Customer Reviews

Masters of the Vortex (Pyramid SF, N3000)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First, regardless what anyone says, "Vortex Blaster" (AKA "Masters of the Vortex"), IS a Lensman novel, as much any other of the standard canon. Kinnison is a background character in the book, there are Lensmen (Telluran and Rigellian) in the story, it is set in the Lensman Universe, and it was written by Doc Smith. If these criteria do not qualify it as a Lensman book, nothing else does.

We have a parallel case in the Narnia Chronicles. The second book, "Horse and His Boy" is an odd job: it is not part of the overall continuity, does not include the main characters except as background props, and is self-contained. Yet, we still consider it part of the Narnia canon. Similarly, we need to see "Vortex Blaster" as a full and bona-fide part of the Lensman canon.

(At least, much more so than Kyle's "Second-Stage Lensman" Trilogy.)

As to the book itself, I was blown away. I am tempted to say that THIS is the book you read if you want to get converted to the series. You get a taste of Doc Smith's gusto and operatic flamboyance, coupled with his sense of the unusual as Cloud meets the odd creatures that populate Doc's universe. Additionally, I found Neal Cloud and Joan Janowick to be far more vibrant and engaging characters than Kinnison and MacDougal.

Since they are not the Arisian demigods, they are more relatable and more human. They remind me of Kierkegaard's comment, "This is the reason my soul always turns back to the Old Testament and to Shakespeare. I feel that those who speak there are at least human beings: they hate, they love, they murder their enemies and curse their descendants throughout all generations, they sin."

Since the book is self contained, Cloud's and Janowick's romance is a steady flow, as contrasted with Kinnison and MacDougal start-and-stop relationship and marriage that is drug though three Lensmen books. Their mind meld is a sci-fi classic.

Since Red Jacket, Old Earth Books, and Bison--all who have reprinted Doc Smith's works--have not reissued this book, grab the first yellowed paperback you can find, and cherish the book.

Set in the world of his Lensmen, Doc Smith creates another spectacular space-based swashbuckler. Dr. Neal "Storm" Cloud lost his wife, children, and will to live when an atomic vortex destroys his home. A super-human mind like his can't stay down for long, though, so he applies his super-mathematical skills to solving the equations of vortices and destroying them, one at a time.

That makes for plenty of interstellar zooming around, like a galactic Red Adaire blowing out nuclear fires all over the place. In time, a crew attaches itself to him, including woman with a super-mind suitably inferior to his own since he's the man. This leads to a runin with evil druglords, to solving the mystery of where the vortices originally came from, and to a new true love.

This is a wonderful bit of trash reading from a master of the genre. No one has equalled Smith's frat-boys in space, bounding hither and yon with bold abandon and with wildly offensive stereotypes. Even Smith had gotten away from race-based type-casting by the time this book was written (1960), and he almost made it through the book without offending the women of the world. At one point, his takes on a female M.D. as ship's doctor. Since women in medicine have to be nurses, he makes sure that she's an R.N., too, but that wasn't too bad. Then, towards the end, it comes out the every woman in creation, right down to his cigar-chomping chief engineer, really just wants to have babies. Smith was a product of his time, though, and such stuff really makes me appreciate our own times even more.

It's a brief read, especially by the standards of today's 800-page minimum. If you have taste for anachronistic, adventurous goofiness, it's well worth the few hours needed to read it.

//wiredweird

Set in the world of his Lensmen, Doc Smith creates another spectacular space-based swashbuckler. Dr. Neal "Storm" Cloud lost his wife, children, and will to live when an atomic vortex destroys his home. A super-human mind like his can't stay down for long, though, so he applies his super-mathematical skills to solving the equations of vortices and destroying them, one at a time.

That makes for plenty of interstellar zooming around, like a galactic Red Adaire blowing out nuclear fires all over the place. In time, a crew attaches itself to him, including woman with a super-mind suitably inferior to his own since he's the man. This leads to a runin with evil druglords, to solving the mystery of where the vortices originally came from, and to a new true love.

This is a wonderful bit of trash reading from a master of the genre. No one has equalled Smith's frat-boys in space, bounding hither and yon with bold abandon and with wildly offensive stereotypes. Even Smith had gotten away from race-based type-casting by the time this book was written (1960), and he almost made it through the book without offending the women of the world. At one point, his takes on a female M.D. as ship's doctor. Since women in medicine have to be nurses, he makes sure that she's an R.N., too, but that wasn't too bad. Then, towards the end, it comes out the every woman in creation, right down to his cigar-chomping chief engineer, really just wants to have babies. Smith was a product of his time, though, and such stuff really makes me appreciate our own times even more.

It's a brief read, especially by the standards of today's 800-page minimum. If you have taste for anachronistic, adventurous goofiness, it's well worth the few hours needed to read it.

//wiredweird

Possible the worst follow up ever to s pretty strong series, this had the feel of Spaceballs 2 the sequal: This time its about money...
(Forgive me Mel Brooks for what was surely a misquote by me, though I think it gets the point across)
This is more in the vein of how Larry Niven writes more books in his "Know Space" arena, that are only peripherally tied in by the place and timeline in which they take place. The difference being Niven creates unique and interesting characters for his different novels, and Doc missed the mark with this attempt. Unless you are a die hard who simply MUST read everything in a "series" once you start (like me) Feel free to skip this one over...

"Masters of the Vortex" may have been the start of a new lensman-related series. I do not know. I did enjoy the book when I read it in the 1960s. Personally, I recommend it.

The book is pure E. E. (Doc) Smith. So, there is plenty of action.

My suspicion was that Smith was starting to gather threads to carry out the promise in "Children of the Lens" that some new 'threat' was coming and that new second-stage and third-stage lensmen would appear.

This book is set in the same universe as the others in the Lensman series, but it is only tangentially related. It references events that happen then, but it is completely Kinnison free.

The hero of the piece is Neal Cloud, a scientist nicknamed Storm. His family are killed by what you could call a space tornado. He is a supergenius, and sets out to do some storm chasing and destroying, picking up a crew along the way.

Though I agree that this book isn't the epic tale that the six books of the 'original' series are, it is a good entertaning read. It fills in many details of a universe populated by more than just (dare I say perfect...?) lensmen. The characters are flawed and thus far more human seeming than the characters in the other books.

Unlike the first 6 books of the lensmen series, which easily rank among my all time favorites of classic golden-age sci fi, I have to be blunt ... this sequel just plain stinks by comparison.

As best I can tell, it was a half-hearted sequel written by the author many years later, and he utterly failed to catch the same lightning he harnessed with his original series.

Save your money.

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