Triplanetary

Lensman Series

By: E. E. Doc Smith

Narrated by: Reed McColm

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

From the atomic age in Atlantis to a world remote in space and time, two incredible ancient races, the Arisians and the Eddorians, are in the midst of an interstellar war - with Earth as the prize.

Hi-fi sci-fi: listen to more in the Lensman series.

©2006 Books in Motion. This recording is produced by arrangement with The Estate of E. E. "Doc" Smith and Virginia Kidd, Inc. (P)2006 Books in Motion. This recording is produced by arrangement with The Estate of E. E. "Doc" Smith and Virginia Kidd, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The most towering figure in science fiction, thanks to the enormous scope of his novels." (Isaac Asimov)
"If you wish to understand the roots of modern science fiction, you have to read the Lensman saga." (Allen Steele)
"A finalist for a special Hugo Award for All-Time Best Series, 'Lensman' is considered by many sf heads to be the greatest of the space operas and clearly a source for such successors as Star Trek and Star Wars." ( Library Journal)

One of my favorite books.

The reader was not great with alternate voices which made it a bit difficult to get into. But great space opera beginning.

A great old favorite by E. E. (Doc) Smith

One of my oldest and dearest favorite Space Operas. The start of the Lensman Series!

Read it to your kids; the epic tale before Star Wars and other newcomers.

Slow burner

Starts out slow but picks up in the middle until the end. If you don’t look too closely at the details it’s an interesting story and you can see several influences to the emerging sci-fi genre. Several future technologies are also eerily accurate: wireless data transmission, beyond mere voice, retinal scanners, fingerprint spoofing, power armor, nuclear missiles unknown when this was written in the 40s and more.

Triplanetary odd orbit

A classic In science fiction.

Now listening to this some 60 to 70 years after it was originally written I would call this retro science fiction. It starts off slow and a little bit disjointed. This may have been because it was originally serialized for a magazine.

Another aspect that creeps into the story is the prevailing political climate of the time.

The narrator was a bit stiff also.

Fantastic Science Fiction story

What did you love best about Triplanetary?

Squeaky clean, upright, honorable heroes and really evil bad guys.
Excellent space battles, puts you right in the action.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Triplanetary?

The brilliance of Conway Costigan, fighting skills, and the Service's trinkets!

Have you listened to any of Reed McColm’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Reed is an excellent reader! No monotone here; you can hear the feelings of the characters.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Any moment when the hero acted or did just like any of us would love to have done.

Old Time Sci Fi at It's Best

The book is the grandfather of all space operas. It's story that takes place over 2 billion years and has every you could want from and old time Sci Fi yarn.

It has bug eyes aliens, Ultra weapons, Ether shields and plenty of battles.

The story is a little unwieldy in spots, and takes a little preserverance, but is well worth it.

Fascinating but flawed.

Very dated.
Spoiler:
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And I get that but a little light genocide to rescue your girlfriend is a low point in Science Fiction.

Not the best recording or book

There is no rhyme or reason to the audio chapter breaks. They have nothing to do with the actual chapter breaks.

There are numerous instances where you can hear the narrator almost get a line right, as if they just couldn’t stand another take and this was deemed close enough.

As for the story, well, it’s a sci-fi classic. Prone to all the foibles that one expects from golden age sci-fi. If you’re ok with that, it’s merely average. If you’re not, it reads like an admission that the author never met a woman, let alone had a relationship with one. That is normal for the genre and time but this one felt particularly egregious to me.

What I can say of the book is that it was interesting enough that it’s flaws didn’t make me vow to never touch another Smith book again. But I can’t say I liked it either. It’s not just the characters that are cardboard cutouts (that’s expected). The plots and tension feel pretty one dimensional as well.

It may simply be that I am coming to this book after reading many books based on it but it felt clunky and wooden and significantly difficult to care about anyone. If it hadn’t been an audiobook, I doubt I would have finished it.

Lensman Series is Still Fun

Okay. The narrator of this series is not the best. Nevertheless, this story still works if you can get past some of writing (the "look of eagles" in the eyes of Lensmen for instance). If you've never dipped into these before, get Galactic patrol, Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensmen and Children of the Lens in that order. If you are still hooked, go back and pick up First lensman. You have to be a real diehard lensmen fan to slug through Triplanetary.

This is classic space opera, good versus evil, with the guys in the white hats destined to win. Smith wasn't very good at envisioning future technology, but he comes up with some fun ideas. The inertialess drive is an interesting solution to FSL travel and the negasphere is one of the best Sci_Fi weapons ever imagined. His aliens are fun too, especially the frigid planet dwellers. Considering that the series was started in the late 30s, it holds up amazingly well.

excellent

read it almost 30 yrs ago was great being able to sit back and listen