| Revision as of 19:18, 4 November 2006 edit205.188.117.74 (talk) →Unresolved plot elements: More on Lens gender incompatability -- non-human species. ~~~~Doc W← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 21:28, 15 December 2024 edit undoMstemper (talk | contribs)23 edits Smith spelled "Clarrissa" with two r's, and never said that the girls were fraternal twins | ||
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| {{Short description|1948–54 series of science-fiction novels by E. E. "Doc" Smith}} | |||
| The '''Lensman series''' is a serial ] ] by ]. The series is significant because it was the first set of science fiction novels conceived as a series. | |||
| {{Other uses|Lensman (disambiguation)}} | |||
| {{Infobox book series | |||
| | name = ''Lensman'' | |||
| | books = {{plainlist| | |||
| * '']'' (1948) | |||
| * '']'' (1950) | |||
| * '']'' (1950) | |||
| * '']'' (1951) | |||
| * '']'' (1953) | |||
| * '']'' (1954) | |||
| }} | |||
| | image = Triplanetary.jpg | |||
| | image_caption = Dust jacket from the first edition | |||
| | author = ] | |||
| | country = United States | |||
| | language = English | |||
| | genre = ] | |||
| | publisher = ] | |||
| | pub_date = | |||
| | media_type = Print (] and ])<br />] | |||
| }} | |||
| The '''''Lensman'' series''' is a series of ] novels by American author ]. It was a runner-up for the 1966 ] for Best All-Time Series, losing to the ] by ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Hugo1966.html |title=1966 Hugo Awards|access-date=March 18, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070224034626/http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Hugo1966.html |archive-date=February 24, 2007}}</ref> | |||
| It was also the original source which introduced many innovative concepts into science fiction, and a variety of ideas newly introduced in the series later were taken and used to solve non-fictional problems. In this sense the series was ground-breaking and defined an entire genre. | |||
| == |
==Plot== | ||
| {{Main|Triplanetary (novel)#Plot synopsis|First Lensman#Plot synopsis|Galactic Patrol (novel)#Plot synopsis|Grey Lensman#Plot synopsis|Second Stage Lensmen#Plot synopsis|Children of the Lens (novel)#Plot synopsis}} | |||
| ] ] edition of ''Triplanetary'']] | |||
| The series begins with ''Triplanetary'', beginning two billion years before the present time and continuing into the near future. The universe has no life-forms aside from the ancient Arisians, and few planets besides the Arisians' native world. The peaceful Arisians have foregone physical skills in order to develop ] mental power. The underlying assumption for this series, based on theories of ] extant at the time of the books' writing, is that planets form only rarely, and therefore our First and Second Galaxies, with their many billions of planets, are unique. | |||
| The ultimate expression of the "super-science" sub-genre of science fiction, the ''Lensman'' series was so innovative and successful at the time of its first publication that it was widely imitated, setting the themes followed by most of what later became known as the "space opera" sub-genre. As a result, to a modern reader it may seem rather dated or ]d. The modern reader may also feel that it is filled with ] and ] stereotypes. The series' prose style has also been described as "overly ornate" by modern readers unused to the old ] style. | |||
| The Eddorians, a dictatorial, power-hungry race, come into our universe from an alien ] after observing that our galaxy and a sister galaxy (the Second Galaxy) are passing through each other. This will result in the formation of billions of planets and the development of life upon some of them. Dominance over these life forms would offer the Eddorians an opportunity to satisfy their lust for power and control. | |||
| However, Dr. Smith wrote most of his best work between ] and ], well before the ] and ] movements of the ]. He portrays powerful intelligent women, operating in traditional roles, rather than hackneyed ]. Minorities in his stories are not discriminated against, but rather are "out of sight and out of mind." He describes alien races sympathetically, by the standards of the ], ] and ], showing that true camaraderie is independent of species, shape and metabolism. Finally, despite its faults, the reader cannot help but notice the evident enthusiasm and enjoyment which Smith had for his subject matter. | |||
| Although the Eddorians have developed mental powers almost equal to those of the Arisians, they rely instead for the most part on physical power, which has come to be exercised on their behalf by a hierarchy of underling races. They see the many races in the universe, with which the Arisians were intending to build a peaceful civilization, as fodder for their power drive. | |||
| It is worth noting as well that Smith himself parodies the worst examples of the genre in the series, as one of the characters temporarily adopts the identity of a writer in order to disguise himself and produces a novel (later acclaimed as one of that writer's "best") featuring "Qodgap the Mercotan." | |||
| The Arisians detect the Eddorians' invasion of our universe and realize that the two races are too evenly matched for either to destroy the other without being destroyed themselves. The Eddorians do not detect the Arisians, who begin a covert breeding program on every world that can produce intelligent life, with particular emphasis on the four planets: Earth (Tellus), Velantia III, Rigel IV, and Palain VII, in the hope of creating a race that is capable of destroying the Eddorians. | |||
| The complete series of books, in sequence, consists of: | |||
| ''Triplanetary'' incorporates the early history of that ] on Earth, illustrated with the lives of several warriors and soldiers, from ancient times to the discovery of the first interstellar space drive. It adds an additional short novel (originally published with the ''Triplanetary'' name) which is transitional to the novel ''First Lensman''. It details some of the interactions and natures of two distinct breeding lines, one bearing some variant of the name "Kinnison", and another distinguished by possessing "red-bronze-auburn hair and gold-flecked, tawny eyes". The two lines do not co-mingle until the Arisian breeding plan brings them together. | |||
| :#''Triplanetary'' | |||
| :#''First Lensman'' | |||
| :#''Galactic Patrol'' | |||
| :#''Gray Lensman'' | |||
| :#''Second-Stage Lensmen'' | |||
| :#''Children of the Lens'' | |||
| ] | |||
| Originally the series consisted of the final four novels published between ] and ] in the magazine '']'' . However, in ], at the suggestion of Lloyd Arthur Eshbach (publisher of the original editions of the ''Lensman'' books as part of the Fantasy Press imprint), Smith rewrote his ] story ''Triplanetary'', originally published in '']'', to fit in with the ''Lensman'' series. ''First Lensman'' was written in ] to act as a link between ''Triplanetary'' and ''Galactic Patrol'' and finally, in the years up to ], Smith revised the rest of the series to make it internally consistent with the new additions for book publication. | |||
| The second book, ''First Lensman'', concerns the early formation of the ] and the first Lens, given to First Lensman Virgil Samms of "Tellus" (Earth). Samms and Roderick Kinnison are members of the two breeding lines and they are both natural leaders, intelligent, forceful, and capable. The Arisians make it known that, if, Samms, the head of the Triplanetary Service, visits the Arisian planetary system he will be given the tool he needs to build the Galactic Patrol. That tool is the ''Lens''. The Arisians further promise him that no entity unworthy of the Lens will ever be permitted to wear it, but that he and his successors will have to discover for themselves most of its abilities. | |||
| Using the same fictional universe, but not as part of the series, he also wrote the ''Vortex Blaster'' stories, including "Storm Cloud on Deka" and "The Vortex Blaster Makes War" for '']'' in ]. These stories and later additions were collected and published by ] as ''The Vortex Blaster'' in ] and later reprinted by ] as ''Masters of the Vortex'' in ]. | |||
| The Lens gives its wearer a variety of mental capabilities, including those needed to enforce the law on alien planets, and to bridge the communication gap between different life-forms. It can provide mind-reading and ] abilities. It cannot be worn by anyone other than its owner, will kill any other wearer, and even a brief touch is extremely painful. | |||
| To avoid plot spoilers, it is recommended the series be read in order of publication: ''Galactic Patrol'', ''Gray Lensman'', ''Second Stage Lensmen'', ''Children of the Lens'', ''Triplanetary'', ''First Lensman''. The foreword Smith added to each also contains plot spoilers and it is recommended readers skip those until after reading ''Children of the Lens''. | |||
| Using the Lens as a means to test mental qualities and identify individuals able to help him, Virgil Samms visits races and species in other star systems, recruiting the best of them and forming the nucleus of a Galactic Patrol. Their opponents are discovered to be a widespread civilization based on dominance hierarchies and using organized crime to assume control of new planets. | |||
| The ''Vortex Blaster'' stories contain no plot ], so may be read at any point after ''Gray Lensman''. However, it references "the fall of the Council of Boskone” and the Phillips Regenerative Process (Ch. 4), which would place it between ''Second-Stage Lensman'' and ''Children of the Lens'', and before Kyle’s ''Second-Stage Lensman'' series. | |||
| The series contains some of the largest-scale space battles ever written. Entire worlds are almost casually destroyed. Huge fleets of spaceships fight bloody wars of attrition. Alien races of two galaxies sort themselves into the allied, Lens-bearing adherents of "Civilization" and the enemy "Boskone". | |||
| On July 14, ], Smith gave written permission to ] to continue the ''Lensman'' series, which led to the publishing of ''New Lensman'' in ]. Many consider Ellern's work unequal to Smith's, but he took care to remain within the boundaries of Smith's series. | |||
| Centuries pass, and eventually the final generations of the breeding program are born. On each of the four "best" planets, a single individual realizes the limits of his Arisian training and perceives the need to return to seek "second stage" training, which, it is later shown, to include the ability to slay by mental force alone; a "sense of perception" which allows seeing by direct awareness without the use of the visual sense; the ability to control minds undetectably, including the ability to alter memories untraceably; the ability to perfectly split attention in order to perform multiple tasks with simultaneous focus on each; and the ability to better integrate their minds for superior thinking. | |||
| Three additional ''Lensmen'' novels that feature the alien Second-Stage Lensmen (the ''Second-Stage Lensman Trilogy'') were written by David A. Kyle and published in paperback between 1980 and 1983: | |||
| As the breeding program nears its conclusion, humans are selected as the best choice; at the same time, the breeding programs of the other three planets are terminated, and their penultimates never meet their planned mates. Kimball Kinnison meets and marries the product of the complementary human breeding program, Clarrissa MacDougall. She is a beautiful, curvaceous, red-haired nurse, who eventually becomes the first human female to receive her own Lens. Their children, a boy and two pairs of ] sisters, grow up to be the five Children of the Lens. In their breeding, "almost every strain of weakness in humanity is finally removed". They are born already possessing the powers taught to second-stage Lensmen. They are the only beings of Civilization ever to see Arisia as it truly is, and the only individuals developed over all the existence of billions of years able finally to penetrate the Eddorians' defense screens. | |||
| :*''The Dragon Lensman'' (Worsel, the legendary Velantian dragon) | |||
| :*''Lensman from Rigel'' (Tregonsee, the enigmatic alien from the system of the blue star Rigel) | |||
| :*''Z-Lensman'' (Nadreck the Palainian, strangest of the three non-human Second Stage Lensmen) | |||
| :*A fourth novel, which was to have told the story of the Red Lensman, was discussed, but never completed. | |||
| After undergoing advanced training, they are described as "third-stage" Lensmen, transcending humanity with mental scope and perceptions impossible for any normal person. Although newly adult, they are now expected to be more competent than the Arisians and to develop their own techniques and abilities "about which we know nothing". | |||
| The events in these books take place between ''Second-Stage Lensmen'' and ''Children of the Lens,'' and reference events and characters in ''Vortex Blaster''. | |||
| The key discovery comes when they try mind-merging. They discover they can merge their minds to effectively form one mental entity called ''the Unit''. The Arisians describe this as the "most nearly perfect creation the universe has ever seen" and state that they, who created it, are themselves almost entirely ignorant of its powers. | |||
| Kyle was a close friend and confidant of Smith, and (with the approval of Smith's daughter, Verna Trestrail) intended his novels to evoke the original series. However, Kyle's writing style is quite different, and his books stray well outside the limits Smith set, such as sentient digital computers in ''The Dragon Lensman'' and female Lensmen. | |||
| The Children of the Lens, together with the mental power of unknown millions of Lensmen of the Galactic Patrol, constitute the Arisians' intended means to destroy the Eddorians and make the universe safe for Civilization. The Galactic Patrol, summoned to work together in this way for the first time, contains billions of beings who in total can generate immense mental force. The Arisians add their own tremendous mental force to this. The Unit focuses the accumulated power onto one tiny point of the Eddorians' shields. The Eddorian shields are destroyed along with the Eddorian High Council. It is stated that this was the only thing the Arisians could not have done by themselves, but without its accomplishment the Eddorians would have eventually turned the tide and beaten the Arisians. | |||
| In ], an ] movie titled ''SF New Age Lensman'' (SF新世紀レンズマン, ''SF Shinseiki Renzuman'') was released in ]. It was released in ] by ] in ]. The movie is not faithful to the series, with nearly the only points of similarity being the names of some of the characters, the generic "Good vs. Evil" struggle and outer space setting, and the Lens itself which posesses characteristics distinctly different from those given for it in the novels. | |||
| The Arisians remove themselves from the Cosmos in order to leave the Children of the Lens uninhibited in their future as the new guardians of Civilization. | |||
| ==Other appearances== | |||
| In the ] universe, the ] bears many parallels to the Lensmen, although its principal creators deny any connection (later creators, however, would introduce Green Lanterns named Arisia and Eddore as an homage). The original computer graphics game ] was inspired by the ''Lensman'' series. Comparisons have also been made between the Arisians and Eddorians of Smith's universe with both George Lucas's ] galaxy (an early draft of the Star Wars script refers to the light side of ] as "Arisian") and the ] and ] of ]. The ] role-playing game includes a source book describing how to conduct a role-playing campaign set in the ''Lensman'' universe. | |||
| ==Publication history== | |||
| There is also a Japanese ] TV series and movie, ''Lensman''. Although this was produced with the knowledge and consent of Smith's estate, they were so displeased with the result that for several years they rejected any other suggestions of adaptation. With Smith's knowledge the parody '']'' was written by ] in ]. Garrett also referred to the ''Lensmen'' in his '']'' stories, in which similar lenses are the badges of the King's Messengers, invented by the wizard Sir Edward Elmer (a reference to Smith himself). | |||
| {{For|a history of the conception of the ''Lensman'' series|E. E. Smith#The Lensman series}} | |||
| Originally, the series consisted of the four novels ''Galactic Patrol'', ''Gray Lensman'', ''Second Stage Lensmen'', and ''Children of the Lens'', published between 1937 and 1948 in the magazine '']''.<ref name="Sanders1986">{{cite book|last1=Sanders|first1=Joe|title=E.E. "Doc" Smith|date=1986|publisher=]|location=San Bernardino, California|isbn=9780893709518|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k94vCT2-5tgC&pg=PA91}}</ref>{{Reference page|40}} In 1948, at the suggestion of ] (publisher of the original editions of the ''Lensman'' books as part of the Fantasy Press imprint), Smith rewrote his 1934 story ''Triplanetary'' to fit in with the ''Lensman'' series. ''First Lensman'' was written in 1950 to act as a link between ''Triplanetary'' and ''Galactic Patrol'' and finally, in the years up to 1954, Smith revised the rest of the series to remove inconsistencies between the original Lensman chronology and ''Triplanetary''. | |||
| Except for the two prequel novels, the stories first appeared as serials in '']'', almost all of which were serialized under the editorship of ]. They were later collected and reworked into the better-known series of books. The complete series in narrative sequence with original publication dates is as follows. | |||
| In addition, the Lensmen appear in ]'s '']'' and ''The Cat Who Walks Through Walls'', which make reference to a "Lensman Ted Smith" who interacts directly with Heinlein characters such as ] and ]. | |||
| #'']'' (1948, originally published in four parts, January–April 1934, in '']'') | |||
| ==Plot synopsis== | |||
| #'']'' (1950, ]) | |||
| {{spoiler}} | |||
| #'']'' (1950, originally published in six parts, September 1937 – February 1938, in '']'') | |||
| #'']'' (1951, originally published in four parts, October 1939 – January 1940, '']'') | |||
| #'']'' (1953, originally published in four parts, November 1941 – February 1942, '']'') | |||
| #'']'' (1954, originally published in four parts, November 1947 – February 1948, '']'') | |||
| ;Side stories | |||
| The series opens in ''Triplanetary,'' two billion years before the present time. The universe has few life-forms, except for the elder race of our galaxy, the ''Arisians'', and few planets besides their native world. The Arisians, a peaceful race native to this universe, are already at this time ancient, and have forgone physical needs in preference for ] mental power which they have developed and refined to an exceedingly high degree. | |||
| :'']'' (1960, republished as ''Masters of the Vortex'' in 1968) | |||
| ==Sequels== | |||
| Into this universe, from an alien ], come the ''Eddorians'', a dictatorial power-hungry race. They have been attracted to this universe by the observation that our galaxy and a sister galaxy (later to be named Lundmark's Nebula) are passing through each other. According to an astronomical theory current at the time of writing (prior to the rehabilitation of the ]), this will result in the formation of billions of planets and the development of life upon them. Dominance over these life forms offers the Eddorians an opportunity to satisfy their lust for power. | |||
| Using the same fictional universe, but not concerning the central plot, Smith wrote the ''Vortex Blaster'' stories, including "Storm Cloud on Deka" (June 1942) and "The Vortex Blaster Makes War" (October 1942) for ''Comet Stories'', but the magazine closed after publishing ''Vortex Blaster'' (July 1941) and the rest were first published in '']''.<ref name="Sanders1986"/>{{Reference page|70}} These stories and later additions were collected and published by ] as '']'' in 1960 and later reprinted by ] as ''Masters of the Vortex'' in 1968. They are set in the time between ''Second Stage Lensman'' and ''Children of the Lens''. | |||
| In "Larger Than Life", a tribute to Smith written by ] and included in '']'', Heinlein writes: | |||
| The Eddorians have developed mental powers almost equal to those of the Arisians, but rely instead for the most part on physical power, exercised on their behalf by a hierarchy of underling races. They see the many races in the universe, with which the Arisians were intending to build a peaceful civilization, as fodder for their power-drive. | |||
| <blockquote>The Lensman was left unfinished. There was to have been at least a seventh volume. As always, Doc had worked it out in great detail, but never (so far as I know) wrote it down ... because it was unpublishable — then. But he told me the ending orally and in private. | |||
| I shan't repeat it; it is not my story. Possibly somewhere there is a manuscript — I ''hope'' so! All I will say is that the ending develops by inescapable logic from clues in ''Children of the Lens''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heinlein |first1=Robert A. |title=Expanded Universe, The New Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein |date=1980 |publisher=Ace Books |isbn=978-0441218837}}</ref></blockquote> | |||
| The Arisians, foreseeing the invasion of our universe by the Eddorians, begin a covert breeding program on every world that can produce intelligent life, with the aim of producing a means to eventually destroy the Eddorian race. This they cannot do by mental power alone, and they decide that much time is needed (during which Eddore must be kept ignorant of their plans), and new races must be developed which will better be able to breach the Eddorian's mental powers than they are. The new races, having done so, will naturally be superior guardians of civilization than they can be, and so their role in the universe will be ended. ''Triplanetary'' incorporates the early history of that breeding program on Earth, illustrated with the lives of several warriors and soldiers, from ancient times through to the discovery of the first interstellar space drive. It adds an additional short novel (originally published with the ''Triplanetary'' name) which is transitional to the novel ''First Lensman.'' | |||
| On July 14, 1965, Smith gave written permission to ] to continue the ''Lensman'' series, which led to the publishing of "Moon Prospector" in 1966, ''New Lensman'' in 1975, which contained "Moon Prospector", and ''Triplanetary Agent'' in 1978. | |||
| The second book, ''First Lensman,'' concerns the formation of the ], and the first Lens, given to First Lensman Virgil Samms on "Tellus" (Earth). The Arisians, through the scientist Bergenholm, make it known that if Samms, the head of the Triplanetary Service which administers law enforcement to Tellus, Mars, and Venus, visits their planetary system, he will be given the tool he needs to build the patrol he dreams of. That tool is the '''Lens'''. The Arisians further promise him that no entity unworthy of the Lens will ever be permitted to wear it, but that he will have to discover for himself most of its abilities. | |||
| Three additional ''Lensmen'' novels that feature the alien Second-Stage Lensmen, known as the ''Second-Stage Lensman Trilogy'', were written by ], published in paperback between 1980 and 1983 and reissued in 2004: | |||
| The Lens is a form of "pseudo-life," created by the Arisians who understand life and life-force in a way no other race yet does. It gives its wearer a variety of mental capabilities, including those needed to enforce the law on alien planets and to bridge the communication gap between different life forms. Thus it can provide mind-reading and telepathic abilities while connected (directly or indirectly) to the skin of its user. A mind-reading device, it allows its owner to perceive inner motives, to recognize lies, and to communicate perfectly in any language to any living being, however low its native intelligence may be. | |||
| :*''The Dragon Lensman'' (Worsel, the Velantian) | |||
| :*''Lensman from Rigel'' (Tregonsee, the Rigellian) | |||
| :*''Z-Lensman'' (Nadreck the Palainian) | |||
| :*A fourth novel, which was to have told the story of the Red Lensman, was discussed, but never completed.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} | |||
| The events in these books take place between ''Second-Stage Lensmen'' and ''Children of the Lens'' and refer to events and characters in ''Vortex Blaster''. | |||
| The Lens is described as an ellipsoidal assembly of small cloudy jewels, imbued with a shifting polychromatic light. It is "fitted" on Arisia, and cannot be worn by anyone other than its owner. In the event that an entity to whom the Lens is not fitted tries to wear one, the Lens' pseudo-life properties will interfere so strongly with the other being's life that it will quickly kill the being trying to wear it. Shortly after the owner's death, the lens ] and vanishes into nothingness. | |||
| ==Adaptations== | |||
| Thus equipped, Virgil Samms visits races in other star systems, recruiting the best of them to become Lensmen, thus making the Galactic Patrol truly galactic in scope. The Galactic Patrol, as it emerges, maintains a service academy on several planets. It accepts only the top few percent of applicants. Of millions of initial entrants, only a hundred or so at the top of a planet's graduating class are ever sent to Arisia. | |||
| ===''Lensman'' (1984 film)=== | |||
| {{Main|Lensman (1984 film)}} | |||
| {{nihongo|''Lensman: Secret of the Lens''|SF新世紀レンズマン|SF Shinseiki Renzuman}} is a 1984 Japanese animated film based on the Lensman novels. The movie is a loose adaptation of the series. It was dubbed by ] in 1988. This was re-dubbed by ] in 1990 with most of the same voice actors. | |||
| ===''Galactic Patrol Lensman''=== | |||
| The Arisians fit Lenses only to the most deserving of those individuals. The qualities required of Lensmen include intelligence, utter incorruptibility, a high drive to succeed, and the highest drive to fight evil. Others who try to obtain Lenses simply never return from Arisia. The Arisians otherwise maintain a highly distant profile and refuse to talk to other beings, stating that they have given civilization the tool it needs to bring about a good future, and that people should otherwise not have reason to contact them. | |||
| {{Main|Galactic Patrol Lensman}} | |||
| {{nihongo|''Galactic Patrol Lensman''|GALACTIC PATROL レンズマン}} is a Japanese ] television series based on the Lensman novels. The 25-episode series aired from October 6, 1984 to August 8, 1985 in Japan. | |||
| ===Comics=== | |||
| The first woman sent to Arisia is returned without a Lens, being told "Women's minds and Lenses don't fit. There's a sex-based incompatibility." She is also told only one woman will ever become a Lensman. | |||
| ====In Japan==== | |||
| Both the 1984 long-running theatrical animation and the animated TV series were adapted into ]. The movie's adaptation was created by Moribi Murano and divided into three volumes. The TV series adaptation by ] was serialized in '']'' and then reprinted in three ] pocket volumes.<ref></ref> No English translation of these two manga has been published so far. | |||
| ====Eternity Comics (1990–1991)==== | |||
| A significant ] is usurpation of normal political processes by Lensmen. The Lensmen are totally honest, honorable, uncompromising, and can read minds. Given the nature of the Lens and the Lensmen, dishonest politicians hate and fear them. | |||
| Initially, ]'s ''Lensman'' comics run consisted almost entirely of adaptations of the ''Lensman'' TV episodes, but they also began writing additional material. | |||
| * ''Lensman: The Secret of the Lens'' | |||
| : Six issues, written by Paul O'Conner, drawn by Tim Eldred, ink by Paul Young, cover art by ]. | |||
| * ''Lensman: War of the Galaxies'' | |||
| : Seven issues, written by Paul O'Conner and drawn and inks by Tim Eldred. | |||
| * ''Lensman: Galactic Patrol'' | |||
| :Five issues, written by Tim Eldred, drawn by Tim Eldred and inks by Paul Young and Ken Branch. | |||
| ===Film=== | |||
| The rest of the series is a series of revelations. Although initially believed to be mere interstellar pirates ("Boskonians") and criminals smuggling weapons and drugs ("Zwilniks"), the enemy prove to be organized into a rival civilization based on selfish and ruthless struggles for power. | |||
| In 2008, Ron Howard's ] and ] began negotiations with the author's estate for rights to film the Lensman series. The negotiations were for an 18-month renewable option.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=47233 |title=SCI FI Wire | The News Service of the SCI FI Channel | SCIFI.COM |date=2008-01-13 |access-date=2016-02-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080113140449/http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=47233 |archive-date=January 13, 2008}}</ref> At the WonderCon convention in San Francisco in February, ], the creator of '']'', confirmed that Howard had acquired the rights and also hinted that he was involved in the project.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=12669 |title=WonderCon: Spotlight on Straczynski |publisher=] |date=2008-02-24 |access-date=2016-02-28}}</ref> Although the work on the project began that June,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17719 |title=JMSNews |publisher=JMSNews |date=1994-08-19 |access-date=2016-02-28}}</ref> Straczynski later wrote in April 2014 that Universal had scrapped the project, citing excessive cost, and that the rights had reverted to the estate.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://features.slashdot.org/story/14/04/02/1310250/interviews-j-michael-straczynski-answers-your-questions |title=Interviews: J. Michael Straczynski Answers Your Questions - Slashdot |publisher=Features.slashdot.org |date=2014-04-02 |access-date=2016-02-28}}</ref> | |||
| ===Games=== | |||
| A continuing multigenerational war is required to trace the Boskonian leaders and subject races to ever-higher echelons of what Lensmen and their followers continue to call "Boskone." Other than the Arisians, only a few individuals will ever know the real nature of the war being covertly fought, and even then only a handful, the so-called "Children of the Lens," will ever eventually come to know of Eddore. | |||
| The series has been adapted into the board wargames '']'' and '']''. The first of these was designed by Philip N. Pritchard. | |||
| ''GURPS Lensman: Starkly Astounding Space-Opera Adventure'' for the ] roleplaying system was produced in 1993 by ]. | |||
| Centuries pass, and eventually the final generations of the breeding program are born. A single individual is born, on each of four planets, who realises the limits of his initial training, and perceives the need to return to Arisia to seek more. Through "second stage" training, these four Lensmen gain additional powers such as the ability to slay by mental force alone; the "sense of perception", similar to a superior version of the stereotypical "X-ray vision", an ability to "perceive" without light, through solid objects, and at great distances; to control minds undetectably; to perfectly split attention in order to perform multiple tasks with simultaneous focus on each; and to better integrate their minds for superior thinking. | |||
| ==Homages and parodies== | |||
| The series contains some of the largest-scale space battles ever written. Entire worlds are destroyed (''see "Super-Science Weapons", below''), whilst weapons are powerful enough to warp space itself. Huge fleets of spaceships fight bloody wars of attrition. Alien races of two galaxies sort themselves into the allied, Lens-bearing adherents of "Civilization" and the enemy races of "Boskone." | |||
| With Smith's knowledge, the parody "]" was written by ] in 1949. Garrett also referred to the Lenses in his '']'' stories, in which similar lenses are the badges of the King's Messengers, invented by the wizard "Sir Edward Elmer". | |||
| ] wrote the humorous and comprehensive parody '']'' in 1973.<ref name="Resnick2003">{{cite book|last1=Resnick|first1=Mike|title=Resnick at Large |date=2003|publisher=]|location=Holicong, PA|isbn=978-1-59224-160-6|page=71|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cP6-Zg9FP1cC&pg=PA71}}</ref> | |||
| As the breeding program reaches its ultimate conclusion, '''Kimball Kinnison''', the brown-haired, gray-eyed second-stage Lensman of Earth, finally marries the most advanced product of the complementary breeding program, '''Clarissa MacDougal''', a beautiful, curvaceous red-haired nurse, who eventually becomes the first human female to receive her own Lens. Their children, a boy and two pairs of twin sisters, grow up to be the five '''Children of the Lens'''. In their breeding, "almost every strain of weakness in humanity is finally removed." They are born already possessing the powers taught to second stage Lensmen, with mental abilities from birth hard to imagine. They are the only beings of Civilization ever to see Arisia as it truly is, and the only individuals developed over all the existence of billions of years able finally to penetrate the Eddorian's defense screens. | |||
| In the ] universe, the ] bears many parallels to the Lensmen, though the original editor (Julius Schwartz) denied any connection.<ref name="Denial">{{Cite news | last=Thomas | first=Roy | title=The Lensman Connection | periodical=Alter Ego | volume=3 | issue=#10 | year=2001 | page=24}}</ref> Later writers would add characters that directly referenced the Lensman series, such as the extraterrestrial Green Lanterns ] and ]. | |||
| Undergoing advanced training, they are described as "third stage" Lensmen, transcending humanity with mental scope and perceptions impossible for any normal person to begin to comprehend. Although newly adult, they are now expected to be more competent than the Arisians, and to develop their own techniques and abilities "about which we know nothing." The key discovery comes when they try mind-merging, which they have not tried since before their various third stage trainings, and discover that this is completely changed. No longer are they simply five beings in mental contact as before. Now they discover they can merge their minds into a ], to effectively form one mental entity, a being with incalculable abilities called '''The Unit'''. The Arisians call this the "most nearly perfect creation the universe has ever seen," and state that they, who created it, are themselves almost entirely ignorant of almost all its higher powers. | |||
| In Robert A. Heinlein's '']'', the protagonists encounter a Lensman. The novel's alternate version, '']'', has an extended version of the Lensman sequence. | |||
| The Children of the Lens, with the mental power of unknown billions of Lensmen of the Galactic Patrol (around a hundred a year from each planet, billions of planets, decades of graduates), turn out to constitute the Arisians' intended means to destroy Eddore and make the universe safe for their progeny species. The Galactic Patrol, summoned to work together in this way for the first time in its existence, contains billions of beings who in total can generate immense mental force. The Children of the Lens add not only their own immense mental force to this (as do the Arisians), but as The Unit gather and focus all this power onto one tiny point of the Eddorians' shields. Thus attacked with this incalculable strength and precision, the Eddorians' strongest shields are finally, after billions of years, destroyed, and the Eddorians with them. | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| The Arisians, with their child races successful and safe, remove themselves to "the next plane of existence" in order to leave the Children of the Lens uninhibited in their future as the new guardians of Civilization. Although to human eyes the Children of the Lens age and die, they in fact will live immense lifetimes (as the Arisians themselves did) and, it is foreseen, be successful in their role. | |||
| {{portal|Novels}} | |||
| * ] — a galaxy that may be the "Second Galaxy" mentioned in the series. | |||
| ==References== | |||
| ==Unresolved plot elements== | |||
| '''Notes''' | |||
| An unresolved plot element at the end of the series concerns the marriages of the Children of the Lens, as the young man and his sisters have not found anyone interesting. The Arisians have stated that "in time" they will find a suitable match, but imply that one already exists, as the five include four sisters and one brother. Some readers infer the possibility of an incestuous group-marriage between the young man and his four sisters, noting various hints at such an eventuality. It seems likely that Smith could not state this openly, given the strong censorship present in magazine fiction of the era. | |||
| {{Reflist}} | |||
| '''Further reading''' | |||
| The Arisians who engineered the breeding program tell the Children of the Lens that they form a successor race to the Arisians themselves as ''guardians of Civilization,'' and indicate that the Children will have descendants. This, too, is consistent with the Children of the Lens interbreeding. | |||
| * {{cite book | first=Sean | last=Barrett | date=1994 | title=GURPS Lensman | publisher=] | location=Austin | isbn=1-55634-283-7 | url=http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/Lensman/}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author=Ellik, Ron and Bill Evans | title=The Universes of E.E. Smith | location=Chicago | publisher=Advent:Publishers | date=1966 | isbn=0-911682-03-1}} | |||
| In addition, Smith is reported to have told ] at a ] that there were sufficient unresolved conflicts to write a seventh book, but that he did not think it could be published in the moral climate of the times. Despite strenuous searches of his effects, no trace of a seventh manuscript has been found, so a definitive answer to this question may never be known. | |||
| *{{cite book | first=Robert | last=Heinlein | date=1980 | title=Expanded Universe | publisher=] | location=New York | isbn=0-441-21888-1}} | |||
| The foreword and afterword of ''Children of the Lens'' make reference to a new threat to civilization of such scope as to necessitate the development, by the Children of the Lens or their descendants, of yet another replacement series of guardians. The time scale for this development is suggested to be sufficiently long that even the publicly-known details of the battles that destroyed Eddore and Eddorian civilization have faded from memory, and possibly that even the original Children, with their extended lifetimes, might have passed away. | |||
| The sex-based bias of the Lens is never fully explained, but the hints provided suggest that the genesis is at least something more than early 20th Century sexism. Smith seems to have believed that men and women were "equal, but different," and that the nurturing instinct of what would at the time be considered a mentally healthy woman was inconsistent with the duties of most Lensmen. This is the suggestion given Virgilia Samms when she goes to be fitted for a Lens; the fact also remains that she was a much more effective operative for the Triplanetary Service ''without'' a Lens. Not addressed is the issue whether this the sex-based bias extends to the non-human races of civilization; though the Palainian that Virgil Samms encounters on Pluto was not a "female" in the human sense, he thinks of her as "she" and believes that she would be qualified for a Lens if she cared to go to Arisia (which disinterest/fear might be the Palainian expression of the incompatibility). "Red" Lensman Clarissa MacDougall feared meeting the Arisians because they had become so mentally advanced that they had totally detached themselves from emotions, including anything like the emotion of Love. The fact that this difference might also be resolved in a sequel is suggested in the final chapter of ''Children of the Lens,'' styled "The Power of Love." | |||
| ==Planets and Places== | |||
| The Lensman series takes place over a vast sweep of space and upon many different worlds. These include the following: | |||
| * '''Aldebaran One''' -- Occupied by the ''Wheelmen'' (who are never stated to be a native species), this is the scene of Kimball Kinnison's first major injury requiring hospitalization, which leads to his meeting of Clarissa MacDougal. | |||
| * '''Aldebaran Two''' -- One of the first human-settled planets, scene of several of Kimball Kinnison's adventures. | |||
| * '''Arisia''' – One of the most ancient worlds of our universe, originally Earthlike, inhabited by the Arisian Elders. | |||
| * '''Chickladoria''' - A planet with a native humanoid species possessing pink skin pigmentation and triangular eyes. Frequent references to the fact that they considered clothing optional. | |||
| * '''Delgon''' (Velantia Two) - Located in the same system as Velantia, Delgon is home to the soul-devouring Overlords, bred by the Eddorian Gharlane to prey on the Velantians of Velantia Three. | |||
| * '''Eddore''' – A world inhabited by malevolent creatures from another space-time plenum. | |||
| * '''Jarnevon''' - A world in Lundmark's Nebula, home of the Eich and their infamous "Council of Boskone," the first Eddorian puppet state to penetrate the First Galaxy. Destroyed at the end of ''Gray Lensman'' by crushing between two free planets with opposite intrinsic velocities, inerted just prior to the points of impact. | |||
| * '''Kalonia''' - A Lundmark's Nebula planet with a humanoid native race marked by cut-steel-blue pigmentation. As hard as their pigmentation suggested, individually they were the most able executives under the sway of Eddore, and the agents of Boskone in the First Galaxy, though reporting to Boskone, were typically Kalonians despite its independent status as a center of Boskonian operations. Discovered by Kim and Christopher Kinnison during ''Children of the Lens,'' its conquest was alluded to but never chronicled. | |||
| * ''']''' - The first planet in Lundmark's Nebula to join Civilization. The heavily-fortified home of the Children of the Lens. | |||
| * '''Lundmark's Nebula''' - The "Second Galaxy," which collided with the "Milky Way" or "First Galaxy" 2 billion years ago, leading to the large populations of planets nurtured by Arisia and discovered by Eddore. Home of the Eddorians, the Ploorians, and the major races of their empire, including the Eich, the Thalians, and the Kalonians. ''Historical Note'': ] was an early 20th Century Swedish astronomer. Is is possible that Lundmark's Nebula is intended to refer to the ] Galaxy, though Lundmark made numerous other contributions to the study of other galaxies. | |||
| * '''Medon''' - Originally located in Lundmark's Nebula, Medon was moved to the First Galaxy by its technologically-advanced natives. | |||
| * '''Nevia''' - The amphibious Nevians invented the first crude inertia-less drives appearing in the series. They warred on the Triplanetary League, but eventually joined Civilization when they realized that humanity was as advanced as their own species. | |||
| * '''Nth Space''' - An alternate dimension, accessed by ], where all matter is ], moving faster than the speed of light. Ploor and Ploor's sun were destroyed by planets transported from Nth Space. | |||
| * '''Onlo''' (Thrallis Nine) - See Thrale below. | |||
| * '''Palain Seven''' – An extremely cold planet and home world of Second Stage Lensman Nadreck. Like all ulta-cold planets in Smith's cosmogony, the inhabitants require a metabolic extension "into the fourth dimension" in order to survive the liquid-helium temperatures of their planetary surface. Smith suggested, with little elaboration, a twelve-point scale used to describe intelligent (and possibly other) species; on this scale, humans were classified as "AAAAAAAAAAAA" and Palanians as "ZZZZZZZZZZZZ." It is stated that a Palanian colony had existed on Pluto for millenia before the events of ''First Lensman'', suggesting that the Palanians may have had the first inertialess drive in the First Galaxy. Within the Second Stage Lensmen, Nadreck's ultra-caution counterbalanced Kinnison's occasional near-recklessness, and it is suggested that, were the Palanians less cautious, their species rather than humanity would have given birth to the Third-Stage Lensmen. | |||
| * '''Ploor''' - The first-tier planet of Eddorian puppets and the only one with direct knowledge of the Eddorians. The leaders of Jarnevon, Kalonia, and Thrale were, unknown to the bulk of their populations or to most of Civilization, under the direct control of Ploor. The planet of a highly variable sun, the inhabitants of Ploor were forced to morph their bodies on a precise annual cycle, though none of their manifestations were even remotely human (their winter form was ZZZZ+, or nearly Palanian). The planet -- and its sun -- were destroyed by planet-sized projectiles from another dimension, with intrinsic velocity greater than the speed of light. | |||
| * '''Rigel Four''' – A superhot, high gravity world, Home of Second Stage Lensman Tregonsee. | |||
| * '''Tellus''' - or, ]. Home to the humans, including the Kinnison and Samms lines. | |||
| * '''Thrale''' (Thrallis Two) - The capital of the Boskonian '''Thrale-Onlonian Empire''', in Lundmark's Nebula. The inhabitants were "independently" evolved humans, like those of Klovia and many other worlds, ultimately traceable back to Arisian spores permeating space at the time of the Coalescence. | |||
| * '''Trenco''' – A planet where a major fraction of the atmosphere condenses each night and evaporates each day giving rise to exceptionally violent weather. The planet's plant life yields the illicit psychotropic ''thionite''. | |||
| * '''Valeria''' - A high-gravity planet where natural diamonds formed in great quantity, settled by Tellurian Dutchmen who developed intense strength in response to the natural stresses of their planet, making them ideal space marines. | |||
| * '''Velantia Three''' – Home of an intelligent, winged, reptilian species, of which Second Stage Lensman Worsel is a member. | |||
| ==Technology== | |||
| '''Hyper-spatial Tube:''' A "tunnel" through ], allowing galactic distances to be traversed in minutes, as well and allowing access to other universes. Objects and people from different starting places meeting each other in the tube pass through each other rather than interacting. The artificial, ultra-dense material "'''dureum'''" is an exception; it is therefore used to create objects and weapons capable of interacting with anything and anyone in a tube. Originally invented by the Eddorians and used for their explorations of other universes prior to their arrival in the Lensman universe, it was given to the Boskonian subject races, and eventually discovered and copied by the Patrol. | |||
| '''Inertialessness:''' {{Mergefrom|Bergenholm space drive|date=October 2006}}Spaceships are able to vastly exceed the ] by eliminating the ] of their mass. When the "]" (which does not actually provide propulsion) is turned on, the "free" (inertialess) ship instantaneously attains a velocity at which the force of the ship's propulsion jets is matched by ] of the medium through which it travels (such as widely scattered hydrogen molecules in the ]), avoiding the Einsteinian light-speed limit on normal (''inert'') matter, and so attaining a speed of about 90 ]s per hour. ] is even thinner, and the speed is about 100,000 parsecs per hour. | |||
| ] is maintained; when the intertialess drive generator is switched off, the spacecraft's original velocity is restored. If a ship has traveled a great distance, inert maneuvering will be required in order to match velocity relative to the local astronomical bodies. | |||
| "Inertialess drive" generators small enough for a single person are used by Galactic Patrol staff. Patrol members can travel downward within tall buildings by falling while inertialess. Some armored ]s have individual "inertialess drives" installed. | |||
| When the "inertialess drive" - also known as "Bergenholm" after its inventor - is switched off, the ship instantly regains its original inert velocity, so may have to spend some time matching velocity with a planet before landing. There are similar velocity-matching difficulties with ships docking in space, and in transferring "free" passengers from one ship to another. | |||
| The "inertialess drive" has advantages as a science-fictional device because, it is said, it cannot be demonstrated that removing inertia from mass is impossible. However, ] in his short story "ARM" suggests that a field reducing inertia in matter would in effect cause time to pass faster within the field, because with reduced inertia all movements are speeded up; in the Niven story this includes mechanical motion, movements of molecules (and thus metabolic processes) and even sub-atomic particles such as photons. ] describes similar consequences of partial neutralisation of inertia in "Redemption Ark", including ], increased heart rate (due to blood weighing less), and physical damage. In his universe, this places a practical limit of 5-10x on the reduction of inertia. However, this does depends on whether an “inertialess drive” ''actually'' removes inertia from all the objects within its sphere of influence, or whether it just ''appears'' to from the perspective of an external observer. | |||
| ] also used an inertialess drive in ''Methuselah's Children,'' where the device was compact enough to carry in an attache case; in his case, faster than light travel was not achieved, but the whole inertialess ship acted as a large ] and was propelled by light pressure to almost the speed of light. | |||
| '''Screens:''' Military spaceships are protected by several layers of defensive ] "screens", including the innermost and strongest "wall screen." Smaller vehicles and even spacesuits can carry screens of lesser power. | |||
| '''Spaceships:''' The smallest are called "speeders" or "flitters" and carry only the pilot, or a very small crew. They are generally used for scouting or covert missions. Larger military ships have designations equivalent to early twentieth century surface naval vessels: ]s, ]s, ]s (battleships), superdreadnaughts. Later in the series "maulers" are added; these are huge and very powerful, but slow moving. Slow moving ships are spherical; faster ones have teardrop shapes; the fastest of all are the "ultrafast" cigar-shaped speeders and later ('Dauntless'-class) superdreadnoughts. | |||
| '''Thought Screens:''' In a universe where many alien races have powerful ], and even ] is possible, thought screens can be a valuable asset. They are proof against penetration by even a second-stage Lensman's mind. The Children of the Lens are able to bypass or even, if necessary, penetrate any non-Eddorian thought screen, and in the final battle the Unit and the collected Lensmen achieve even that feat. | |||
| ''']:''' Vibrations in the "sub-ether," used for interstellar "radio" communications and detection. Ultra-wave travels at about 19 billion times the speed of light. The use dates from the time of the latter part of ''Triplanetary''. Sean Barrett, in GURPS Lensman, has suggested that ultra-waves form the basis for the so-called "] tubes" used in the series. | |||
| '''Power production:''' Prior to the extended version of the novella ''Triplanetary'' for book publication, no out-of-the-ordinary power technologies are described; however interplanetary travel with the ship sizes and capabilities inferred requires terawatt power sources, so we can infer some version of nuclear fission or fusion power. After the advent of the Nevians and through the rest of ''Triplanetary'', the primary power source for spaceships and planetary installations is the controlled matter-to-energy conversion of "allotropic iron", an allotrope of iron which appears to be a dense, viscous, red liquid. | |||
| By the time of ''First Lensman,'' allotropic iron is replaced by uranium in an undescribed fashion in the Bergenholm, and so it can be inferred that a total conversion engine based on uranium is used throughout that book. It is noted that power production generates radiation which can be detected by other ships at a considerable distance and cannot be perfectly screened. Stealth ships for covert missions can be fitted with large diesel generating sets, capable of powering the Bergenholm and providing limited drive power for short periods, so that the atomics can be shut down for sensitive parts of the mission. | |||
| Atomic power units appear to have a minimum feasible size which prevents their use on installations smaller than a spaceship. The Bergenholms and drivers fitted to personal space armour are powered by electrical ], which despite their portable size have capacities of many ''myriawatt-hours'' and whose charging load represents a significant drain on the power stations of a less technologically advanced planet such as Delgon. | |||
| By the time of ''Galactic Patrol'' and the later novels of the series, no further developments of power technology have been described, but the power systems capacities are clearly based on refinements of total conversation technology; early in ''Gray Lensman'', the ''Dauntless'' is described as using "30 pounds per hour" of power while inertialess and running at full thrust. Using <math>E=mc^2</math>, this works out to 400 trillion watts of power (or, in terms of its destructive potential, 100 ] TNT equivalent per second). With the advent of Medonian electrical systems following the penetration into the Second Galaxy, by the end of the series useable power on-board had been increased by another factor of a 1000. | |||
| Sometime prior to the start of ''Galactic Patrol'' the Boskonians had developed a method of using their on-board power systems as exciters to gather power from "cosmic energy" sources with an amplification factor of a million times the exciter power. The Galactic Patrol, capturing this technology during Kimball Kinnison's first major assignment, not only reverse engineered it for routine use, but also developed shields and screens to block enemy systems from drawing the power, and upgraded the power systems for their "Mauler" class of attack vessels to defeat systems reliant on cosmic energy collection. | |||
| '''Spaceship drive:''' The Bergenholm nullifies the inertia of a spaceship, but does not of itself provide any driving force. Driving projectors, or "jets", are reaction engines, using as reaction mass nascent fourth-order particles or corpuscles which are formed, inert, in the inertialess projector, by the conversion of some form of energy into matter. The process produces, as by-products, a certain amount of heat and a considerable amount of light. This light, shining through the highly tenuous gas formed of the ejected particles, produces a "flare" which makes a speeding spaceship one of the most beautiful spectacles known to man, but also makes it visually detectable at long range. Stealth ships therefore make use of "flare baffles" to prevent the escape of the light; the disadvantage is that because the waste energy cannot escape from the projector in the usual way it must be derated to prevent overheating, so baffles are only fitted when absolutely required. | |||
| '''Information processing:''' Computing technology as we understand it is practically unknown, being limited to ]s, ]s, and ]. A "computer" is not a calculating machine but an intelligent being performing calculations by brain power with the assistance of the abovementioned limited aids. Large concentrations of computing power, as required by the ] system of the ''Directrix'', are implemented using several thousand Rigellians, a naturally telepathic species, in mental communication with each other. | |||
| ==Weapons== | |||
| The science fiction sub-genre of "super-science" is nowhere more apparent in the ''Lensman'' series than in its (sometimes literally) world-shaking weapons, which deserve a category of their own. | |||
| '''Space-axe:''' Used against opponents protected by personal defensive screens and thus immune to blasters. A space-axe has an axe blade on one side and a needle-sharp spike on the other. Later their deadliness was augmented by being inlaid with, or even entirely composed of, ultra-dense '''dureum''' (see "Hyper-spatial Tube" above). | |||
| '''Blaster:''' While E.E. Smith wasn't the first to give ]s to his heroes and villains, the ''DeLameter'' may be the first pistol which not only kills someone, but atomizes him and reduces to smoking ruin the wall behind him! The aperture of the DeLameter can be opened to emit a wide and relatively weak cone of destruction, or narrowed to emit a pencil-thin and extremely intense beam. | |||
| The Lewiston was the standard blaster pistol in the earlier time of ''First Lensman''. | |||
| '''Semi-Portable:''' The ''Lensman'' universe equivalent of a heavy machine gun: A large beam weapon designed to be carried by more than one man, projecting a beam powerful enough to overcome personal defense screens (mounted on an individual's space armor), which cannot be penetrated by DeLameters or other hand blasters. Small enough to be used in a spaceship corridor, and held down with magnetic clamps. | |||
| '''Macro Beam:''' These ship-mounted beams can vaporize any matter in moments. Only screens can provide any defense. After the invention of primary beams, macro beams were referred to as "secondaries." | |||
| '''Primary Beam:''' These became the primary weaponry of the warships of space. A beam projector is so massively overloaded that it burns out almost instantly while emitting a beam much more intense than is otherwise possible. Invented as a dying act of desperation by a Boskonian vessel-- on which it killed each gun crew using the technique-- it was adapted in more controlled form by the Galactic Patrol, using highly-shielded primary projectors that were spent and ejected like massive shell-cases. The description sounds very similar to that proposed for nuclear-explosion pumped x-ray or gamma-ray lasers. | |||
| '''Duodec:''' In ''Galactic Patrol'', the superior screens of a Boskonian ship are overcome with the power of the atomic explosive ''duodecaplylatomate'', described as "the quintessence of atomic destruction", whose power is considerably greater than a nuclear explosion as produced by current real-world technology. However, its properties as regards handling and detonation appear more similar to those of a chemical explosive than to the complex detonation arrangements of a nuclear bomb. Duodec is also used by the Boskonians to self-destruct their bases to prevent capture, by Kinnison to destroy Menjo Bleeko's mining complex on Lonabar, and in many other situations calling for an extremely powerful explosive. | |||
| '''Allotropic iron torpedo:''' The primary power source for Nevian spaceships in ] is the controlled matter-to-energy conversion of "allotropic iron", an ] of iron which is a dense, viscous, red liquid. In conventional chemistry, allotropes are substances with the same atomic composition but different molecular arrangements. Thus, ] occurs in the allotropes ] and ]; however, these transformations are purely chemical, not nuclear. Smith's fictional ] can be made to undergo nuclear conversion as a power source, analogous to the nuclear conversion of the catalyzed copper fuel rods of ]. Allotropic iron can also be "sensitized" so as to undergo uncontrolled matter-to-energy conversion under a suitable stimulus, thus producing an extremely powerful explosive. A torpedo carrying a sensitized allotropic iron charge is detonated on Nevia in ''Triplanetary'' with devastating results. In later times duodec is the atomic explosive of choice, perhaps due to its apparent greater ease of handling. | |||
| '''Negasphere:''' A sphere of "negative matter" first created in ''Gray Lensman''. The negasphere is an expression of the original ] conception of ] by ] as a "hole" in space which has been evacuated of normal matter (this is of course a gross conceptual simplification of Dirac's ideas). It seems to act like the modern conception of antimatter in some respects; if brought into contact with normal matter mutual annihilation results, releasing an enormous flood of energy. But it differs from antimatter in that it absorbs light so that it is utterly black; and ] and pressor beams have reversed effects. Perhaps a negasphere is better described as having properties of both negative matter and ]. | |||
| '''Free Planet:''' An entire planet is rendered inertialess. If fitted with massive power plants and screens, it can be used as a mobile fortress with enough power to easily brush off attacks by mere spaceships. Or if properly positioned and inerted, it can be used to crush an enemy planet. | |||
| '''Nutcracker''': In ''Gray Lensman'', two "free planets" (see above) with opposing inert velocities were positioned on either side of an enemy planet. Simultaneously inerted, they crushed the other planet between them; such approach will crush even a "free" planet. | |||
| '''Sunbeam''': In ''Second Stage Lensman'', an entire solar system is converted to an ultrawave vacuum tube, with asteroids and planets as grids and plates, to focus nearly the entire output of the sun into a beam capable of melting the surface of a planet in seconds. Thus it is a defense against attack by "free" planets. | |||
| '''Nth Space Planet:''' The ultimate material weapon in the ''Lensman'' series, also called a super-nutcracker. In ''Children of the Lens'', an expedition travels to "Nth space," another space-time continuum where physical laws are different and all matter moves faster than the speed of light. There a planet is rendered "free" (see "Free Planet" above) and moved into our universe. The planet is moved close to an enemy planet and inerted. The result is so violent that Nth space planet launched against Ploor's sun makes it go ], still radiating the energy of 550 million ]s several years later. It was so powerful in fact that there was a theoretical possibility that as its mass would be "some higher order of infinity" that the entire universe would coalesce around it in zero time (rather like an instantaneous ]). Fortunately Mentor assured Kit Kinnison that "operators would come into effect to prevent such an occurrence", and that untoward events would be limited to a radius of ten or fifteen ]s. | |||
| ==References== | |||
| * {{cite book | first=Sean | last=Barrett | year=1994 | title=GURPS Lensman | publisher=Steve Jackson Games | location=Austin | id=ISBN 1-55634-283-7 | url=http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/Lensman/}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author=Ellik, Ron and Bill Evans | title=The Universes of E.E. Smith | location=Chicago | publisher=Advent:Publishers | year=1966 | id=ISBN 0-911682-0301}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author=Sanders, Joe | title=E.E. "Doc" Smith (Starmont Reader's Guide 24) | publisher=Starmont House | year=1986 | id=ISBN 0-916732-73-8}} | |||
| *{{cite book | first=Robert | last=Heinlein | authorlink= | coauthors= | year=1980 | title=Expanded Universe | edition= | publisher=Ace Books | location=New York | id=ISBN 0-441-21888-1 }} | |||
| ==External links== | ==External links== | ||
| * {{StandardEbooks | Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/collections/lensman}} | |||
| * | |||
| * {{Gutenberg book|no=32706|name=Triplanetary}} (first book of the ''Lensman'' series, rewritten from the pre-Lensman serial version) | |||
| * | |||
| * originally by "]" | |||
| * | |||
| * {{ISFDB series|id=602|title=Lensman}} | |||
| * Current publisher of the original E. E. Smith ''Lensman'' series, in facsimile reprints of the original ] editions | |||
| * Publisher of the "Second Stage Lensman" Trilogy by David A. Kyle | |||
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Latest revision as of 21:28, 15 December 2024
1948–54 series of science-fiction novels by E. E. "Doc" Smith For other uses, see Lensman (disambiguation). Dust jacket from the first edition | |
| |
| Author | Edward Elmer "Doc" Smith, Ph.D. |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Fantasy Press |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) Audiobook |
The Lensman series is a series of science fiction novels by American author E. E. "Doc" Smith. It was a runner-up for the 1966 Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series, losing to the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.
Plot
Main articles: Triplanetary (novel) § Plot synopsis, First Lensman § Plot synopsis, Galactic Patrol (novel) § Plot synopsis, Grey Lensman § Plot synopsis, Second Stage Lensmen § Plot synopsis, and Children of the Lens (novel) § Plot synopsisThe series begins with Triplanetary, beginning two billion years before the present time and continuing into the near future. The universe has no life-forms aside from the ancient Arisians, and few planets besides the Arisians' native world. The peaceful Arisians have foregone physical skills in order to develop contemplative mental power. The underlying assumption for this series, based on theories of stellar evolution extant at the time of the books' writing, is that planets form only rarely, and therefore our First and Second Galaxies, with their many billions of planets, are unique.
The Eddorians, a dictatorial, power-hungry race, come into our universe from an alien space-time continuum after observing that our galaxy and a sister galaxy (the Second Galaxy) are passing through each other. This will result in the formation of billions of planets and the development of life upon some of them. Dominance over these life forms would offer the Eddorians an opportunity to satisfy their lust for power and control.
Although the Eddorians have developed mental powers almost equal to those of the Arisians, they rely instead for the most part on physical power, which has come to be exercised on their behalf by a hierarchy of underling races. They see the many races in the universe, with which the Arisians were intending to build a peaceful civilization, as fodder for their power drive.
The Arisians detect the Eddorians' invasion of our universe and realize that the two races are too evenly matched for either to destroy the other without being destroyed themselves. The Eddorians do not detect the Arisians, who begin a covert breeding program on every world that can produce intelligent life, with particular emphasis on the four planets: Earth (Tellus), Velantia III, Rigel IV, and Palain VII, in the hope of creating a race that is capable of destroying the Eddorians.
Triplanetary incorporates the early history of that breeding program on Earth, illustrated with the lives of several warriors and soldiers, from ancient times to the discovery of the first interstellar space drive. It adds an additional short novel (originally published with the Triplanetary name) which is transitional to the novel First Lensman. It details some of the interactions and natures of two distinct breeding lines, one bearing some variant of the name "Kinnison", and another distinguished by possessing "red-bronze-auburn hair and gold-flecked, tawny eyes". The two lines do not co-mingle until the Arisian breeding plan brings them together.
The second book, First Lensman, concerns the early formation of the Galactic Patrol and the first Lens, given to First Lensman Virgil Samms of "Tellus" (Earth). Samms and Roderick Kinnison are members of the two breeding lines and they are both natural leaders, intelligent, forceful, and capable. The Arisians make it known that, if, Samms, the head of the Triplanetary Service, visits the Arisian planetary system he will be given the tool he needs to build the Galactic Patrol. That tool is the Lens. The Arisians further promise him that no entity unworthy of the Lens will ever be permitted to wear it, but that he and his successors will have to discover for themselves most of its abilities.
The Lens gives its wearer a variety of mental capabilities, including those needed to enforce the law on alien planets, and to bridge the communication gap between different life-forms. It can provide mind-reading and telepathic abilities. It cannot be worn by anyone other than its owner, will kill any other wearer, and even a brief touch is extremely painful.
Using the Lens as a means to test mental qualities and identify individuals able to help him, Virgil Samms visits races and species in other star systems, recruiting the best of them and forming the nucleus of a Galactic Patrol. Their opponents are discovered to be a widespread civilization based on dominance hierarchies and using organized crime to assume control of new planets.
The series contains some of the largest-scale space battles ever written. Entire worlds are almost casually destroyed. Huge fleets of spaceships fight bloody wars of attrition. Alien races of two galaxies sort themselves into the allied, Lens-bearing adherents of "Civilization" and the enemy "Boskone".
Centuries pass, and eventually the final generations of the breeding program are born. On each of the four "best" planets, a single individual realizes the limits of his Arisian training and perceives the need to return to seek "second stage" training, which, it is later shown, to include the ability to slay by mental force alone; a "sense of perception" which allows seeing by direct awareness without the use of the visual sense; the ability to control minds undetectably, including the ability to alter memories untraceably; the ability to perfectly split attention in order to perform multiple tasks with simultaneous focus on each; and the ability to better integrate their minds for superior thinking.
As the breeding program nears its conclusion, humans are selected as the best choice; at the same time, the breeding programs of the other three planets are terminated, and their penultimates never meet their planned mates. Kimball Kinnison meets and marries the product of the complementary human breeding program, Clarrissa MacDougall. She is a beautiful, curvaceous, red-haired nurse, who eventually becomes the first human female to receive her own Lens. Their children, a boy and two pairs of twin sisters, grow up to be the five Children of the Lens. In their breeding, "almost every strain of weakness in humanity is finally removed". They are born already possessing the powers taught to second-stage Lensmen. They are the only beings of Civilization ever to see Arisia as it truly is, and the only individuals developed over all the existence of billions of years able finally to penetrate the Eddorians' defense screens.
After undergoing advanced training, they are described as "third-stage" Lensmen, transcending humanity with mental scope and perceptions impossible for any normal person. Although newly adult, they are now expected to be more competent than the Arisians and to develop their own techniques and abilities "about which we know nothing".
The key discovery comes when they try mind-merging. They discover they can merge their minds to effectively form one mental entity called the Unit. The Arisians describe this as the "most nearly perfect creation the universe has ever seen" and state that they, who created it, are themselves almost entirely ignorant of its powers.
The Children of the Lens, together with the mental power of unknown millions of Lensmen of the Galactic Patrol, constitute the Arisians' intended means to destroy the Eddorians and make the universe safe for Civilization. The Galactic Patrol, summoned to work together in this way for the first time, contains billions of beings who in total can generate immense mental force. The Arisians add their own tremendous mental force to this. The Unit focuses the accumulated power onto one tiny point of the Eddorians' shields. The Eddorian shields are destroyed along with the Eddorian High Council. It is stated that this was the only thing the Arisians could not have done by themselves, but without its accomplishment the Eddorians would have eventually turned the tide and beaten the Arisians.
The Arisians remove themselves from the Cosmos in order to leave the Children of the Lens uninhibited in their future as the new guardians of Civilization.
Publication history
For a history of the conception of the Lensman series, see E. E. Smith § The Lensman series.Originally, the series consisted of the four novels Galactic Patrol, Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensmen, and Children of the Lens, published between 1937 and 1948 in the magazine Astounding Stories. In 1948, at the suggestion of Lloyd Arthur Eshbach (publisher of the original editions of the Lensman books as part of the Fantasy Press imprint), Smith rewrote his 1934 story Triplanetary to fit in with the Lensman series. First Lensman was written in 1950 to act as a link between Triplanetary and Galactic Patrol and finally, in the years up to 1954, Smith revised the rest of the series to remove inconsistencies between the original Lensman chronology and Triplanetary.
Except for the two prequel novels, the stories first appeared as serials in Astounding Science Fiction, almost all of which were serialized under the editorship of John W. Campbell. They were later collected and reworked into the better-known series of books. The complete series in narrative sequence with original publication dates is as follows.
- Triplanetary (1948, originally published in four parts, January–April 1934, in Amazing Stories)
- First Lensman (1950, Fantasy Press)
- Galactic Patrol (1950, originally published in six parts, September 1937 – February 1938, in Astounding Stories)
- Grey Lensman (1951, originally published in four parts, October 1939 – January 1940, Astounding Science Fiction)
- Second Stage Lensmen (1953, originally published in four parts, November 1941 – February 1942, Astounding Science Fiction)
- Children of the Lens (1954, originally published in four parts, November 1947 – February 1948, Astounding Science Fiction)
- Side stories
- The Vortex Blaster (1960, republished as Masters of the Vortex in 1968)
Sequels
Using the same fictional universe, but not concerning the central plot, Smith wrote the Vortex Blaster stories, including "Storm Cloud on Deka" (June 1942) and "The Vortex Blaster Makes War" (October 1942) for Comet Stories, but the magazine closed after publishing Vortex Blaster (July 1941) and the rest were first published in Astonishing Stories. These stories and later additions were collected and published by Gnome Press as The Vortex Blaster in 1960 and later reprinted by Pyramid Books as Masters of the Vortex in 1968. They are set in the time between Second Stage Lensman and Children of the Lens.
In "Larger Than Life", a tribute to Smith written by Robert A. Heinlein and included in Expanded Universe, Heinlein writes:
The Lensman was left unfinished. There was to have been at least a seventh volume. As always, Doc had worked it out in great detail, but never (so far as I know) wrote it down ... because it was unpublishable — then. But he told me the ending orally and in private. I shan't repeat it; it is not my story. Possibly somewhere there is a manuscript — I hope so! All I will say is that the ending develops by inescapable logic from clues in Children of the Lens.
On July 14, 1965, Smith gave written permission to William B. Ellern to continue the Lensman series, which led to the publishing of "Moon Prospector" in 1966, New Lensman in 1975, which contained "Moon Prospector", and Triplanetary Agent in 1978.
Three additional Lensmen novels that feature the alien Second-Stage Lensmen, known as the Second-Stage Lensman Trilogy, were written by David Kyle, published in paperback between 1980 and 1983 and reissued in 2004:
- The Dragon Lensman (Worsel, the Velantian)
- Lensman from Rigel (Tregonsee, the Rigellian)
- Z-Lensman (Nadreck the Palainian)
- A fourth novel, which was to have told the story of the Red Lensman, was discussed, but never completed.
The events in these books take place between Second-Stage Lensmen and Children of the Lens and refer to events and characters in Vortex Blaster.
Adaptations
Lensman (1984 film)
Main article: Lensman (1984 film)Lensman: Secret of the Lens (SF新世紀レンズマン, SF Shinseiki Renzuman) is a 1984 Japanese animated film based on the Lensman novels. The movie is a loose adaptation of the series. It was dubbed by Harmony Gold in 1988. This was re-dubbed by Streamline Pictures in 1990 with most of the same voice actors.
Galactic Patrol Lensman
Main article: Galactic Patrol LensmanGalactic Patrol Lensman (GALACTIC PATROL レンズマン) is a Japanese anime television series based on the Lensman novels. The 25-episode series aired from October 6, 1984 to August 8, 1985 in Japan.
Comics
In Japan
Both the 1984 long-running theatrical animation and the animated TV series were adapted into manga. The movie's adaptation was created by Moribi Murano and divided into three volumes. The TV series adaptation by Mitsuru Miura was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine and then reprinted in three tankōbon pocket volumes. No English translation of these two manga has been published so far.
Eternity Comics (1990–1991)
Initially, Eternity's Lensman comics run consisted almost entirely of adaptations of the Lensman TV episodes, but they also began writing additional material.
- Lensman: The Secret of the Lens
- Six issues, written by Paul O'Conner, drawn by Tim Eldred, ink by Paul Young, cover art by Jason Waltrip.
- Lensman: War of the Galaxies
- Seven issues, written by Paul O'Conner and drawn and inks by Tim Eldred.
- Lensman: Galactic Patrol
- Five issues, written by Tim Eldred, drawn by Tim Eldred and inks by Paul Young and Ken Branch.
Film
In 2008, Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures began negotiations with the author's estate for rights to film the Lensman series. The negotiations were for an 18-month renewable option. At the WonderCon convention in San Francisco in February, J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5, confirmed that Howard had acquired the rights and also hinted that he was involved in the project. Although the work on the project began that June, Straczynski later wrote in April 2014 that Universal had scrapped the project, citing excessive cost, and that the rights had reverted to the estate.
Games
The series has been adapted into the board wargames Lensman and Triplanetary. The first of these was designed by Philip N. Pritchard.
GURPS Lensman: Starkly Astounding Space-Opera Adventure for the GURPS roleplaying system was produced in 1993 by Steve Jackson Games.
Homages and parodies
With Smith's knowledge, the parody "Backstage Lensman" was written by Randall Garrett in 1949. Garrett also referred to the Lenses in his Lord Darcy stories, in which similar lenses are the badges of the King's Messengers, invented by the wizard "Sir Edward Elmer".
Harry Harrison wrote the humorous and comprehensive parody Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers in 1973.
In the DC Comics universe, the Green Lantern Corps bears many parallels to the Lensmen, though the original editor (Julius Schwartz) denied any connection. Later writers would add characters that directly referenced the Lensman series, such as the extraterrestrial Green Lanterns Arisia and Eddore.
In Robert A. Heinlein's The Number of the Beast, the protagonists encounter a Lensman. The novel's alternate version, The Pursuit of the Pankera, has an extended version of the Lensman sequence.
See also
- Wolf–Lundmark–Melotte — a galaxy that may be the "Second Galaxy" mentioned in the series.
References
Notes
- "1966 Hugo Awards". Archived from the original on February 24, 2007. Retrieved March 18, 2007.
- ^ Sanders, Joe (1986). E.E. "Doc" Smith. San Bernardino, California: Borgo Press. ISBN 9780893709518.
- Heinlein, Robert A. (1980). Expanded Universe, The New Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein. Ace Books. ISBN 978-0441218837.
- SF New Century Lensman review by Dave Merrill at the "Let's anime" website
- "SCI FI Wire | The News Service of the SCI FI Channel | SCIFI.COM". 2008-01-13. Archived from the original on January 13, 2008. Retrieved 2016-02-28.
- "WonderCon: Spotlight on Straczynski". Comic Book Resources. 2008-02-24. Retrieved 2016-02-28.
- "JMSNews". JMSNews. 1994-08-19. Retrieved 2016-02-28.
- "Interviews: J. Michael Straczynski Answers Your Questions - Slashdot". Features.slashdot.org. 2014-04-02. Retrieved 2016-02-28.
- Resnick, Mike (2003). Resnick at Large. Holicong, PA: Wildside Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-59224-160-6.
- Thomas, Roy (2001). "The Lensman Connection". Alter Ego. Vol. 3, no. #10. p. 24.
Further reading
- Barrett, Sean (1994). GURPS Lensman. Austin: Steve Jackson Games. ISBN 1-55634-283-7.
- Ellik, Ron and Bill Evans (1966). The Universes of E.E. Smith. Chicago: Advent:Publishers. ISBN 0-911682-03-1.
- Heinlein, Robert (1980). Expanded Universe. New York: Ace Books. ISBN 0-441-21888-1.
External links
- A collection of Lensman series eBooks at Standard Ebooks
- Triplanetary at Project Gutenberg (first book of the Lensman series, rewritten from the pre-Lensman serial version)
- Lensman FAQ originally by "Gharlane of Eddore"
- Lensman series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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