned and then raised by an android, a robot, and a brain in a jar. On the Moon. With no one else on the Moon, because the Moon was only previously inhabited by him, his now-deceased parents, and an android, a robot, and a brain in a jar. Captain Future is the smartest, quickest, and best-trained of all space police or whatever. He was rapidly able to deduce that the Moon had been stolen rather than destroyed, because there was no debris. (Too bad for you if the Legion of Space's keeper of the peace had used AKKA, huh?)
The android is named Otho, and is exceedingly flexible and malleable (think Mr. Fantastic lite). He is a master of disguise, able to, on a moment's notice, disguise himself as almost anyone, using only the wigs and makeup in his utility belt. He also has a fighting style which relies on being hard to punch... and wrapping his legs around people. He sounds kinda gay, actually. (Not in the pejorative sense, although some would say so.) Anyway, as befits such a trickster, he has a pet named Oog, which is a "meteor mimic"-some kind of magic animal that apparently inhabits... meteors. Yes, they inhabit only space debris that is burning up in the atmosphere. (Sorry, my inner science dweeb was just asserting himself.) Oog has the psychic power to track any entity it has ever met, and can also perfectly mimic anything it can imagine or sense in someone else's mind. It frequently turns into things that people are thinking about, which has vast, nigh-untold potential for embarrassing situations. Sadly, as this book is aimed at childrens, this potential is unexploited.
The robot is named Grag, and is massive, dumb, and strong (he is frequently compared to dynamos and tractors). He's so dumb, at one point he fought his reflection. I am not making this up. He has a "moon-pup" named Eek. Moon-pups eat metal. Okay, whose bright idea was it to give the robot a metal-eating pet? Probably Otho's, as he and Grag have a bickering dynamic. (Speaking of eating metal, Grag ate metal too. Hmm...) Hilariously, although Grag is dim-witted, at one point he is monitoring experiments that others set in motion. Also not a good idea.
The brain in a jar, known ever-so-creatively as the Brain (no, not that Brain), was originally Simon Wright, a scientist who worked with Captain Future's parents. He apparently had a terminal illness, and was saved by Cap's scientist parents. (Oyah, they're the ones who built Grag and Otho. Did I not mention that?) In his jar, he is surprisingly not useless, for the jar can fly and is armed with tractor beams-i.e., he has minor telekinesis. He's smart, and amusingly the book seesaws back and forth between him and Captain Future being the smartest in this or that situation.
Then, there is the character who is my favorite female character out of all three of these books I've reviewed-Joan Randall. She's some kind of liason between Captain Future and the law department. She is described as being the equal of any man but Captain Future. And she is really fun, as is demonstrated by this passage:
"Why worry? [N'Rala] flung at him. "You'll not survive the conquest, so it won't make any difference to you."
"I wish that N'Rala would try to escape," said Joan rather dreamily. The gun stirred in her hand, and N'Rala lost her smile.
(She isn't killing her, just intimidating her. Just thought I'd clear that up.) This one moment makes Joan Randall stand out from the other female characters from these books.
Anyway, this stalwart team is arrayed against various enemies, such as Ul Quorn, "magician of Mars," and N'Rala, who are both recurring characters, and are so boring and typical of this kind of fiction I won't really go into them. There was also an emperor guy, who N'Rala and Ul Quorn were allied with, and whom N'Rala accidentally shot.
The invaders, by the way, were invading because their sun was dying, and Captain Future saved the day by crashing their giant superdreadnaught craft into it, causing it to reignite. Awesome.
This book has more of a bunch of random, fun ideas that were violently smashed together than an actual plot. This is not a bad thing-this kind of fiction can be very fun. I know I like it. I think it compares somewhat favorably to the other books, not tremendously better or worse. Its writing, in and of itself, is a tad more basic and "youth-oriented," which is to be expected. It's amusing to note that it has a very not youth-oriented cover for my copy.
Signing off, because I've said enough, though I could say more, and I need to get the heck off now.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Greatly Belated Book Reviews: Triplanetary
Been meaning to do this one all week.
There are actually two versions of this, as far as I can tell-there's the original serialized version, and the revised version that included strengthened tie-ins to the Lensman series. And guess what? Apparently, the first version is public domain.
What does that mean? It means it's perhaps the best piece of space opera you'll ever find in the public domain.
Having read that version, I can affirm-it's great stuff. (Assuming you like space opera. If you're reading this blog, chances are you might. I talk about it often enough.)
First up in my talk about Triplanetary is the planet Nevia. Not one of the planets of the title (boringly, the three planets are actually just Earth [usually called Tellus in the body of the text], Venus, and Mars), Nevia is an alien world which ends up at war with the Triplanetary government early on. And it is quite an impressive little bit of world-building.
Nevia is a planet with only a relative handful of small islands serving as land. The primary civilization there (the primary Nevian civilization, and the group to which I will be referring when I say "Nevians") is made up of a sort of weird amphibian creature, a quadruped species with a be-tentacled head and four eyes that allows it equivalently delicate manipulation to humans. There are actually at least two other reasonably intelligent species on the planet, as well. The first of these is a species of fish which are much smarter than other fish, but are bred as food and slaves by the Nevians. (Don't judge them-dogs are much smarter than fish, and we breed them as slaves [excuse me, work dogs] and food too. I mean, not we universally, we as the human race in broad scope. They still eat dogs in China, and the chow dog is actually named for its original purpose. The story doesn't say just how smart these fish really are.) The other species is another species of fish which lives in the deep waters where the Nevians can't live unprotected-and they're smarter than the other fish, too. In fact, when the Nevians conquered them, they eventually learned how to replicate Nevian technology, and kicked them out hard once they had. Thus, Nevia is in a constant state of war between the deep fish and the Nevians.
Particularly, I would assume that the primary advantage of the deep fish is that they lived on the deep ocean floor, where they had easier access to the most important commodity on Nevia-iron. Iron is rare on Nevia (at least, on its surface-any rocky planet really ought to have an iron core, but then again, this is space opera, so whatever), and the Nevians have a very limited supply of it. Two pounds are immensely valuable, and ten are practically a king's ransom.
Why do they need iron so badly? It isn't because it's a valuable building material; in fact, the Nevians are rather contemptuous of Triplanetary's use of it, remarking that "these creatures obviously aren't even as intelligent as the higher fishes." (OUCH.) No, the Nevians discovered ages ago that it was actually an extremely efficient energy source-by converting it into a different allotropic state (the science looks like bunk now, but at least Smith used scientific terms), they can convert it directly into energy. And that, my friends, is a valuable resource indeed.
Of course, Triplanetary's real trick as a novel is that, until you're a chapter or two in, you really have no idea that the Nevians are about to descend in a horribly brutal invasion on the forces of Triplanetary. Instead, we're presented with a battle between Gray Roger the pirate king and the forces of the Triplanetary navy. The navy, while suffering heavy losses, takes out Roger's fleet and moves on towards his planetoid base at the precise moment the first Nevian expeditionary ship shows up in the midst of the battle. (Roger, by the way, had a lot of sophisticated technology, including a kind of cloak, robots, and the most powerful defensive forcefield that appears in the book; in the revised version, it apparently was revealed that he was secretly one of the monstrous creatures from the devil-planet Eddore. Or whatever.) The Nevians, despite having only ten pounds of iron at their disposal, minus what they burned on the long trip, effortlessly melt down the Triplanetary fleet (plus, frighteningly, the blood of the crews) into allotropic iron sludge and vacuum it up; they have a bit more trouble taking care of Roger's planetoid, but not to the point of actually getting in trouble; since they just picked up a huge load of iron, they probably could have gone on to defeat every ship in the solar system without breaking a sweat. Fortunately, after they had done this and picked up a few specimens of the odd little creatures, they went back home, knowing that their valuable cargo would encourage a second Nevian expedition to muster iron for the second ship. And so it did.
When they get home, they immediately plunge into a battle with the fishes of the deep, who had just developed a new weapon for their big underwater fortresses that presented a challenge to the iron-deprived Nevians; the load of iron that Nerado, the captain, gave to the defenders let them drive off the attack in a single massive counterstroke.
Meanwhile, it turned out that the data that Triplanetary central intelligence got from observing the three-way one-sided battle gave it the information it needed to finish a secret project it had been having trouble with-a "super-ship" that was to be the first faster than light vessel used by Triplanetary. (This is where someone invents "Doc" Smith's slightly infamous inertialess drive.) This vast ship, the Boise, is equipped with Roger's super-forcefield, faster than light drives, an iron reactor, and tons of other stuff just in time to fight the second Nevian ship. (Literally, within hours of when it shows up.) The two ships, of which the Boise is actually the stronger, have quite a tussle, and the Nevian ship turns tail and runs. While trying to catch it, the Boise discovers that Roger escaped his planetoid base, and finishes him off (Roger had also developed the iron reactor in the time since he had met the Nevians-boy, folks are really innovative in Triplanetary, aren't they?) with the help of a brand-new weapon invented on the spot, the only thing in the book which can penetrate Roger's forcefields when iron reactors are powering them. Then, they find the escaped "specimens" of the Nevians, one of whom had been a super-secret agent, hence the escape, and after rescuing them run down the second Nevian ship and kill it with the help of the shield-buster thing (the Nevians also had Roger's shield).
Then, they tussle with Nerado and the first Nevian ship, but can't pin him down because he's cleverer than the other, unnamed captain; so they drop a really, really big bomb on Nevia (to be fair, on the unknown weapon that was on Nevia's surface, the readying of which was causing Nerado to stall for time). Nerado immediately called for a ceasefire, admitting that humans were possibly every bit as advanced as the Nevians themselves (quite a compliment, even from the fair-minded Nerado), and further suggesting an alliance.
Now, here's the really awesome touch: Triplanetary accepts the alliance. And Triplanetary and Nevia are best friends forever after this. It turns out that, while Nevia was more advanced at making war because of their sophisticated physics knowledge, there was plenty of stuff that humans knew about that Nevians didn't have a clue about. And of course, there's all that iron, which they were pretty eager to get their tentacles on, as well.
It certainly wasn't that important that the Nevians had destroyed a big chunk of Triplanetary's fleet and levelled Pittsburgh, or that Triplanetary's secret agent had gassed a city or two to death and the Boise dropped a bomb on Nevia described as the kind of thing you never use if you care about the planet you're dropping it on, was it?
-Signing off.
There are actually two versions of this, as far as I can tell-there's the original serialized version, and the revised version that included strengthened tie-ins to the Lensman series. And guess what? Apparently, the first version is public domain.
What does that mean? It means it's perhaps the best piece of space opera you'll ever find in the public domain.
Having read that version, I can affirm-it's great stuff. (Assuming you like space opera. If you're reading this blog, chances are you might. I talk about it often enough.)
First up in my talk about Triplanetary is the planet Nevia. Not one of the planets of the title (boringly, the three planets are actually just Earth [usually called Tellus in the body of the text], Venus, and Mars), Nevia is an alien world which ends up at war with the Triplanetary government early on. And it is quite an impressive little bit of world-building.
Nevia is a planet with only a relative handful of small islands serving as land. The primary civilization there (the primary Nevian civilization, and the group to which I will be referring when I say "Nevians") is made up of a sort of weird amphibian creature, a quadruped species with a be-tentacled head and four eyes that allows it equivalently delicate manipulation to humans. There are actually at least two other reasonably intelligent species on the planet, as well. The first of these is a species of fish which are much smarter than other fish, but are bred as food and slaves by the Nevians. (Don't judge them-dogs are much smarter than fish, and we breed them as slaves [excuse me, work dogs] and food too. I mean, not we universally, we as the human race in broad scope. They still eat dogs in China, and the chow dog is actually named for its original purpose. The story doesn't say just how smart these fish really are.) The other species is another species of fish which lives in the deep waters where the Nevians can't live unprotected-and they're smarter than the other fish, too. In fact, when the Nevians conquered them, they eventually learned how to replicate Nevian technology, and kicked them out hard once they had. Thus, Nevia is in a constant state of war between the deep fish and the Nevians.
Particularly, I would assume that the primary advantage of the deep fish is that they lived on the deep ocean floor, where they had easier access to the most important commodity on Nevia-iron. Iron is rare on Nevia (at least, on its surface-any rocky planet really ought to have an iron core, but then again, this is space opera, so whatever), and the Nevians have a very limited supply of it. Two pounds are immensely valuable, and ten are practically a king's ransom.
Why do they need iron so badly? It isn't because it's a valuable building material; in fact, the Nevians are rather contemptuous of Triplanetary's use of it, remarking that "these creatures obviously aren't even as intelligent as the higher fishes." (OUCH.) No, the Nevians discovered ages ago that it was actually an extremely efficient energy source-by converting it into a different allotropic state (the science looks like bunk now, but at least Smith used scientific terms), they can convert it directly into energy. And that, my friends, is a valuable resource indeed.
Of course, Triplanetary's real trick as a novel is that, until you're a chapter or two in, you really have no idea that the Nevians are about to descend in a horribly brutal invasion on the forces of Triplanetary. Instead, we're presented with a battle between Gray Roger the pirate king and the forces of the Triplanetary navy. The navy, while suffering heavy losses, takes out Roger's fleet and moves on towards his planetoid base at the precise moment the first Nevian expeditionary ship shows up in the midst of the battle. (Roger, by the way, had a lot of sophisticated technology, including a kind of cloak, robots, and the most powerful defensive forcefield that appears in the book; in the revised version, it apparently was revealed that he was secretly one of the monstrous creatures from the devil-planet Eddore. Or whatever.) The Nevians, despite having only ten pounds of iron at their disposal, minus what they burned on the long trip, effortlessly melt down the Triplanetary fleet (plus, frighteningly, the blood of the crews) into allotropic iron sludge and vacuum it up; they have a bit more trouble taking care of Roger's planetoid, but not to the point of actually getting in trouble; since they just picked up a huge load of iron, they probably could have gone on to defeat every ship in the solar system without breaking a sweat. Fortunately, after they had done this and picked up a few specimens of the odd little creatures, they went back home, knowing that their valuable cargo would encourage a second Nevian expedition to muster iron for the second ship. And so it did.
When they get home, they immediately plunge into a battle with the fishes of the deep, who had just developed a new weapon for their big underwater fortresses that presented a challenge to the iron-deprived Nevians; the load of iron that Nerado, the captain, gave to the defenders let them drive off the attack in a single massive counterstroke.
Meanwhile, it turned out that the data that Triplanetary central intelligence got from observing the three-way one-sided battle gave it the information it needed to finish a secret project it had been having trouble with-a "super-ship" that was to be the first faster than light vessel used by Triplanetary. (This is where someone invents "Doc" Smith's slightly infamous inertialess drive.) This vast ship, the Boise, is equipped with Roger's super-forcefield, faster than light drives, an iron reactor, and tons of other stuff just in time to fight the second Nevian ship. (Literally, within hours of when it shows up.) The two ships, of which the Boise is actually the stronger, have quite a tussle, and the Nevian ship turns tail and runs. While trying to catch it, the Boise discovers that Roger escaped his planetoid base, and finishes him off (Roger had also developed the iron reactor in the time since he had met the Nevians-boy, folks are really innovative in Triplanetary, aren't they?) with the help of a brand-new weapon invented on the spot, the only thing in the book which can penetrate Roger's forcefields when iron reactors are powering them. Then, they find the escaped "specimens" of the Nevians, one of whom had been a super-secret agent, hence the escape, and after rescuing them run down the second Nevian ship and kill it with the help of the shield-buster thing (the Nevians also had Roger's shield).
Then, they tussle with Nerado and the first Nevian ship, but can't pin him down because he's cleverer than the other, unnamed captain; so they drop a really, really big bomb on Nevia (to be fair, on the unknown weapon that was on Nevia's surface, the readying of which was causing Nerado to stall for time). Nerado immediately called for a ceasefire, admitting that humans were possibly every bit as advanced as the Nevians themselves (quite a compliment, even from the fair-minded Nerado), and further suggesting an alliance.
Now, here's the really awesome touch: Triplanetary accepts the alliance. And Triplanetary and Nevia are best friends forever after this. It turns out that, while Nevia was more advanced at making war because of their sophisticated physics knowledge, there was plenty of stuff that humans knew about that Nevians didn't have a clue about. And of course, there's all that iron, which they were pretty eager to get their tentacles on, as well.
It certainly wasn't that important that the Nevians had destroyed a big chunk of Triplanetary's fleet and levelled Pittsburgh, or that Triplanetary's secret agent had gassed a city or two to death and the Boise dropped a bomb on Nevia described as the kind of thing you never use if you care about the planet you're dropping it on, was it?
-Signing off.
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