O Cavaleiro Negro

Lord Tedric #3

by E.E. "Doc" Smith, José Lourenço Galego (Tradução)

Enviado numa missão de espionagem pelo Corpo dos Cem, Lorde Tedric junta-se ao grupo Fra Villion, o mais poderoso e diabólico pirata da história, ladrão de planetas, assassino de centenas de milhares de humanos e sub-humanos.
Acompanhado por dois homens sedentos de vingança e um imperador deposto, Tedric enfrenta um desafio duplo: aniquilar os Biónicos, a tirânica raça de super-homens a que pertencia Villion, e proteger a Terra da sua mortífera arma, o terrível Desintegrador de Matéria, que pode destruir o mundo.
Trata-se de mais uma movimentada odisseia de Lorde Tedric - as aventuras cheias de acção com todo o suspense, escritas pelo mestre E.E. "Doc" Smith.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Fantasy

127 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1981

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

[Andrew Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are good writers and there are bad writers. But what can say about a writer who can write a book from the grave?

Picked my copy up from a second hand bookstore. Only later did I discover the book was not written by Doc Smith, despite the claims on the cover. Apparently he wrote the original novelette. Gordon Erklund wrote the series. As I am reading the series out of sequence, I missed this important tidbit.

As for the book itself. It is what it is. Mildly entertaining pulp fiction that can be read in a day. After recently wading through 800 pages of Dan Simmons self indulgence, I am not yet ready to plunge into something more substantial.

This filled my Sunday. It’s better than going to church.

[Tom · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've had a bit of fun with the previous two Tedric books, but this one was a snooze. It's an obvious Star Wars rip off, mixing and matching scenes and characters from A New Hope in a slightly different order and a slightly different perspective. It exudes a general low-effort feeling. How else would one explain that the villain's name is Villion? The novelty of recognizing specific shots and sequences from Star Wars wears off after a while, and then there just remains the drudgery of limping to the end of the book.

[Derek · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got what I expected, which was something unoriginal and workmanlike. Eklund scams a number of ideas from better books and does nothing remarkable with them: a collapsing, decadent Earth empire whose spirit was broken by a lost war with aliens; a planet-destroying spherical super space station (the back cover even uses the world "deathstar" and dialog in the story stops just short of saying "that's no moon"); a hero taken from his native (fantasy?) universe to assist in the conflict here; and an overarching conflict between two groups of mysterious metaphysical opponents, one good and the other evil.

Of these, the crumbling Earth empire is the one I'd run with, but the author fails to impart any flavor to the concept. The Iron Sphere and its super-weapon only appear late in the game and even then never make much of an impression. The hero's strange history is mentioned now and then but nothing is made of it. And finally the war of good versus evil has been done better by "Doc" Smith himself.

I would be curious to see what sort of notes spawned this series.

[AndrewP · Rating 2 out of 5]

The 3rd Lord Tedric book. Started by E.E. Doc Smith and finished by Gordon Eklund.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Classic SF in the old school