Rating: 
Summary: Let's Not Go Overboard
Review: "Best SF Ever"? I don't think so, but it did start the whole
Space Opera genre and for that we should be grateful. However,
the whole Lensman series is not very well written ( how many
times can you say "coruscating rays of death"? ) and I can only
recommend reading it to someone between the ages of 12 and 16.After that you move on to more weighty Space Opera. You start to
read Bear and Heinlein and Pournelle - remembering fondly
( of course ), that without Doc Smith, they would not exist.
Rating: 
Summary: A great read for any sci-fi buff.
Review: After reading this you will see where George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry were comming from. It's the 'Roots' of science fiction. E. E. Smith style takes some getting used to, but after the first 50 pages or so it's a very easy read.
Rating: 
Summary: Every SF fan needs to have read these, and will love them
Review: Doc Smith is basic to the genre. He's the first of the 2 1/2 supernovae to hit the field (the half being Stanley G. Weinbaum, the other full one being Heinlein of course). His tales of intergalactic, even interuniversal, adventure are more thoughtful than they look on the surface. And Smith is actually a powerful and controlled prose writer. He sometimes tends towards the purple, and often the informal, but his sentences do what he intended them to do. Read these books! By the way, his last book was written in 1965, not 1948 as claimed in an earlier review (_Skylark Duquesne_).
Rating:
Summary: E.E. Doc Smith writes the best S. F. books, period.
Review: Doc Smith wrote his last book around 1948 and they are still accurate scientificly and extremely enjoyable reading. The only faux pau is Doc uses analog instead of digital, as digital had not been invented yet. Everything else is as current as Asimov, and a better "read". He wrote several other series besides "Lensmen" and they are all very good, easy to digest books. Doc Smith develops his books like Asimov, starting with something familar and exterpolating into the future. He does not just say this gizmo works because I say so, he develops it logically. One of my favorite authors of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, exciting, and well writen
Review: E.E. (Doc) Smith is known to some as the master of science fiction. Before Asimov, before Clarke this man was writing things that would be astounding readers for years to come. I belive that his famous lensmen series is one of the best series of science fiction ever made. The frist and probibly most famous book is Triplanetary which starts out the series, the second which is Frist Lensmen is not only a great book, but it is so interesting I own six different copies. The thing about this auther that I love is that it is in a scientist's point of view. Asimov was a scientist before he wrote his frist books, so was Clarke. So if you love books writen by a scientists point of view you will love the Lensmen series
Rating:
Summary: Trendsetting
Review: E.E. Smith was as much of a pioneer in the field of science fiction as Jules Verne or H.G. Wells were. Was his writing as cultured as theirs? No, but he was a marvelous storyteller, and contributed a number of "firsts" in science fiction. The first intergalactic tales, the first "space operas," and the first stories of the scientist as hero (all beginning with "Skylark of Space" in 1928). With his Lensmen series, Smith tells tales on a somewhat more ambitious scope, and even manages to get a bit mystical with his dualistic struggle between the godlike Arisians and the satanic Eddorians. The Lensmen, agents of the Arisians, become the human instruments of this struggle. Each Lensmen is gifted with a bracelet-like device containing a multi-faceted lens which can be worn by that person alone, and which enables the wearer to share a telepathic rapport with all other Lensmen, as well as amplifying the wearer's abilities to superhuman levels. What is interesting is that in the 1960's, comic-book editor Julius Schwartz used the Lensmen concept in his revamp of the DC superhero "Green Lantern." Instead of a bracelet, each hero in the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps wore a power ring. Schwartz's counterparts to the Arisians were the Guardians of the Universe. Arguments can be made that the Lensmen series is sexist (in "First Lensman," women are denied the Lens) or racist (the Lensmen family lineage constructed by the Arisians is all white), but we're still dealing with quite a story for 1934. For further details on Smith, check out my E.E. Smith web page at http://www.noblecan.org/~mfraley/smith.html
Rating:
Summary: The Lensman Series: The definition of space opera
Review: First Lensman (with Triplanetary) is the prequil to what is essentially a four-volume novel: Galactic Patrol, Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensman, and Children of the Lens. Conceived as one novel and sold to John W. Campbell for serialization in Astounding before World War II, the "Lensman" novel tells the story of the final conflict between the peaceful Arisians and the warmongering Eddorians, races with near supernatural mental abilities, expressed through the conflict of their "human" (including the denizens of millions of planets in two galaxies) allies. First Lensman, written for inclusion as part of the first hardcover edition in (about) 1950, tells the story of Virgil Samms, the first human selected as a bearer of the Arisian LENS. The LENS is a brightly glowing crystalline artifact which bestows on the entity for which one is made the ability of telepathic communication, independent of language; later wearers (including Samms' descent Clarissa McDougall and her husband, Kimball Kinnison) develop abilities to manipulate the minds of other abilities, which development culminates in their five children, conceived by the Arisians as the ultimate weapon in the Eddorian war. Other reviewers here have commented on "Doc" Smith's well-known melodramatic prose; First Lensman, as a later book, is much more mature, and conveys many lessons derived from Smith's experiences as a hard-rock miner and as a quality control manager in a World War II ordnance plant. (Read carefully, it conveys more information about successful management techniques than any book I am aware of -- including Tom Peter's THRIVING ON CHAOS.) And, although it doesn't slack on hard-driven interstellar combat, the real battles are fought on the ground, in a poltiical campaign against a bitterly corrupt opposition which makes the '92 and '96 presidential elections look like a Kindergarden squabble. (For the record, in both years, my election bumper sticker supported the team of "Picard and Riker.") In the thirty years since I discovered the Lensman books, I've read the series well over a dozen times, and I would strongly urge any reader interested in science fiction which masterfully merges escapism with food for deep speculative thought to take advantage of this current offering, the first time the series has been in print for 14 years. (P.S. -- Doc's "day" job except for WWII was as the chemist in charge of pastry mixes for a Michigan mill, and popular rumor has it that he held patents for the development of several popular pastries, including the doughnut!
Rating:
Summary: The Lensmen Series
Review: I have all the paperback books from the 60's and they standout as one of the finest science fiction books or series in my library. Doc Smith's imagination and books are timeless along with the other great writers like Campbell and Asimov.
I rarely loan out my copies to friends or family as they are over 30 years old. I look forward to buying new copies and introducing my stepdaughter to Doc Smith and the Lensmen.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I have read all german Editions from the Lensmen Cycle. Now I've read the Original Edition and was really disapointed for our German Translators. They should have let it be to try to translate the Origin. To many passes of the Origin are missing. I really don't know why. Perhaps anybody could tell me if there is any possibility or allowance to translate the whole Edition in German (Latest known Edition for me ist 1985)
Rating:
Summary: An EXCELLENT series, strongly recommended.
Review: I have read the entire series of Lensman Novels, and I believe the books to be the best I have EVER read, and believe me, I have read a lot of Science Fiction. If your looking for a great Sci-Fi adventure Series, read this.
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