Customer Reviews

Galactic Patrol

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Galactic Patrol is the third book in the Lensman series by E.E. "Doc" Smith.

This is the first time we are introduced to Kim Kinnison. Kim is a main focus of the rest of the series. Galactic Patrol starts with Kim as a young man who has just graduated and will join the Galactic Patrol as a Lensman. He is given a near impossible task, but through perseverance, ingenuity and luck, Kim is able to bring home a captured space ship from the pirates of Boskone.

The Boskone Pirates threaten to destroy civilization. And because their technology is better they have a very good chance to crippling civilization so that it will never flourish. With the Boskone spaceship that Kim captures civilization has a chance.

E. E. Smith does a great job of keeping the action moving. In many chapters our heroes are in another near hopeless situation. Again and again the odds are stack against them. But they keep trying, and they are always able to pull a rabbit out of the hat to escape total destruction.

We see more of the Lensmen universe. We're introduced to Worsel and the two others who will become second stage lensmen, along with Worsel and Kim. E. E. Smith drops little details left and right flushing out a rich universe to make it seem almost real.

Like I said in my review of The First Lensman, if you enjoy Science Fiction and have never read the Lensman series, start with Triplanetary and then read the reset of the series. You are in for a great ride.

Doc Smith's "Lensman" series is one of those strange cases where almost everything the reviews say -- both good and bad -- is true. The key lies in the sentence found in so many of them: "I first read this when I was a kid". I think we all retain an affection for things we loved when we were young. Nonetheless, it would be a big mistake to think these books hold nothing for adults -- I've introduce them to an adult friend who enjoyed them immensely.

Other reviews on Amazon summarise the plot adequately, but I should like to add some information I think may be helpful.

I, too, first met Kim Kinnison when I was a kid, in the original "Astounding" magazines that I inherited from my uncle.

Chronologically, the first Lensman story was "Galactic Patrol", from 1937-38. This was followed by the next three stories: Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensmen and Children of the Lens. When publication in book form was mooted, Smith revised his earlier Triplanetary to fit into the lensman universe, and wrote First Lensman to form a bridge between that and "Galactic Patrol". Masters of the Vortex, another unrelated story, was likewise modified.

I personally feel that the four books representing Smith's original conception are the essential ones, and the others are disposable ("Vortex", in particular, being a pot-boiler with virtually no relation to the others). Although "First Lensman" certainly has entertaining moments (as when Virgil Samms is almost deafened at a Rigellian construction site, because the Rigellians have no sense of hearing and can't understand what the problem is).

There's another problem with the books, although fortunately not an insuperable one. Smith's universe, although already huge at the outset of "Galactic Patrol", expands as the series progresses. Originally, the reader didn't discover the total significance of the struggles going on within it until the end of "Children". But the books (except, for some inscrutable reason, "Patrol") feature tacked-on and needless Forewords that give away the whole plot. I *strongly* recommend first-time readers to skip these. Also, if you've never read Smith before, I'd recommend starting with "Patrol" -- "Triplanetary" is not nearly as good, neither is it "really" the first.

Smith's dated (and sometimes banal) style has been an easy target, but it has some lovely moments as well:

"near them there crouched or huddled or lay at ease a many-tentacled creature indescribable to man. It was not like an octopus. Though spiny, it did not resemble at all closely a sea-cucumber. Nor, although it was scaly and toothy and wingy, was it, save in the vaguest possible way, similar to a lizard, a sea-serpent or a vulture. Such a description by negatives is, of course, pitifully inadequate; but, unfortunately, it is the best that can be done."

If you want mind-boggling adventure, ever-expanding vistas, BEMs and battle laid on with a trowel, you need go no further. For my money, the depth and invention of Smith's universe, and the sheer glee with which he unfolds his narrative, more than compensate for any deficiencies. These are books I will always love.

*Should you wish to track down the originals, the issues are as follows:

09/37-02/38 Galactic Patrol
10/39-02/40 Gray Lensman
11/41-02/42 Second Stage Lensmen
11/47-02/48 Children of the Lens