Spacehounds of IPC [Hardcover]

E.E. 'Doc' Smith (Author), Ph.D. Edward E. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2007

One of the most fascinating mysteries of the heavens is the comet. It goes through space, gets near enough to the earth to be seen, and then goes off and disappears in celestial distance. Often it has a hyperbolic orbit, which would make it impossible to come back. Yet it may return -- apparently contradicting the geometry of conic sections. This only goes to prove once more that it is risky to say anything is impossible. . . .

A good many of us who are now certain beyond a doubt that space travel will forever remain in the realm of the impossible, probably would, if a rocket that were shot to the moon, for instance, did arrive, and perhaps return to give proof of its safe arrival on our satellite, accept the phenomenon in a perfectly blasé, twentieth century manner. Dr. Smith, that phenomenal writer of classic scientific fiction, seems to have become so thoroughly convinced of the advent of interplanetary travel that it is difficult for the reader to feel, after finishing Spacehounds of IPC, that travel in the great spaces is not already an established fact. Dr. Smith, as a professional chemist, is kept fairly busy. As a writer, he is satisfied with nothing less than perfection. For that reason, a masterpiece from his pen has become almost an annual event. We know you will like Spacehounds even better than the Skylark series.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

E. E. Smith, also Edward Elmer Smith, Ph.D., E. E. "Doc" Smith, Doc Smith, "Skylark" Smith, and (to family) Ted (May 2, 1890 - August 31, 1965) was a food engineer (specializing in doughnut and pastry mixes) and early science fiction author who wrote the Lensman series and the Skylark series, among others. He is sometimes referred to as the father of Space Opera. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: Aegypan (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603128271
• ISBN-13: 978-1603128278
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,580,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moons of Jupiter, then and now., June 14, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Spacehounds Of Ipc (Paperback)

Edward E. Smith, Ph.D, in addition to being the foremost writer of all time about "Space Opera" was in many ways a visionary, and with his "Skylark" and "Lensman Series" constructed a universe so filled with spacefaring heroes and weird and wonderful aliens of all description as to boggle the imagination. Unlike the two series mentioned above, Spacehounds of IPC was a "stand alone" book about a huge spaceship on a standard run from Earth to Mars being partially destroyed by aliens who begin towing the spaceship back to Jupiter, where they live.

In light of todays space probe explorations of the planet Jupiter and its moons, one of which is thought to have frozen seas capable of supporting possible lifeforms, Smith's saga about "Steve Stevens" and "Nadia" Newton's adventures on Ganymede and Callisto, two of the moons of Jupiter, their subsequent rescue by Stevens'
Interplanetary Corporation friends in the IPC research spaceship "Sirius" and their involvement in the war between the Hexans and Vorkulians of Jupiter, makes one wonder what we will find when
our "Spacehounds" venture out past the Asteroid Belt and begin our own explorations of the moons of Jupiter.
I consider myself fortunate to have a hard-cover copy of this book I purchased from Fantasy Press a half-century ago, and recommend it particularly to those science-fiction enthusiasts who like the grandeur and sweep of Smith's books.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First SF book I ever read - have been a convert ever since., July 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Spacehounds Of Ipc (Paperback)

This book contains a number of elements that are unrealistic (e.g. it features real live Martians, and the author's take on womankind is, to put it lightly, less than politically correct - though I'm told that that was simply how American society viewed women at the time). If you can look past things like that, this book is *brilliant* ! And it's a prime example of what SF was like when it all began. That also means that, compared to current SF, the story is kind of dated - SF has gone a long way since way back then. But this book really opened my eyes in regard to the fun of discovering what an author thinks the universe would be like if ____ (just fill in the blank however you like) was true, possible, and/or had turned out differently.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Making the solar system safe, October 15, 2006

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Spacehounds of IPC: A Tale of the Inter-Planetary Corporation (Mass Market Paperback)

Safe for our kind, that is. You know, two-legged Earthian kind, not those nasty six-legged critters.

Brilliant physicist Dr. Stevens is off on a fact-finding mission, to save the honor of the brave pilots of the space-liner Arcturus from the desk-jockeys' imprecations of imprecision - the nastiest insult in his super-scientific world. He and the pilots are right, of course, but that's cold consolation when marauders from the depths of space hack up their ship and drag it off, in obvious violation of salvage laws.

Stevens and his beloved escape to an isolated moon of Jupiter, which happens to Earth-like right down to wildlife that's pretty tasty, when cooked up right. There, the fond couple struggle to rebuild all of Western technology from the ground up, and struggle to maintain the chastity of their impromptu engagement - lots of cold showers all around, I guess. They do a fair job of both, while events progress on just about every other bit of planetary real estate around. After much zooming around between worlds, the bad guys are all vanquished, the good guys and gals get properly hitched, and the space pilots protect their manly honor.

Parts of "Spacehounds" date back to the early 1930s, 75 years ago as of this writing. The goofy anachronisms are half the fun here, based on Smith's odd inability to imagine any technology much different from his own. The dated social commentary is amusing, too, for example in his mention of a dozen-plus of the space-liner's female passengers getting married before their rescuers arrived. They obviously didn't marry each other, but it somehow appears that women marry but men don't.

The date of writing is closer to Jules Verne than to today's science fiction, but a good bit harder to take seriously. Well, being serious isn't all that much fun anyway. If you want a happy bit of heroic space-silliness, Doc Smith is the man to bring it to you.

//wiredweird