The Purity Plot

Family d'Alembert #6

by E.E. "Doc" Smith, Stephen Goldin, Chris Foss (Illustrator)

Purity Plot (Family d'Alembert series / E. E. Doc Smith) Smith, E. E.''Doc'' and Goldin, Stephen

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Fantasy

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Edward Elmer Smith (also E.E. Smith, E.E. Smith, Ph.D., E.E. “Doc” Smith, Doc Smith, “Skylark” Smith, or—to his family—Ted), was an American food engineer (specializing in doughnut and pastry mixes) and an early science fiction author, best known for the Lensman and Skylark series. He is sometimes called the father of space opera.

Reviews

[Kevin O'Brien]

This is the sixth in a 10 novel series which was mostly written by Stephen Goldin. Doc Smith wrote a novella called Imperial Stars which Goldin expanded into the first novel, and then Goldin wrote another 9 novels in a long story arc. But Smith is the famous one, so his name appears in large letters everywhere and Goldin is barely mentioned.

The setting is a universe where a Russian Feudal system has somehow become the dominant mode of government and of the language, so we see Russian words sprinkled throughout the conversations. Humanity has spread to a number of planets with varying characteristics. One of these is DesPlaines, a high gravity planet whose inhabitants have adapted by becoming shorter and stockier, and which has developed a unique attraction, The Circus of the Galaxy. What people don't know is that this circus is also a key part of the secret service SOTE, the Service Of The Empire. This allows for an interesting twist for space opera, a series where the heroes do not have secret weapons or super powers, merely acrobatic training.

Purity is a planet settled by fundamentalist religious groups, who seem to compete to see who can suffer the most, and the planet is perfect for suffering being cold and miserable. But now they are creating an army to take their ideas to the rest of the galaxy and purify everyone else. But are they doing this on their own, or is this part of the plot from Lady A.? The book is fast-paced and a good combination of space opera with spy thriller. But since this a 10-novel story arc, each novel builds on what went before, so do not read them out of order.

[James]

THE STAR CRUSADERSThe planet Purity was settled by religious crackpots who believed that luxuries like heated buildings were the work of Satan. A three-G rock pile with a nine-month winter, Purity was the ideal place for a life of righteous suffering.But when the Puritans started building an illegal army for their crusade to "save" the rest of the galaxy -- it was time for the Family d'Alembert to step in. Their blasters were ready to offer the medieval musketeers of Purity some genuine "hell-fire" preaching!

[Frank Carver]

I have enjoyed the previous books in this series, but I found this one a bit harder to stick with. There are two separate storylines, each involving two of the four main characters of the series at this point. However, these storylines rarely interact, and might as well be two separate books for most of the story. The writing flips randomly back and forth between the storylines making it hard to keep up immersion and momentum.

[Derek]

Ugh. What little remains of Smith's influence is solely in the compulsively scientific description of three planetary gravities as an "accelleration".

Dynamically plotted but shallowly characterized, with a dull planetary culture.

[ricky]

Very good

More adventures of the d'Alembert family as they try to find out more about the conspiracy against the galactic empire.