Triplanetary

Lensman Series

By: E. E. Doc Smith

Narrated by: Reed McColm

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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

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

Critic reviews

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

One of my favorite books.

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

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

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

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

Fantastic Science Fiction story

What did you love best about Triplanetary?

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

What was one of the most memorable moments of Triplanetary?

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

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

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

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

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

Great book

Great book, the entire series is phenomenal. I noticed several reviews that seem to be fairly negative about the narrator, personally I don't see it I think he did a fairly good job and it was quite enjoyable.

Another few reviews I saw actually recommended to skip this book as it was "hard to get through unless you're a real lensman fan" I find this rather silly personally and don't recommend anyone skip the first book in this series.

My only gripe with this is the intro that was not written by Doc Smith and instead attempts to hint that he is some sort of racist for having white people in this book. This, if you actually read the book (or rather listen), is completely unfounded.

Classic Space Opera Well-Written, & Well-Performed

The book was written in 1948, and the science of the time seems almost comical by today's standards. So you'll have to suspend your disbelief and accept the "science" of that universe in order to truly enjoy this series.

If you cannot do that, don't even bother. You won't enjoy the books.

If you can though, you'll find a wonderous universe, with fantastic science, larger-than-life heroes, truly horrific villains, and a wonderful battle between the forces of civilization vs. the forces of civilization's foes (not exactly "evil", just detestable in every way). Battles range from one-on-one to multi-galaxy, employing engines of destruction that stagger the mind.

Most of all, it's a FUN series. There's nothing serious here. You won't come away feeling like you've learned any huge philosophical truths. Likewise, you won't be running out of tissues for all the tears. There's little drama, and less pontification. It's just a good romp, with lots of mayhem, destruction, and heroes who quite literally just "get 'er done!"

Classic Sci Fi

Not a bad story. Though I had heard that it was the inspiration for Star Wars. I didn’t see it but good nonetheless

Slow burner

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

Triplanetary odd orbit

A classic In science fiction.

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

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

The narrator was a bit stiff also.

Old Time Sci Fi at It's Best

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

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

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

Fascinating but flawed.

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