Okay, this feels right...this is where it REALLY begins

books:


	• Skylark Three (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) E. E. 'Doc' Smith Bison Books, 2003 - 249 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

It is one of the best written books I have ever read.

THe book (also the sereis) will hold you spell bound for hours on end. It is well written,and very thought through. I hope that the publishers see that the series is reprinted. I have read the books many times over the last 35 yrs. I am looking for new copies to replace the ones I now have.

If you can find this book, buy it!

I first read this book during the golden age- fourteen that is. Yet it has held a special place in my mind and heart ever since. It still gives me a thrill to think about this book even though I am now 49 going on 50. For sheer breadth of imagination, scope of theme and pace of action it is one of the best books I have ever read. It is ,of course, sadly dated by todays standards- but you must realize that when this book was written the very idea of space travel was nothing but sheer fantasy to the average person. At a time when no human had ever traveled faster than 300 miles per hour E. E. Smith was writing about star travel and doing it in a convincing and entertaining manner. If you like alien villains, Smith gives you the Fenachrone, surely one of the most arrogant, vile races ever committed to paper. If you like human villains, Smith gives you "Blackie" Duqesne the pure, utterly amoral scientist. If you like heroes, Smith gives you Richard Ballinger Seaton, brilliant scientist and engineer and his friend and partner Martin Crane- not to mention their wives who play a part in the plot that is well above the level of "rescue the Damsel" that was the standard fare at the time this was written. If you like space ships and weapons that boggle the mind, Smith gives you miles-long spaceships built of materials of unbelievable strength dueling in intergalactic space. And finally, there's the Norlaminians, a race devoted heart and soul to the accumulation of knowledge of every sort- and a good thing too, for without their help, beating the Fenachrone would have been impossible. Smith has a way of writing about impossible things that makes you think: Wouldn't it be great if ......... If you can suspend your disbelief for a couple of hours I guarantee that this book will leave you wanting more.

for more information click here

You've got to enjoy this one...

If our reality is socially constructed as some postmodernists now suggest, the Skylark series reflects both the era and the society it was written in. Assuming that we have a better world view today is, frankly, arrogant. Suspending imagination and jumping into this well-written SF adventure will not only delight the readers in a well-turned story, but inform them about the thinking that prevailed during a first half of the 20th century and, perhaps, provide some insight into our society today. The reader will also recognize the sheer genius and insight of "Doc" Smith. I introduced them quietly to my son, to find him captivated by the stories like I was. The label "space opera," I think, does not do these books (or the Lensmen Series) justice. Explore them on your own as one might read classics from another era.

for more information click here

Okay, this feels right...this is where it REALLY begins

I was glad I read "Skylark of Space," because it led to this. And this rocks. Forget the science that sometimes gets a little off track... there are concepts in this book that you see over and over in sci-fi afterward. Watch "Star Trek," and you'll come across E. E. "Doc" Smith.

The atomic drive that runs on copper... yes, copper. The metal of power. I guess it would sound like a giant arc welder, wouldn't it? Like the ships in the "Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rogers" serials... I wonder. Flash and Buck definitely owe something to Richard Seaton, the overlord of an entire galaxy.

Force fields, tractor beams, energy weapons of every variety, ships the size of Star Destroyers, black holes, warp travel...
You've gotta read this.

for more information click here

Bearable pulp, more quaint than fun.

This was the second book in E.E.Smith's first series, and it's pure thirties pulp, quite good of it's period, but then the period happily tolerated segregation. Smith hit his stride with this one, it is Space Opera with all the stops out on the organ. New ships are invented one week, in mass production by the end of the month, and obsolete within six months, the weapons so irresistible that battle seem to be a clash of heavily armed eggshells. Geocide is a casual tactic. Every thing is so black-and-white in Smith's writing, the humans are boy scouts in space, and most of the rest seem to be slaverin' B.E.M's after aw wimminfolks.
Frankly, skip this one and try Skylark DeQuesne, written about 30 years after the rest, when Smith had calmed down a bit, and his palatte had a few more colours other than black,white . . . oh and purple

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2

In this exhilarating sequel to The Skylark of Space, momentous danger again stalks genius inventor and interplanetary adventurer Dr. Richard Seaton. Seaton?s allies on the planet Kondal are suffering devastating attacks by the forces of the Third Planet. Even worse, the menacing and contemptuous Fenachrones are threatening to conquer the galaxy and wipe out all who oppose them. And don?t forget the dastardly machinations of Seaton?s arch-nemesis, DuQuesne, who embarks on a nefarious mission of his own. Against such vile foes and impossible odds, how is victory possible? Featuring even more technological wizardry, alien worlds, and all-out action than its predecessor, Skylark Three is hailed by many as the imaginative high point of the Skylark series.

for more information click here

hot