/sf/ - Lensman

Lensman Anonymous 2017-07-30 05:02:24Z No. 19
1950_Galactic_Patrol.epub (application/epub+zip, 484K)

Lately I've been reading the Lensman stuff. It's really top-notch, but unfortunately some of the texts that you normally find (even from Gutenberg) have some serious typos. For example, in some of the later books “Ploor” is consistently referred to as “Floor”.

So as I've been reading these, I've been fixing up a few of the typos. I'm only about halfway through, but I might as well post these.

This is also one series where the correct reading order is not as obvious as it should be, since Smith went back and revised the books to increase continuity. For example, Triplanetary (the novella) was written first, but Triplanetary (the version that fits into the Lensman universe) was written sixth, as a prequel.

Anonymous 2017-07-30 05:09:57Z No. 20
1951_Gray_Lensman.epub (application/epub+zip, 344K)

Here's the second one. The tech levels are starting to creep up significantly - this is the one where factions start throwing planets around.

Anonymous 2017-07-30 10:26:24Z No. 21
1953_Second_Stage_Lensman.epub (application/epub+zip, 368K)

Here's the third. This was the first which needed serious fixing: for example, in chapter 14 about a third of the “the”s had been replaced with “die”s.

Anonymous 2017-08-11 09:34:15Z No. 24
1954_Children_of_the_Lens.epub (application/epub+zip, 696K)

Here's the fourth, the last of the main series. Some bits were wrapped up sort of strangely, and in particular some of the antagonists (or their devices) were sort of introduced and immediately discarded in ways that don't quite fit, but I suppose that's an artifact of being serialized.

After having finished this, I have a bit of a question. The Lensmen aren't just strong and smart, they rigidly follow a code of Civilization. “Lensman's Load” and all that. This is enforced by the Arisians, who make sure that only the moral get Lenses. But Nadreck's morality seems substantially different, particularly in the matter of not risking his own life. Is this addressed in any of the other spin-off material, something like “Palainians are psychically linked, if Nadreck dies then 50 million of his fellows will instantly die as well”?

Anonymous 2017-08-11 09:36:12Z No. 25
qadlop.png (image/png, 60K, 618x213)

Also, this is the novel-within-a-novel that gets written during CotL. Smith made quite a few cracks about space-opera in this book.

Anonymous 2017-08-12 23:03:53Z No. 26
1948_Triplanetary.epub (application/epub+zip, 268K)

Here's Triplanetary.

Anonymous 2017-08-24 19:21:07Z No. 27
1950_First_Lensman.epub (application/epub+zip, 380K)

And here's First Lensman, the last of the standard series. This actually answered my question from >>24, or at least acknowledges it: there's a bit where Samms talks to some Palainians in depth. I'm still not fully convinced that the setup of determining a potential Lensman's worth is consistent.

I may clean Vortex Blaster after this, but I may decide to save it for later.

Anonymous 2019-12-26 00:47:10Z No. 49
1960_The_Vortex_Blaster.epub (application/epub+zip, 304K)

>>27
Since somebody asked about these on 4chan's /m/, I realized I never posted Vortex Blaster. I can't remember if I ever applied the notes I had from proofreading, so it may still have a bunch of typos, but here it is anyway.

Anonymous 2020-09-17 20:14:58Z No. 52
ssls.jpg (image/jpeg, 120K, 1039x1003)

OP, I know this is a dead board, but thank you for your service. I can't tell you how egregious the spelling and formatting mistakes were on the 'official' ebooks on Amazon.

Anonymous 2024-12-07 23:58:31Z No. 53

It's nearly 2025. I'm lost. I found this. Thank you for the hard work anon. Bless you.

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