Second Stage Lensman

Lensman Series

By: E. E. Doc Smith

Narrated by: Reed McColm

Kimball Kinnison and the Galactic Patrol again take up battle with Boskonia. The warfare leads to some odd corners of the universe and some stranger worlds. They include the planet Lyrane where a matriarchal society exists and the frigid world of Onio, with its incredibly alien inhabitants.Hi-fi sci-fi: listen to more in the Lensman series.©2006 Books in Motion. This recording is produced by arrangement with The Estate of E. E. "Doc" Smith and Virginia Kidd, Inc. (P)2006 Books in Motion. This recording is produced by arrangement with The Estate of E. E. "Doc" Smith and Virginia Kidd, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The most towering figure in science fiction, thanks to the enormous scope of his novels." (Isaac Asimov)
"If you wish to understand the roots of modern science fiction, you have to read the Lensman saga." (Allen Steele)
"A finalist for a special Hugo Award for All-Time Best Series, 'Lensman' is considered by many sf heads to be the greatest of the space operas and clearly a source for such successors as Star Trek and Star Wars." ( Library Journal)

Lensman Series is Still Fun

Okay. The narrator of this series is not the best. Nevertheless, this story still works if you can get past some of writing (the "look of eagles" in the eyes of Lensmen for instance). If you've never dipped into these before, get Galactic patrol, Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensmen and Children of the Lens in that order. If you are still hooked, go back and pick up First lensman. You have to be a real diehard lensmen fan to slug through Triplanetary.

This is classic space opera, good versus evil, with the guys in the white hats destined to win. Smith wasn't very good at envisioning future technology, but he comes up with some fun ideas. The inertialess drive is an interesting solution to FSL travel and the negasphere is one of the best Sci_Fi weapons ever imagined. His aliens are fun too, especially the frigid planet dwellers. Considering that the series was started in the late 30s, it holds up amazingly well.

Are people of color nonexistent?

It seems, in Dr. Smith’s world there are no women of intellect, no people of color or people who have a normal sex drive. Aside from those glaring lacked this is a very interesting read .

Narrator needs to rethink his voicing choices.

Narrator was just fine when speaking in his normal voice, but his voicing of female characters was pretty unpleasant. His voicing however was quite bad when doing characters whose voices (in the story), are described as powerful and "deep", but come out of his mouth sounding like the voices of a weak 100 year old man dying of emphysema. This is so jarring that it hurts the storytelling.

classic space opera

Smith's description of epic space battles is unparalleled. I first read this decades ago and was thrilled to find it on audible. The voice actor did not have the range to do aliens or all the villains convincingly though. The author's efforts to promote sexual equality were ahead of its time but still reflect the prejudices of the time. if you can get past all that, there's some good story telling in the series (except Triplantary is a dud. Don't bother.)

The greatest series going

I have read and re-read this series since I first discovered it in the early 60s. The series made every boomer patrol I made.

The only series that matches it for pure fun is the Aubry-Maturin Series.

Hm…

Soo… on the downside, we have two things which I can’t decide on which is worse:
One, the whole cycle is built on a strangely good vs evil, deeply intolerant religious philosophy. The good guys do good, and only good things because good, higher-level beings nudge them in that direction - the bad guys do the (only bad) things they’re doing because bad, higher-level beings manipulate them to do them. That is just garbage, sorry. Not only were there already much more open-minded and facetted (science fiction or not) stories around then - but this really disgusting slave perspective also limits any character decelopment or any real depth to the characters to near-zero. Somewhat hard to separate from that issue is the fact that 99% of the population are really just background fodder for the heroic superbeings - and no consideration that maybe every person, even a Lensman, is just one.

The other galling issue is the treatment of women. It’s almost comical how even when those elite superhumans evolve oh-so-far beyond their measly earthly roots… across space and time… still everyone wants to get married. Even at the time that must have been a peculiarly quaint perspective - even given the fact that society made life impossibly hard for women, especially if not being married, wanting to live their lifes, maybe even with a kid. I read somewhere that the author had pulled in his wife for advice on female characters… but the result then is an artwork completed under the mental duress of the societal Stockholm syndrome. And not to speak of the limitations this all puts on the potential of an interesting story.

Add to this the whole Lensmen thing. Yeah, I know, wouldn’t it be great to have the lens, an indestructible super-device ensuring complete fidelity of any wearer to a common greater goal, weeding out all spies and not-quite-good enough folks? Uh… maybe… but maybe the SS (from the time of the author) would have loved to have that type of device, too… for technological reasons, they just had to do with brainwashing and tattoos. And this isn’t a minor quibble - the whole story would completely fall apart without that. You’d immediately have all kinds of complications - like, you know, in real life!?! And this, too, limits the books. Yes, there’s a lot going on… but ultimately, nothing is really happening.

Compare to Star Trek. They also had/have heroes and villains in a fantastic future, sure… but there are moments where life intervenes, and weak humans have to come up with answers to moral questions and stand up for those answers, or not. THAT makes a hero - not some gadget. And THAT is life. And THAT is interesting.

Soo… why is this still somewhat readable (listenable) at all? I’m thinking it’s primarily because of the steady high-speed clip of the ever-expanding action - it’s just flying by, the universe. Which in turn is in the writing perfectly adapted to the original serialized publication of the stories as pulp fiction.

For some reason, I actually feel like the pure science fiction of it all is less interesting here than in the Skylark cycle. It’s just overshadowed here by the genetically engineered, merciless, neverending cult-like postulated goodness of the Lensmen.

One of the Very Best

Doc Smith's Lensmen series is a yearly read or listen for me. Since being given FIRST LENSMEN as a boy of about 14, I found and read the others in the series. Now for more than 40 years they have been a yearly affair. Joining Heinlein, Clarke, and a few others that merit this yearly ritual. Rooted in past behaviors though they are, yet still I travel at a thousand parsecs a minute.

Do your self a favor and jump into these stories. They vied for top SF series ever written with Asimov's Foundation and are include lovingly in Heinlein's NUMBER OF THE BEAST.