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Spacehounds of IPC

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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.

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.

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

A little simplistic, but for the age of the book, it was enjoyable to read for little, light fun before bed. The electronic version is a good copy. Can't beat the value.

never got this one before have read the lensman and skylark but never got this one....great book love all his books

This novel, first serialized in the AMAZING pulp magazine in 1931, is where it all began... space adventure, space opera, space heroics, rocketeers, space passenger liners, an alliance between natives of Venus, earth and Mars, routine interplanetary travel, vile and inhuman aliens... there had been nothing like it before.

"Doc" Smith (his Ph.D. was in food chemistry) had written the first great novels of interstellar exploration, the "Skylark" series. He later created another sweeping multivolume series about the Galactic Patrol protecting all civilized planets of the Milky Way from a gradually unfolding, seemingly all-powerful menace, in the "Lensman" novels. But SPACEHOUNDS OF IPC stands alone; Smith never returned to this setting (the moons of Jupiter) or these characters. Perhaps one reason is that the technology presented is hardly futuristic. Our heroes somehow get along with mainly late 19th Century gadgets in what might be the 22nd or 23rd Century.

Modern readers will be more astonished by the novel's depiction of women, but in fact it is completely standard, as found in almost all popular fiction of the era, say 1880 - 1930. At least in such fiction, whenever nice girls were tempted to "do it," they got up, went out, and played 18 holes of golf.

What was not standard was Smith's creation of a world in which the reader's sense of wonder was continuously engaged, in an adventure where every page offered amazing action and excitement. STAR WARS started right here. I can't remember when I first read this novel... probably in the mid-1950s. I come back to re-read it about once every 10 years.

This is an early 20th century sci fi novel. It has many anachronisms regarding scientific theory. Taking that into account, its an excellent read. An entertaining story line, with some solid science (as it stood at the time).

For those wanting to get a feel for the origins of sci-fi writing, E E Doc Smith is an author you shouldn't miss.

Spacehounds of the IPC (1947) is a standalone SF novel. It is set in a future when humanity has explored much of the solar system. Peace exists among the inhabitants of Venus, Terra, and Mars. Ships of the Interplanetary Corporation carry people and cargo between the inner planets.

In this novel, Percival Van Schravendyck Stevens is a mathematical physicist working for the IPC. Steve and his friends Brandon and Westfall are the top researchers within the company.

Nadia Newton is the daughter of the IPC chief executive. She has heard about Brandon, Westfall and Stevens, but has never met them.

In this story, Steve reports aboard the IPV Arcturus for duty as a computer. The board is concerned about the loss of time and passenger discomfort from constant maneuvering in flight. The pilots want to have computers aboard their vessels to alleviate the problem.

Steve believes that the problem is not the piloting, but out of position check stations. As the liner travels toward Mars, he finds some check stations well off their assigned positions. He reports this information to Newton back on Terra, who promises to take care of the matter.

Newton asks Steve to escort his daughter around the ship. Steve agrees and looks forward to showing the ship to the kid. Then he meets Nadia and realizes that she is not a child.

Nadia wants to see the whole ship. He shows her everything from the nose to the stern. They are far back in the vessel when Steve notices an abrupt shock.

He takes Nadia into a lifeboat and scans the outside. A small spherical ship is busily cutting up the rear end of the Arcturus with a force plane. Steve and Nadia hide in a three faced compartment until the attack is terminated.

The other ship has a force screen that repels even the frightful power of a war beam. It collects the various pieces of the ship with tractor beams and start moving the wreckage toward Jupiter. Any loose pieces and even escaping lifeboats are brought back into the mass of wreckage with the tractors.

When they approach Jupiter, Steve and Nadia escape from the wreckage to Ganymede. There they start to build the tools to construct an ultra-radio set to contact Brandon and Westfall. Since they have few tools on the boat, the effort takes months.

This tale presents Steve and Nadia with many challenges. Steve starts with little more than primitive tools with which to build better tools. Nadia becomes the provider, hunting and gathering food for the table.

This story was originally published in 1931 within Amazing. It starts much like the story "Triplanetary" (1934), but soon veers in another direction. It is a tale of castaways trying to return to civilization.

Naturally the Ganymede presented in this tale doesn't really exist. Like many tales of the period, the planets and moons were usually shown as supporting terrestrial life. Current data on the these worlds of the Solar System shows only Earth capable of supporting humans.

This is one of the author's singleton novels. The author has written at least two more standalone works: The Galaxy Primes and Masters of Space. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Smith fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of interplanetary adventure, advanced technology, and a bit of romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin