Science Fiction Books
Gray Lensman (The Lensman Series, Book 4)
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You Save: $ 15.00 ( 100% )
Manufacturer: Old Earth Books
Author: Edward E. Smith
Publisher: Old Earth Books
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Our Price:
You Save: $ 15.00 ( 100% )
Manufacturer: Old Earth Books
Author: Edward E. Smith
Publisher: Old Earth Books
Average Customer Rating:
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Gray Lensman (The Lensman Series, Book 4) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781882968121
ISBN: 1882968123
Label: Old Earth Books
Manufacturer: Old Earth Books
Number Of Items: 1
Publication Date: 1998-11
Publisher: Old Earth Books
Studio: Old Earth Books
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781882968121
ISBN: 1882968123
Label: Old Earth Books
Manufacturer: Old Earth Books
Number Of Items: 1
Publication Date: 1998-11
Publisher: Old Earth Books
Studio: Old Earth Books
Editorial Review of Gray Lensman (The Lensman Series, Book 4)
Customer Reviews of Gray Lensman (The Lensman Series, Book 4)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Typical Lensman book
Review: I have the entire Lensman Series - and as an avid sci-fi reader for over 75 years, it rates no. 1 in my list. Oddly, it was this book that I stumbled across first, that captured me and made me get them all, so I have special fondness for it. I re-read the entire series every decade or so just to convince me that it is the new sci-fi novels and not me that is changed so much. Every time, I still rate them 5 Stars.
Old Timer
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Terrific space adventure!
Review: "Gray Lensman" is a terrific space adventure! It starts where "Galactic Patrol" ended. Kim Kinnison is promoted. Then the story gets rolling.
There is an 'interlude' of sorts where Kinnison recouperates from injuries and meets the love of his life. Then, the story takes off again.
The character of Kimball Kinnison becomes more complex as he recovers from injuries and falls in love. But, let us not forget that he goes undercover as a meteor miner for a while. Meanwhile, the weapons get nastier and more powerful and the scope of the story gets bigger.
Read this book.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The war on Boskone escalates
Review: Boskone, in case you're new to this classic series, is the shadowy presence commanding the invasion of our galaxy. They derive their root motivation from incredibly ancient and evil beings, whose only goal is more of everything. Our good guys have a secretive sponsor, too, the equally ancient Arisians, who created the mysterious power of the Lens.
Kimball Kinnison, the Gray Lensman, leads the counter-attack. Sometimes he does so by stealth, infiltrating Boskone-controlled comand centers and boring from within. Other times, he leads the biggest space-navy that Smith's fertile imagination has superlatives for. Oh, we've seen this part before. At each new volume in the Lensman saga, the Lens-given powers and weaponry escalate by yet another step. This time, it culminates in something that sounds equally like a black hole (but without the gravity) and antimatter - neither of which would have been familiar to the original readers in 1951. Then there's the other super-secret weapon, which I leave as a secret for the reader to explore.
Then there's the ineptly chivalrous and pre-feminist romantic angle. This truly caps the camp value of this series. The central relationship has progressed by fits (sometimes hissy fits) and starts, always to be frustrated by Duty. Today's readers risk hurting themselves giggling at the archaic relations and the 1950s view of future technology. If you like the herioc goofiness of the old Flash Gordon serial, you'll find a lot to like in this perennial favorite set of books.
-- wiredweird
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Super Reader
Review: Kimball Kinnison has earned the right to wear the Gray. This is the Lensman's Lensman. A member of the Patrol so good that he is no longer under the direct command of the organisation, and can do whatever he wants. He has the ability to requistion, people, materiel, or whatever he wants, to get the job done. They are 'unattached'. This means if he wants his old friend, the ex-space marine giant Van Buskirk and his crew, then he gets them.
Having taken care of a Boskonian base, Kinnison the Gray wants to search out where the Boskonians came from and check for any still remaining in his own galaxy.
The search leads to another galaxy, and an ever increasing arms race on just a crazy scale. Want to blow up some bad guys? Then throw an anti-matter planet at them, no problem.
In the process, Kinnison learns to again expand his abilities, leading to the next book.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Read this second!
Review: I (and many others) believe the best place to start with Doc Smith's "Lensman" series is Galactic Patrol; and as I've said why, at length, in my review of that opus, I won't repeat it here.
"Gray Lensman" begins where "Patrol" left off, and never flags, from the start to the finish.
Smith at this point is a massively improved writer from the author of the earlier Skylark series, and much more confident in his characters: Richard Seaton, for instance, never has the moments of self-doubt that trouble Kinnison, and would certainly never burst into tears (as the latter does when his nurse won't feed him beefsteak in hospital!).
Even more unexpected is the development of an impish sense of humour, manifested in several places, but most notably in the exploits of Wild Bill Williams of Aldebaran II, in the present volume -- surely one of the most entertaining episodes in the whole of Golden Age SF.
I've never understood critics -- including the normally-perspicacious Brian Aldiss* -- who say that Smith couldn't write. True, he probably never gave T.S. Eliot (his exact contemporary) any sleepless nights, and better authors have certainly stood on his shoulders; but the Lensman series is F-U-N, and without it the SF world would be a much duller place.
*in Billion Year Spree, later revised as Trillion Year Spree.
Review Summary: Typical Lensman book
Review: I have the entire Lensman Series - and as an avid sci-fi reader for over 75 years, it rates no. 1 in my list. Oddly, it was this book that I stumbled across first, that captured me and made me get them all, so I have special fondness for it. I re-read the entire series every decade or so just to convince me that it is the new sci-fi novels and not me that is changed so much. Every time, I still rate them 5 Stars.
Old Timer
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Terrific space adventure!
Review: "Gray Lensman" is a terrific space adventure! It starts where "Galactic Patrol" ended. Kim Kinnison is promoted. Then the story gets rolling.
There is an 'interlude' of sorts where Kinnison recouperates from injuries and meets the love of his life. Then, the story takes off again.
The character of Kimball Kinnison becomes more complex as he recovers from injuries and falls in love. But, let us not forget that he goes undercover as a meteor miner for a while. Meanwhile, the weapons get nastier and more powerful and the scope of the story gets bigger.
Read this book.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The war on Boskone escalates
Review: Boskone, in case you're new to this classic series, is the shadowy presence commanding the invasion of our galaxy. They derive their root motivation from incredibly ancient and evil beings, whose only goal is more of everything. Our good guys have a secretive sponsor, too, the equally ancient Arisians, who created the mysterious power of the Lens.
Kimball Kinnison, the Gray Lensman, leads the counter-attack. Sometimes he does so by stealth, infiltrating Boskone-controlled comand centers and boring from within. Other times, he leads the biggest space-navy that Smith's fertile imagination has superlatives for. Oh, we've seen this part before. At each new volume in the Lensman saga, the Lens-given powers and weaponry escalate by yet another step. This time, it culminates in something that sounds equally like a black hole (but without the gravity) and antimatter - neither of which would have been familiar to the original readers in 1951. Then there's the other super-secret weapon, which I leave as a secret for the reader to explore.
Then there's the ineptly chivalrous and pre-feminist romantic angle. This truly caps the camp value of this series. The central relationship has progressed by fits (sometimes hissy fits) and starts, always to be frustrated by Duty. Today's readers risk hurting themselves giggling at the archaic relations and the 1950s view of future technology. If you like the herioc goofiness of the old Flash Gordon serial, you'll find a lot to like in this perennial favorite set of books.
-- wiredweird
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Super Reader
Review: Kimball Kinnison has earned the right to wear the Gray. This is the Lensman's Lensman. A member of the Patrol so good that he is no longer under the direct command of the organisation, and can do whatever he wants. He has the ability to requistion, people, materiel, or whatever he wants, to get the job done. They are 'unattached'. This means if he wants his old friend, the ex-space marine giant Van Buskirk and his crew, then he gets them.
Having taken care of a Boskonian base, Kinnison the Gray wants to search out where the Boskonians came from and check for any still remaining in his own galaxy.
The search leads to another galaxy, and an ever increasing arms race on just a crazy scale. Want to blow up some bad guys? Then throw an anti-matter planet at them, no problem.
In the process, Kinnison learns to again expand his abilities, leading to the next book.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Read this second!
Review: I (and many others) believe the best place to start with Doc Smith's "Lensman" series is Galactic Patrol; and as I've said why, at length, in my review of that opus, I won't repeat it here.
"Gray Lensman" begins where "Patrol" left off, and never flags, from the start to the finish.
Smith at this point is a massively improved writer from the author of the earlier Skylark series, and much more confident in his characters: Richard Seaton, for instance, never has the moments of self-doubt that trouble Kinnison, and would certainly never burst into tears (as the latter does when his nurse won't feed him beefsteak in hospital!).
Even more unexpected is the development of an impish sense of humour, manifested in several places, but most notably in the exploits of Wild Bill Williams of Aldebaran II, in the present volume -- surely one of the most entertaining episodes in the whole of Golden Age SF.
I've never understood critics -- including the normally-perspicacious Brian Aldiss* -- who say that Smith couldn't write. True, he probably never gave T.S. Eliot (his exact contemporary) any sleepless nights, and better authors have certainly stood on his shoulders; but the Lensman series is F-U-N, and without it the SF world would be a much duller place.
*in Billion Year Spree, later revised as Trillion Year Spree.