E.E. 'Doc' Smith SF Gateway Omnibus: The Skylark of Space, Skylark Three, Skylark of Valeron, Skylark DuQuesne
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SF GATEWAY OMNIBUS
E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith
THE SKYLARK OF SPACE
SKYLARK THREE
SKYLARK OF VALERON
SKYLARK DUQUESNE
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Enter the SF Gateway …
In the last years of the twentieth century (as Wells might have put it), Gollancz, Britain’s oldest and most distinguished science fiction imprint, created the SF and Fantasy Masterworks series. Dedicated to re-publishing the English language’s finest works of SF and Fantasy, most of which were languishing out of print at the time, they were – and remain – landmark lists, consummately fulfilling the original mission statement:
‘SF MASTERWORKS is a library of the greatest SF ever written, chosen with the help of today’s leading SF writers and editors. These books show that genuinely innovative SF is as exciting today as when it was first written.’
Now, as we move inexorably into the twenty-first century, we are delighted to be widening our remit even more. The realities of commercial publishing are such that vast troves of classic SF & Fantasy are almost certainly destined never again to see print. Until very recently, this meant that anyone interested in reading any of these books would have been confined to scouring second-hand bookshops. The advent of digital publishing has changed that paradigm for ever.
The technology now exists to enable us to make available, for the first time, the entire backlists of an incredibly wide range of classic and modern SF and fantasy authors. Our plan is, at its simplest, to use this technology to build on the success of the SF and Fantasy Masterworks series and to go even further.
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Contents
Title Page
Gateway Introduction
Contents
Introduction from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
The Skylark of Space
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX
Chapter XX
Chapter XXI
Chapter XXII
Skylark Three
1. DuQuesne Goes Traveling
2. Dunark Visits Earth
3. Skylark Two Sets Out
4. The Zone of Force is Tested
5. First Blood
6. The Peace Conference
7. DuQuesne’s Voyage
8. The Porpoise-Men of Dasor
9. The Welcome to Norlamin
10. Norlaminian Science
11. Into a Sun
12. Flying Visits – Via Projection
13. The Declaration of War
14. Interstellar Extermination
15. The Extra-Galactic Duel
Skylark of Valeron
1. Dr DuQuesne’s Ruse
2. Plan XB218
3. DuQuesne Captures a Battleship
4. A World is Destroyed
5. Thought – A Sixth-Order Wave
6. Mind Versus Matter
7. DuQuesne Visits Norlamin
8. Into the Fourth Dimension
9. Master of Earth
10. Captured!
11. Hyperland
12. Reunion
13. The Return to Space
14. Wanted – A Planet
15. Valeron
16. Within the Chloran Dome
17. Quedrin Radnor Retaliates
18. Valeron Versus Chlora
19. To the Rescue
20. The First Universe is Mapped
21. Dunark takes a Hand
22. Trapping the Intellectuals
23. The Long, Long Ride
Skylark Duquesne
1. S.O.S.
2. Llurdi and Jelmi
3. Free (?)
4. Llurdi and Fenachrone
5. Combat!
6. Of Disembodied Intelligences
7. DuQuesne and Klazmon
8. Industrial Revolution
9. Among the Jelmi
10. Jelmi on the Moon
11. Blotto
12. DuQuesne and the Jelmi
13. DuQuesne and Sennlloy
14. Seeker Sevance of Xylmny
15. DuQuesne’s Assassins
16. The Chlorans
17. Ky-El Mokak the Wilder
18. Humanity Triumphant, Not Inc
19. The Coup
20. DuQuesne and Fenachrone
21. Llanzlan Mergon
22. The Geas
23. Re-Seating of the Premier
24. DuQuesne and Sleemet
25. Roman Candles
26. The Talent
27. CoBelligerents
28. Project Rho
29. DuQuesne to the Rescue
30. Emperor
Website
Also by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith
About the Author
Copyright
INTRODUCTION
from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Edward Elmer ‘Doc’ Smith (1890–1965) was a US food chemist (he specialised in doughnut mixes), and author, often called the ‘Father of Space Opera’; because Hugo Gernsback had appended ‘PhD’ to Smith’s name for his contributions to Amazing from 1928, he also became known as ‘Doc’ Smith. Greatly influential in US pulp-magazine sf between 1928 and about 1945, he found his reputation fading somewhat after the end of World War Two, when it seemed that the dream-like simplicities of his world-view could no longer attract the modern reader of Genre SF. But more than one of the speciality houses that became active after 1945 were founded in the awareness that his vast pre-War space-opera sagas, published only in magazines, had never achieved book publications; and his central corpus was soon made available to new readers. Towards the end of his life, after he retired around 1960, he began producing space operas again, and the work of his prime began to appear in mass-market paperbacks; his popularity soared, and though his reputation has faded to a degree in recent decades, he is by no means forgotten.
Smith’s work is strongly identified with the beginnings of US pulp sf as a separate marketing genre, and did much to define its essential territory: galactic space dominated by Galactic Empires, these usually being run by humans, though Aliens appear frequently, not only as villains; Space Opera plots, featuring heroes and their inventions, are the norm; wars rage across the parsecs. But although Smith’s protagonists fit comfortably into this universe, it is the case that his most developed (and numerous) protagonists, the Lensmen at the heart of the Lensmen epic, are also soldiers: willing employees in a higher cause. his later heroes – like Kim Kinnison himself – advance through promotion, and rule their universes as dictators in all but name, for the cause of Good.
When in 1915 Smith began to write the first novel of his Skylark series with Mrs Lee Hawkins Garby (1892–1953), a neighbour seconded to help with feminine matters such as dialogue, no prior models existed in popular fiction to source the combined exuberance and scale that The Skylark of
Space (see below) demonstrated when the magazine version finally began to appear in Amazing Stories in 1928 (the book form only appeared in 1946); its two immediate sequels – Skylark Three, Skylark of Valeron (see below for both) – add to the exuberance. (Skylark DuQuesne was published posthumously in 1966.)
But it was not until he began to unveil the architectural structure of his second and career-climaxing series that Smith was able to demonstrate the thoroughness of his thinking about Space Opera, though perhaps losing some of the spontaneity of Skylark. It is with the Lensman series – or The History of Civilization, the over-title for the 1953–1955 limited-edition boxed reprint of the original books – that his name is most strongly associated. In order of internal chronology, the sequence comprises Triplanetary, First Lensman, Galactic Patrol, Gray Lensman, Second-Stage Lensmen and Children of the Lens. The Vortex Blaster, assembling stories published during World War Two, and only put in book form after Smith’s death, is also set in the Lensman Universe, probably some time before Children of the Lens; but does not deal with the central progress of the main series, the working out of which was Smith’s most brilliant auctorial coup. As resorted and augmented in book form, the first two novels, one of them written much later, likewise stand outside the main action; it is the central four volumes that constitute the heart of Smith’s accomplishment. Conceived as one 400,000-word novel, and divided into separate titles for publication between 1937 and 1948 in Astounding, this central Lensman tale is constructed around the gradual revelation, paced by moments that for many readers caught the essence of the Sense Of Wonder, of the hierarchical nature of the Universe: a sense that the universe was both infinitely surprising but, in the end, controlled by Arisians.
That gradual revelation is eschewed in the full series as published in book form. Here, we learn immediately that two vastly advanced and radically opposed Forerunner races, the good Arisians and the evil Eddorians, each dominating a separate galaxy, have been in essential opposition for billions of years. The Arisians understand that the only hope of defeating the absolute Evil represented by the Eddorians is to nurture the growth over aeons of a countervailing Civilization developed from their own ‘spores’ via special breeding lines on selected planets, of which Earth (Tellus) is one. Guided by their Arisian Secret Masters, these breeding lines develop heroes capable of enduring the enormous stress of inevitable conflict with the escalating galactic conspiracy of evil known collectively as Boskone, a force inimical to Civilization and secretly commanded through a nest of hierarchies by the invisible Eddorians.
As the conflict deepens, the Arisians (always in disguise) make available to their unknowing scions a Psionic pseudo-gem known as the Lens which – when attached physically to advanced specimens of the breeding programme, who have already formed a Galactic Patrol responsible for defending Civilization – awards them certain telepathic and other Psi Powers, operating both as a weapon and a communication device. The central figure of the series is the human Kim Kinnison, who with his wife represents the penultimate stage in the Arisian breeding programme, and whose children will finally defeat the Eddorians. As the central sequence progresses, we climb with Kinnison, link by link, through a vast chain of command, evil empire after evil empire, until he defeats Boskone and becomes, in essence, the ruler of the civilized universe. But Kinnison is destined only slowly to understand that the empire of Boskone, which he has destroyed through the use of weapons of unparalleled immensity, is not the final enemy, whose name he never learns, no more than he ever discovers the full truth about his own Arisian mentors, whose civilized precepts he enacts. Though his powers are vast, he remains ignorant of the true scale and nature of the Universe, which is greater, and requires greater powers to comprehend and confront, than even a hero with superpowers is capable of grasping. Perhaps the deepest attraction of the Lensman series lies in the fact that Kinnison, as ultimate commander of the organization of Lensmen (itself hierarchical), is licensed; but that only we (and his children) know who issued the licence.
After completing his central series, Smith wrote some rather less popular out-of-series books, none having anything like the force of his major effort. A decade after his death, books he had begun or completed in manuscript, or had merely inspired or authorized, began to appear in response to his great posthumous popularity. The best known of these is the Family d’Alembert series, published as by Smith ‘with Stephen Goldin’, derived some material from posthumous manuscripts; the first volume, The Imperial Stars (1976), was based on published material, but subsequent volumes were essentially the work of Goldin.
Smith was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction Hall Of Fame in 2004.Today, while he must be read by anyone interested in understanding the deep appeal of American Genre SF in the days before World War Two, any revisit to his work should be made in the loving awareness that he is a creature of the dawn.
The novels of the Skylark of Space sequence – The Skylark of Space, Skylark Three, Skylark of Valeron and Skylark DuQuesne – are here reprinted in one volume. The magazine publication of the first volume – which appeared in the same issue of Amazing that also featured Philip Nowlan’s ‘Armageddon – 2419 AD’, the story which introduced Buck Rogers to the world – marked the coming of age of early American sf. Even then, Smith was more fun. Elements of his dawn-age exuberance may have been discernible in some of the Edisonades which proliferated in America from about 1890; and a certain cosmogonic high-handedness can be traced to the works of H. G. Wells and his UK contemporaries. But it was Smith who combined the two.
The Skylark of Space brings the Edisonade to its first full maturity, creating a proper galactic forum for the exploits of the inventor/scientist/action-hero who keeps the world (or the Universe) safe for American values, despite the efforts of a foreign-hued villain (Marc ‘Blackie’ DuQuesne) to subvert those values. At the heart of the action lies a highly personalized conflict between hero-inventor Richard Seaton, who always triumphs through luck, gumption, vast intellect, and athletic prowess, and villain-inventor DuQuesne, who develops from the stage histrionics of the first novel into a dominating antihero, and who is perhaps Smith’s most vivid creation. As their conflict escalates, the scale of everything – the potency of the weapons, the power, size and speed of the spaceships, the number of planets overawed or annihilated – also escalates by leaps and bounds. Earth is soon left behind. The galaxy beckons! The galaxy is ours! We read the Skylark of Space in a kind of exhilarated daze. When we finish, we awaken from a marvellous dream.
For a more detailed version of the above, see E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith’s author entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/smith_e_e
Some terms above are capitalised when they would not normally be so rendered; this indicates that the terms represent discrete entries in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
The Skylark of Space
Brilliant scientist Richard Seaton discovers a remarkable faster-than-light fuel that will power his interstellar spaceship, the Skylark. His ruthless rival, Marc DuQuesne, and the sinister World Steel Corporation will do anything to get their hands on the fuel. When they kidnap Seaton’s fiancée and friends, they unleash a furious pursuit that will propel the Skylark across the galaxy and back.
Skylark Three
Genius inventor Richard Seaton has developed a ‘Zone of Force’ to protect his ship, the Skylark – but with the Zone up and running, he can no longer control his vessel. Can this new invention help them prevail against the Fenachronians, with their advanced technology and their determination to conquer the galaxy … and destroy the Earth?
Skylark of Valeron
As the mighty spaceship Skylark roamed the intergalactic spaceways, Richard Seaton and his companions found a world of disembodied intelligences. A world of four dimensions where time was insanely distorted and matter obeyed no Terrestrial laws – where three-dimensional human intellects had to fight hard to thwart malevolent invisible mentalities …
Skylark DuQuesne
Richard Seaton and Marc DuQuesne were the deadliest enemies in the galaxy. Their feud had blazed among the stars and challenged the history of a thousand planets. But now a threat from outside the galaxy drives them into a desperate alliance. Seaton and DuQuesne must fight side by side to fend off the invasion – as Seaton keeps constant, perilous watch for DuQuesne’s inevitable double-cross.
THE SKYLARK OF SPACE
I
Petrified with astonishment, Richard Seaton stared after the copper steam-bath upon which, a moment before, he had been electrolyzing his solution of ‘X,’ the unknown metal. As soon as he had removed the beaker with its precious contents the heavy bath had jumped endwise from under his hand as though it were alive. It had flown with terrific speed over the table, smashing a dozen reagent-bottles on its way, and straight on out through the open window. Hastily setting the beaker down, he seized his binoculars and focused them upon the flying bath, which now, to the unaided vision, was merely a speck in the distance. Through the glass he saw that it did not fall to the ground, but continued on in a straight line, its rapidly diminishing size alone showing the enormous velocity at which it was moving. It grew smaller and smaller. In a few seconds it disappeared.
Slowly lowering the binoculars to his side, Seaton turned like a man in a trance. He stared dazedly, first at the litter of broken bottles covering the table, and then at the empty space under the hood where the bath had stood for so many years.
Aroused by the entrance of his laboratory helper, he silently motioned him to clean up the wreckage.
‘What happened, doctor?’
‘Search me, Dan … wish I knew, myself,’ Seaton replied, absently, lost in wonder at what he had just seen.
Ferdinand Scott, a chemist from an adjoining laboratory, entered breezily.
‘Hello, Dicky, thought I heard a rack— Good Lord! What you been celebrating? Had an explosion?’
‘Uh-uh.’ Seaton shook his head. ‘Something funny – darned funny. I can tell you what happened, but that’s all.’