Skylark DuQuesne

Skylark Series #4

By: E. E. "Doc" Smith

Narrated by: Reed McColm

Dick Seaton and Marc DuQuesne are the deadliest enemies in the universe. Their feud has blazed among the stars and changed the history of a thousand planets. But now a threat from outside the galaxy drives them into a dangerous alliance as hordes of strange races drive to a collision with mankind.

Seaton and DuQuensne fight side by side to fend off the invasion - as Seaton keeps constant, perilous watch for DuQuesne's inevitable double-cross.

Hi-fi sci-fi: don't miss the rest of the Skylark series.©1966 E. E. "Doc" Smith (P)2007 Books in Motion

Worth buying on discount. Good Performance

Any additional comments?

This is not one of E. E. "Doc" Smith's best works, but if you have read the 3 previous books, it you will probably want to read this one to complete the story. My one main gripe is that after awhile "incalculable" becomes cliche'd, and running back and forth all over the entire known universe in short periods of time becomes hard for even a diehard sci-fi fan to suspend disbelief.

Reed McColm does a good job in this performance. He provides a lot of energy to the reading, and I kind of found myself eager to get back to the car to pick up the story because he reawakens the wide-eyed wonder of my childhood reading these old stories from the early days of pulp science fiction. It is obvious that he enjoys these stories himself, and that redeems this audio book to the point where I am sure I will listen to it again in a few years.

Overall, as an audio book performance, this book is an enjoyable listen. Just don't expect great depth of character or ideas that make you stop and think. It is worth a credit, though.

Probably the weakest in the Skylark series

This book, which concludes the Skylark series, is in many ways unsatisfsctory. The enemies are stronger and deadlier than in the earlier books, the weapons bigger and stronger than ever, and the strife spans multiple galaxies rather than planets and star systems.

Even so this feels like more of the same rather than something new. Also the book seems open ended as if doc Smith was planning on continuing the saga. That way it feels somewhat unsatisfactory.

Sooo…

Soo… on the downside, we have a scientifically not up-to-date take on space (even at the time, ether was already discredited)… a strangely hierarchical approach to waves, fields - there’s always a higher level discovered and put into practice immediately without any engineering issues level once the heroes beed it. And yes, the heroes and the villains - there’s no grey area here, it’s either blindingly white or super-vanta black. And let’s not forget about the not really cavalier, cringe treatment of women - starting slowly, with a strange urge of every girl to get married to every boy… working it’s way up to putting gently formulated, but incredibly self-demeaning statements into the mouths of women themselves.

Soo… why is this still pretty readable (listenable)? I’m thinking it’s because of the steady high-speed clip of the ever-expanding action. Which in turn is the product of the serialized writing and publication.

The other aspect is the pure science fiction of it all, how far advanced this was in its genre at the time. Star Trek? 40yrs earlier, this had mind-controlled (!) food replicators, force shields, cloaking devices - you name it!

I first read this in translated version almost 50 years ago, and authors comparable in background (engineering) and of around the same time (eg German author Hans Dominik) used some similar ideas… but they simply didn’t put together a universe-spanning story - they held back. EE Doc Smith didn’t hold back. He fantasized on a romp!

old school space opera

I read this decades ago. There's some cool bits in it which I enjoyed but I doubt if anyone that doesn't have grey hair would "dig" it. Plus the Narrator has a limited range of voices, which is at times annoying.

classic space opera, a fun read

Doc Smith's "Skylark DuQuesne" is a wonderful fun melange of 1920s space opera and 1960s science fiction, brought to life by Reed McColm. As usual in the Skylark stories, the villain Marc "Blackie" DuQuesne dominates the story, which truly begins to roll when he returns from extra-dimensional incorporeality and gets his body (and his mile-long spaceship) back. No deep meanings, no subtext, no subtlety -- but lots of massive spaceships, bizarre aliens, equally bizarre humans, and galaxy-spanning battles. Possibly not for the modern, sensitive reader in search of subtle characterizations, but definitely for the reader who'd like a few hours of fun reading.

Wow

wow great to the end it's a shame it had to end it's a great read