You ain't nothin' but a Space Hound

Spacehounds of IPC by E.E. "Doc" Smith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Badly, badly dated.

If you enjoy Star Trek you should know that Roddenbery owes a great debt to E.E. Smith, and Star Wars owes more to him than it ever did to Joseph Campbell.

Having said that . . .

In this story every planet and moon in the solar system is inhabited. A "computer" is a job for a human being. Space ships run on broadcast power. Relations between men and women have not advanced even to where they were when the story was written. Space ships have VERY thick armor to protect themselves from meteors.

Yet there are tractor beams, presser beams, force fields, and other inventions that are the stuff of classic space opera.

A modern reader would be disappointed in this book, especially the love story. Someone who believes in abstinence-only sex education might even have second thoughts after reading it.

Smith's Lensmen novels hold up better than this.



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