Gray Lensman
Encyclopedia
Gray Lensman is a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel by author E. E. Smith
E. E. Smith
Edward Elmer Smith, Ph.D., also, E. E. Smith, E. E. "Doc" Smith, Doc Smith, "Skylark" Smith, and Ted was a food engineer and early science fiction author who wrote the Lensman series and the Skylark series, among others...

. It was first published in book form in 1951
1951 in literature
The year 1951 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*E. E. Cummings and Rachel Carson are awarded Guggenheim Fellowships.*Flannery O'Connor is diagnosed with lupus....

 by Fantasy Press
Fantasy Press
Fantasy Press was an American publishing house specialising in fantasy and science fiction titles. Established in 1946 by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach in Reading, Pennsylvania, it was most notable for publishing the works of authors such as Robert A. Heinlein and E. E. Smith...

 in an edition of 5,096 copies. The novel was originally serialized in the magazine Astounding in 1939.
Gray Lensman is the fourth book in the classic Lensman series and the second to focus on the adventures of Lensman extraordinaire Kimball Kinnison. While the novel is colored by 1930s sensibilities, it remains an exciting space opera complete with lantern jawed heroes, bizarre aliens, scheming villains, and colossal space battles. In this, the fourth Lensman book, the path to the final conflict between the Arisians and the Eddorians is set.

Plot synopsis

The action in Gray Lensman picks up immediately where Galactic Patrol left off, in the middle of the battle to destroy Helmuth's Main Base and hopefully end the threat of Boskone. After the base falls, Kinnison finds some clues that lead him to think that maybe Helmuth was not the head of Boskone after all. The clues (plus some deduction about the effects of colliding galaxies) lead Kinnison to mount an expedition aboard the newly constructed super dreadnought Dauntless into Lundmark's galaxy (the second galaxy) where he thinks the true head of Boskone might reside. The Dauntless locates a planet under attack and comes to its aid, destroying the Boskonian forces and discovering that the entire planet is capable of going "free" (that is, inertialess, the method used in the Lensman books to achieve interstellar and intergalactic space travel). As quickly as they arrived on Boskonian turf, the Lensman return to the "First Galaxy" (the Milky Way) with the space-faring planet and its grateful residents.

Having made an expedition into a Boskonian-held galaxy (and making the assumption that pretty much all of the galaxy save for the one planet they brought back is under Boskonian control) Kinnison decides that since the patrol was not yet strong enough to attack the second galaxy militarily, he will follow leads to the upper levels of Boskone through the traffic in the illegal drug thionite.

The novel then follows Kinnison as he tries to infiltrate the Boskonian drug network. Along the way, Kinnison learns something else new: As a Second Stage Lensman he no longer needs his Lens to do Lensman things like read minds or communicate telepathically, although he works better while wearing it. Kinnison suffers some setbacks, and has to assume a couple different identities, eventually one requiring him to learn to drink and use drugs. Even though he tries to "drink" while ,as much as possible, actually letting the people around him empty the bottles, and uses the least harmful drug (bentlam weed) he can use, it still takes him a while to get over the effects of the alcohol and drug after he moves on following the lead. Eventually he uncovers the information he was looking for, the name and the location of the boss of all Boskonian drug traffic in the first galaxy.

There is a minor interlude in the middle of Kinnisons undercover work in which the Delgonian overlords seem to have returned. Apparently when Kinnison, vanBuskirk, and Worsel thought they had killed all the Overlords (Galactic Patrol) they had missed a few. Because he had fought the overlords before, Kinnison is asked to lead the expedition to hunt them down, and the reptilian Worsel comes along (Worsel becomes his constant sidekick for the rest of the book). The Delgonians are dispatched in fairly short order, but only after the loss of many good men. Kim beats himself up over the casualties that he suffered because although he and Worsel were mentally strong enough to resist the overlords, his men weren't.

Realizing that the patrol will need new and much more powerful weapons before it can take on Boskone in the second galaxy, Kinnison, and the brief help of the "trimly attractive blonde" librarian at the Library of Science, convenes 50 the greatest scientists in the galaxy to work on some new weapon development projects (a sequence in which we find out that Kim and Worsel apparently have the two most highly rated minds in the galaxy). The weapon they come up with is called a "Negasphere", essentially composed of something like negative energy. It totally consumes absolutely anything it touches. They plan to make a Negasphere of planetary dimensions and use it against the leaders of Boskone.

He infiltrates the base of the head of all Boskonian drug traffic in the first galaxy and gets the information he had been hoping for ever since his trip to the second galaxy, the location of the actual leaders of Boskone. A group made up of members of a race called The Eich who call themselves "The Council of Boskone". Kim and Worsel set out on what amounts to an almost suicide mission to infiltrate the base of the Eich. Kinnison is captured and tortured. Unknown to the Eich, Worsel is hiding close by and finds a way to rescue Kinnison and get away. Infected by something that requires the patrol doctors to amputate all four limbs, blinded, and tortured almost to death, his life is saved, but it looks like he will be a basket case.

Earlier in the book a Poseian who called himself "Phillips" was financed by the patrol to try to come up with a way to allow higher beings to regenerate body parts in the same way lower animals (starfish, flatworms, etc) can. When Kinnison was injured Phillips was ready to try his procedure on humans. Needless to say, it works and Kinnison is brought back to full health. During his convalescence Clarissa is again his nurse and their love grows stronger.

He then leads an expedition to destroy the base of the head of Boskonian drug trafficking in the first galaxy using a negasphere and then, traveling to the Boskonian home turf in the second galaxy, to destroy their fleet and then the Eich's home base using a planet cracker, a pair of "free" planets released and inerted to crush the planet of the Eich between them. And so passed the Eich and the Council of Boskone. It was thought that finally the long struggle was finished and Civilization was triumphant.

The book is capped off by the culmination of the romance between Kimball and Clarissa MacDougall resulting in their planning to get married. The book ends with them walking off, hand in hand, into a bright and happy future.

Reception

Groff Conklin
Groff Conklin
Edward Groff Conklin was a leading science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories , wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet...

 gave the novel's first edition a scathing review in Galaxy
Galaxy Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...

, describing it as a "primitive artifact" which "simply gives [me] alternate waves of incredulous laughter and dull, acid boredom." P. Schuyler Miller
P. Schuyler Miller
Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...

 reviewed the novel favorably, saying "Whatever [Smith's] yarns have, Gray Lensman has more of, in greater abundance and variety, than any of the rest." One newspaper reviewer described it as "Science fiction of the highest calibre."

Publication history

  • 1939, USA, Astounding, Pub date October 1939, serialized magazine publication in 4 parts
  • 1951, USA, Fantasy Press
    Fantasy Press
    Fantasy Press was an American publishing house specialising in fantasy and science fiction titles. Established in 1946 by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach in Reading, Pennsylvania, it was most notable for publishing the works of authors such as Robert A. Heinlein and E. E. Smith...

    , Pub date 1951, Hardback
  • 1961, USA, Gnome Press
    Gnome Press
    Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics.The company was founded in 1948 by Martin Greenberg and David A. Kyle. Many of Gnome's titles were reprinted in England by Boardman Books...

    , Pub date 1961, Hardback
  • 1962, Germany, Terra, Pub Date 1962, Hardback, as Die grauen Herrscher
  • 1965, USA, Pyramid Books
    Pyramid Books
    Jove Books, formerly Pyramid Books, is a paperback publishing company, founded in 1949 by Almat Magazine Publishers . The company was sold to the Walter Reade Organization in the late 1960s. It was acquired in 1974 by Harcourt Brace which renamed it to Jove in 1977 and continued the line as an...

    , Pub date 1965, Paperback
  • 1997, UK, Ripping Publishing ISBN 1-899884-15-7, Pub date July 1997, Paperback
  • 1998, USA, Old Earth Books ISBN 1-882968-12-3, Pub date December 1998, Paperback
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