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331st out of 763 books
—
659 voters
First Lensman (Lensman #2)
Secret Planet
No human being had ever landed on the hidden planet of Arisia. A mysterious barrier, hanging unseen in space, turned back all ships. Then the word came to Earth, inexplicably but compellingly:
'GO TO ARISIA!'
Virgil Samms, founder of the Galactic Patrol, went - and came back with the Lens, the strange device that gave its wearer powers no man had ever possessed...more
No human being had ever landed on the hidden planet of Arisia. A mysterious barrier, hanging unseen in space, turned back all ships. Then the word came to Earth, inexplicably but compellingly:
'GO TO ARISIA!'
Virgil Samms, founder of the Galactic Patrol, went - and came back with the Lens, the strange device that gave its wearer powers no man had ever possessed...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
1982
by Panther Books
(first published 1950)
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SHAZBOT...another bitter, CLASSIC disappointment. I’m not sure who E.E. Smith was sleeping with or what incriminating photos of the publisher he had stashed away, but this book is a stool sample. It started as a wonderful buffet of big ideas and interesting concepts. However, once digested and squeezed through the pen of Mr. Smith, it became eminently flushable.
From a historical perspective, this book has a strong pedigree as the Lensmen Saga is the series most often cited as paving the way for...more
From a historical perspective, this book has a strong pedigree as the Lensmen Saga is the series most often cited as paving the way for...more
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Title: First Lensman
Series: Lensman, Book 2
Author: "Doc" E. E. Smith
Genre: Science Fiction
Smith continues his epic Lensman series in First Lensman. The Arisians are continuing to monitor and influence the development of four different races in the galaxy, specifically interested in the human race from Tellus (or Earth). Where Triplanetary, the first book in the series, literally took the reader back to the very beginning of the conflict between the Eddorians and the Arisians, describing the init...more
Series: Lensman, Book 2
Author: "Doc" E. E. Smith
Genre: Science Fiction
Smith continues his epic Lensman series in First Lensman. The Arisians are continuing to monitor and influence the development of four different races in the galaxy, specifically interested in the human race from Tellus (or Earth). Where Triplanetary, the first book in the series, literally took the reader back to the very beginning of the conflict between the Eddorians and the Arisians, describing the init...more
Originally published on my blog here in August 2009.
The second novel in Smith's Lensman series, First Lensman is a unified narrative (unlike Triplanetary which precedes it). It follows on directly from the events of the first book, detailing the later stages in the fight against drugs and corruption led by Virgil Samms. (Samms plays a comparatively small part in Triplanetary, which was more concerned with the swashbuckling adventures of his sub-ordinates.)
The first half of the novel is an explan...more
The second novel in Smith's Lensman series, First Lensman is a unified narrative (unlike Triplanetary which precedes it). It follows on directly from the events of the first book, detailing the later stages in the fight against drugs and corruption led by Virgil Samms. (Samms plays a comparatively small part in Triplanetary, which was more concerned with the swashbuckling adventures of his sub-ordinates.)
The first half of the novel is an explan...more
So I'm planning to read many of the SF classics that I've never gotten around to. And by read, I mean listen to the audio book while I do other things since I obviously haven't wanted to sit down and read most of these books. Much of this book I listened to while designing an ultra modern Sims2 apartment complex. Although this is book 2 in the series - I have foolishly listened to it first and there was a bit of an issue with the first two chapters. They probably make much more sense in situ tha...more
The Lensman Series has been called the Lord of the Rings of science fiction. Honored and praised as the series that provided 20th Century science fiction with lift-off, nearly every trope, icon, plot of the genre can be found here. Epic space battles, space ships of every size and shape, aliens ranging from very human to totally... alien, good-guy aliens, telepathy, other dimensions, background settings spanning billions of years, planetary conditions from edenic to hellish...even robotics (afte...more
The second installment in E E "Doc" Smith's wonderful series. Virgil Samms is contacted by an alien race - the Arisians - who do mental battle with the Eddorians. Samms is invited to come to Arisia, where he becomes the First Lensman. Equipped with his new, psychically attuned, personalized Lens, he searches the galaxy for other potential Lensmen - men of such high mental quality and impeccable integrity that corruption isn't in their nature.
But as with all things good, evil wants no part with t...more
But as with all things good, evil wants no part with t...more
The First Lensman
Classic space opera. It is hard to rate a book that has had such an influence on everything that came after it - Dune, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Ender's Game to name a few - so that it doesn't seem original at all. It is often compared to Asimov's Foundation, but I found the Foundation trilogy much more compelling, with a much deeper plot line. The writing styles are similar, and both are examples of what I call "Grand Humanism" in science fiction (man conquers the galaxy, etc),...more
Classic space opera. It is hard to rate a book that has had such an influence on everything that came after it - Dune, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Ender's Game to name a few - so that it doesn't seem original at all. It is often compared to Asimov's Foundation, but I found the Foundation trilogy much more compelling, with a much deeper plot line. The writing styles are similar, and both are examples of what I call "Grand Humanism" in science fiction (man conquers the galaxy, etc),...more
This book started out slow, in fact I was ready to bail on it, then it turned a serious corner and started to take off. If you can make it through the first - oh, 4/9 of the book - the rest justifies it. It's interesting reading this, written as it is, in the style of the early part of the 20 century. Additionally, if you're listening to the book, the voice talent really gets that old time "announcery" tone to his voice when doing Virgil Sams character so you seriously need to dig and/or at leas...more
Not great!
About halfway through I discovered that this is actually the sequel to the prequel to the Lensman series. Which actually explained and clarified alot of the problems I'd been having with the book.
The prose is lacking for the most part, although I liked Jack's lines when he's describing Hazel DeForce to Mase. The plot meanders, trying to hit what I assume are chronological checkpoints for the Lensman mythos. This is most painfully evident when Jill describes the first female Lensman.
I'm...more
About halfway through I discovered that this is actually the sequel to the prequel to the Lensman series. Which actually explained and clarified alot of the problems I'd been having with the book.
The prose is lacking for the most part, although I liked Jack's lines when he's describing Hazel DeForce to Mase. The plot meanders, trying to hit what I assume are chronological checkpoints for the Lensman mythos. This is most painfully evident when Jill describes the first female Lensman.
I'm...more
I just found out that the first two books in the series are prequels that were not written first. This makes a lot of sense, they are not terribly great. I think when I was a kid I could never get into the series because I always started with these two books. I should have started with third book. Reviews make it sound pretty good. The First Lensman was ok. The story is decent, but feels pretty disjointed at times. From what I can gather without having read the rest of the series, this is a good...more
The 2nd prequel in the famous Lensman series. I'm guessing that Galactic patrol must have been published and been successful for these earlier serialised stories to pulled together into novels in thier own right. As i didn't discover these books until many years after they were published i have always simply read them in order and considered Triplanatary and this novel to be 1 and 2 of the series.
This 2nd novel falls more into the pattern of the later books with far less scene setting than is ev...more
This 2nd novel falls more into the pattern of the later books with far less scene setting than is ev...more
BEFORE - Kimball Kinnison.
BEFORE - Helmuth
BEFORE - The Eich
There was "The First Lensman"
Virgil Samms has a dream! He wants to to build a better tomorrow. Not just for his planet, Tellus (Earth), but for all the world where beings want to live in peace. Virgil believes the best way to do this is by building a Galactic Patrol. But first he needs to have a symbol that is incorruptible by men.
In a future where a thief can be half-way across the galaxy in no time what the Patrol needs a badge that's...more
BEFORE - Helmuth
BEFORE - The Eich
There was "The First Lensman"
Virgil Samms has a dream! He wants to to build a better tomorrow. Not just for his planet, Tellus (Earth), but for all the world where beings want to live in peace. Virgil believes the best way to do this is by building a Galactic Patrol. But first he needs to have a symbol that is incorruptible by men.
In a future where a thief can be half-way across the galaxy in no time what the Patrol needs a badge that's...more
Very early space opera (2nd book of the Lensman series). The author must have been the beginning of that part of Science Fiction. He tends to jump very quickly into transitions in the story line, so it took me a little while each chapter to figure out that he had changed direction. The concept of the Lens and who they got it from is sort of a SF way of dealing with God. The language of the time is very prevalent in this book. His vision was fairly good, though he suffers from a bit of myopia, as...more
For the most part, I was bored or annoyed with the characters, the story, and the writing style. I like Conway "Spud " Costigan and dislike all the others. I missed the neat scientific ideas from the earlier book and found the magical nonsense mind science for the lens to be a dissapointment.
For some reason the 80's style of EXTREME was just tiring this time around, unlike last time when it reached Flash Gordon heights of silliness. I will continue the series, but only for the historical perspe...more
For some reason the 80's style of EXTREME was just tiring this time around, unlike last time when it reached Flash Gordon heights of silliness. I will continue the series, but only for the historical perspe...more
This is a 3.5. I'm reading the series based on internal chronology, which makes this the second Lensman book I've read. It's better than Triplanetary, at least in the sense that the plot drew me in more fully. There was some better characterization, as well, and a few delightfully entertaining scenes. So grand, so epic, so massive! Everything is played out on such a gargantuan scale. I am even more interested in continuing the series, now, and seeing where the Galactic Patrol goes from here.
One can see the great influence that this work has had on TV science fiction and comic books like the 60's/present day version of "The Green Lantern," but I'm not sure why.
Smith's writing is very stilted. It's worth it to muddle through this just to understand the scope of its influence, but I can't continue with this series. It's too dated and the writing is too poor.
As with the first book in the Lensman series, you have to take it for what it is: old-style cops-and-robbers detective story, where the good guys are incorruptibly and unquestionably good, and the bad guys are horrifically despicable. As a treatise on human nature it's shallow, but as an entertaining and imaginative light-hearted read it's great.
Mar 22, 2011
Zac Wood
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
100-book-challenge-2011
I read these books as a kid, and it is so much fun to re-read them. Turns out the memories I have missed some of the salient points...
I love the consideration of what governance and the public and space travel will be like. This is why I love sci-fi: Lets us toy with important ideas ahead of time... so we know what to do when the time comes!
I love the consideration of what governance and the public and space travel will be like. This is why I love sci-fi: Lets us toy with important ideas ahead of time... so we know what to do when the time comes!
I heard this book is very much like Green Lantern...so I'm going to check it out...
I a little ways into this book...and it is really difficult to follow. And boring... I think a lot of sci fi books rely on a cool concept to be interesting instead of great characters and prose. I have not gone back to this book for a while...don't know if I ever will...
I see now that this is the 2nd book in the series. (I was fooled by an Audible.com sale that claimed it was the first in the series.) Maybe if I g...more
I a little ways into this book...and it is really difficult to follow. And boring... I think a lot of sci fi books rely on a cool concept to be interesting instead of great characters and prose. I have not gone back to this book for a while...don't know if I ever will...
I see now that this is the 2nd book in the series. (I was fooled by an Audible.com sale that claimed it was the first in the series.) Maybe if I g...more
Some of the original Space Opera. I remember liking the Lensman books quite a lot as a kid but when I tried to rereading one as an adult it didn't do much for me. Still, I'm going to give them 3 stars. They were pretty full of action and adventure and imagination, but the writing is pretty bad in general
This is actually about the whole Lensman series. I found the books to be greatly engaging. I read them first as a child, then read them again in my 30's, then my 40's. Sure some (a lot) of the science is out to lunch now, but it is still a good action read.
Oct 21, 2007
Nicholas Whyte
added it
http://nhw.livejournal.com/937871.html[return][return]The Lensman books are sitting on the shelf, looking at me; and every time I feel I need to cut down the "unread" pile by another notch, they look like an easy quick option. I will probably trudge through them all in the end, but this is another whinge: awful style, awful plotting (especially the way in which important concepts and characters are just plonked into the story without introduction), and the political message being that democratic...more
May 09, 2012
Peter
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction,
space-opera
This is one of the classic Space Opera series written by the doyen of space opera writes - style and content a bit dated now but still an exciting read
This is Book 2 in Doc Smith's intrepid space opera. More incredible and astounding than the first. The same brave men fight more eveil adversaries, using greater weapons and faster and bigger space ships. Getting closer to the evil empire that lurks somewhere in mystery.
I have read these long time ago, and cannot recall all the details. I know we now have pirates, drug use (shock!), telepathy, and even more heroics.
Each situation is written in literal superlatives which even then struggle to con...more
I have read these long time ago, and cannot recall all the details. I know we now have pirates, drug use (shock!), telepathy, and even more heroics.
Each situation is written in literal superlatives which even then struggle to con...more
This book was read by my younger self very fast! Could not read it fast enough. I still read this book occasionally as an adult. ;)
Don't trust my rating for this book. See this
review for why.
review for why.
I really enjoyed both of the books I have of this series, and would dearly love to get my hands on the rest of the series.
I read this one a LONG time ago. The Lensman series is a classic which I periodically go back and reread. Love it!
Good book. Love the Kinnisons. "Doc" Smith really knew how to tell a story.
First Lensman by E. E. Smith (1997)
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