The Skylark of Space: Skylark Series #1

Yes, This whole series is classic space opera - Marvelous new invention, impetuous brilliant hero, lovely virginal artistic stalwart but in need of rescuing maiden, wise counterbalalncing friend/sidekick, strange worlds, enemy who matches the hero and a Save the Galaxy from the supervillain to pull them together in uneasy harness..
This is not sensitive fiction (and earthly racism is implied - no black characters and a Japanese servant) , our heroes kick butt instead of "reasoning together" (or at least threaten to and mean it), And feel it necessary to destroy the evil race root and branch.
I've known the series since teenage hood (Boy does that date me - and must admit that I learned a lot of vocabulary from his love of adjectives and synonyms), and whatever the faults of his ideology by modern day bleeding heartism, he can tell a story and keep you enthralled.
The reader works well (though like most readers, voices of the opposite sex can be unrealistic) - but he tends to make most of the villains sound like the nasally, sneering Snidely Whiplash, even the ones specifically described as "deep bass". On the other hand, what I found hard to read again (yes, I still have my childhood copies), he made fun to listen to.
The science of course is totally whacko - at least at our current level of knowledge - but I'll keep enjoying this series .

Skylark of Space is not sophisticated or overly thoughtful, but it is enjoyable. The narrator does a good job with the different voices so that it is easy to tell who is talking, and his pacing fits the action very well. I was listening to this book towards the end of the presidential election, and it was a very good escape from all the political babble on the radio.

The characters's personalities where far too idealized. They are so much of a stereotype they seemed to lose their humanism. Also the relativistic effects where total ignored.

Doubtful

All the characters as performed where great.

It started strong. It was deep into the science. The writer has a strong engineering background which I loved.

I maybe too hard on the writer. Einsteins space/time concepts where new at the time this book was written and maybe I should give the author a break, but combine this with overly stereotypical characters just left me with a negative feeling.

Great Book But where are chapters 1 through 4? Story was intense. Doc Smith is in the league with Jules Verne.

I've always liked the story, it's fun. It helped define Space Opera.

What I didn't like was being told it was an Unabridged version, and then when I compare it to the Kindle version, find bug chunks of text missing.

A good performance, captured the feel of the times quite well.

Yes.

It's Abriged, not unabridged as advertised.

As the opening paragraphs came to a close i was transported back to my youth when i first read this series. Its great for nostalgia, but the writing and the concepts really show how off the mark people can be. Having said that, these series are the origins of space opera and so is a direct antecedent of Starwars. So listen and here where all that came from

Suspend your Disbelief and enjoy the ride

Triplanetary - both have the same themes - the striving of a select body of incoruptible men to overcome evil and establish a new world order.

Yes - have taken in Read's work on both the SKylark and Lensmen series. As the launch point of the classic Skylark series Read does a phenomenal job bringing depth to a story that is dated in its portrayal of women and humans relative to others...but I love the punch Read's presentation does to revitalize the story. Makes me want to update this series.

I particularly enjoyed the travails of DOrothy Vaneman after being abducted by Duquesne.

Lots of Fun