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Triplanetary (novel)
Encyclopedia
Triplanetary is a science fiction
novel and space opera
by E. E. Smith
. It was first serialized in the magazine Amazing Stories
in 1934. After the Lensman series was published, Smith expanded and reworked the novel into the first of two Lensman prequels (the second prequel was a new original novel, First Lensman
). It was published in book form in 1948
by Fantasy Press
.
The novel covers several episodes in an eons-long eugenics
project of the super-intelligences of the Arisia
. This alien race is breeding two genetic lines to become the ultimate weapon in Arisia's cosmic war with their arch enemy, the Eddore. The initial chapters cover the Kinnison genetic line during the fall of Atlantis and Nero's (Gharlane of Eddore) reign in Rome. These tales were inserted into the novel following the serialized release, along with chapters covering members of the Kinnison line in World Wars One, Two and Three.
The final chapter of Triplanetary tells of the discovery of the inertialess drive that allows faster than light travel. Patrolman Conway Costigan and his friends engage in a space battle with Gray Roger the pirate gangster. This conflict is complicated by the arrival of the technologically superior, extra-Solar, amphibian-like Nevians, resulting in the first interstellar war involving humans. In this story Virgil Samms and Roderick Kinnison, two very important members of the eugenics
project, are introduced. They will play the leading roles in the next story, First Lensman
.
is a prologue in the Lensman series. It consists of two major parts. The first explains the series background, which consists of a war of mental power between the evil Eddorians and the benevolent Arisians. This conflict is carried out through the history of an oblivious humankind on Earth, during which the Arisians perform a eugenics project to breed two human genetic lines. These lines are intended to become the ultimate weapon in Arisia's cosmic war with Eddore.
The author takes five defining chapters to cover the background of the Kinnison line: the fall of Atlantis (through a nuclear war), an attempted coup in Rome against the Eddorian-controlled Nero, the First and Second World Wars, and, finally, a nuclear Third World War. In each of these periods he tells part of the story of the two families who will be of importance later on, and who will produce the two people whose children will be the culmination of the human eugenics project, Kimball Kinnison and Clarissa MacDougall. One genetic line is always male and is called "Kinnison" or some close variation. The other line can be male or female, and is distinguished by red-bronze hair and unusually colored gold flecked-tawny eyes.
The final part of the book, which was originally published as a magazine story, takes up the tale after civilization has been rebuilt with the covert help of the Arisians. Humanity has explored the Solar System
and formed the Triplanetary League, which consists of an alliance of Earth with the governments of Mars and Venus. Prior to the start of the main story, humans have set up colonies and fought the first interplanetary war against the Adepts of North Polar Jupiter.
The Nevians decide that humans are inferior beings, and carve up both fleets using a ray that reduces every atom of free or combined iron in both sides' ships and men into a red, liquid "allotropic iron". This substance is used by the Nevians to power their interstellar ships and their power plants at home. However, the use of this ray means the death of nearly every person in both fleets. Roger survives the battle and flees to start a new operation on a distant world.
After absorbing the fleets, the Nevian ship goes on to the Earth and the same action is taken against the city of Pittsburgh before the ship heads for home. A Triplanetary Patrol agent named Conway Costigan is captured by the Nevians, along with his love interest, Clio Marsden, and an old space hand and friend, Captain Bradley. Costigan is actually an undercover operative of Triplanetary Intelligence and uses a secret technology called an ultra-wave spy ray to examine the Nevian technology, then he sends reports home to Earth scientists.
On Earth, Patrol scientists are working feverishly on their new "Super Ship" the "Boise". This ship has mankind's first Inertialess Drive and hence can travel faster than light. Using Costigan's reports, human scientists figure out Nevian technology, improve upon it, and install it on the "Boise". After forcing a second Nevian ship to flee, the "Boise" heads for Nevia. On the way, the "Boise" locates the new pirate base. After much fighting, Roger is defeated by a resurgent Patrol armed with both human and Nevian technology.
The three live captives taken by the Nevians as zoological specimens are taken home to Nevia and put on display. Costigan and his companions stage several escape attempts from their Nevian kidnappers, but are repeatedly foiled. Finally they escape and head for Earth, being chased by the first Nevian ship. The "Boise" reaches them before the Nevians, and Costigan and his companions are rescued. The Nevians are then fought to a stalemate. A peace is negotiated and the Nevians are forced to acknowledge humans as equals.
in 1934. Following the success of his Lensman series, Smith expanded and reworked the novel into the first of two Lensman prequels (the second prequel was a new original novel, First Lensman
). It was published in book form in 1948
by Fantasy Press
in an edition of 4,941 copies.
Major changes to the original version were new introductory chapters concerning the history of the benevolent super-race, the Arisians (who resemble giant human brains) and their enemies, the demonic super-race, the Eddorians (who resemble amoeba). Smith also introduced the idea that the original novel's villain, Gray Roger, had always been secretly Gharlane of Eddore, but disguised in human form. We also learn that Gharlane had previously disguised himself as Nero.
, reviewing the 1948 edition, praised the novel as the opening of "an epic which has no parallel in science fiction."
Algis Budrys
said that Triplanetary "validated the melding of engineers' dreams and pulp grandiosity, dubbed 'superscience fiction'."
Everett F. Bleiler
, however, characterized the novel as "old-fashioned space opera, with a typical romance"; he faulted Smith's modifications to fit the story into his Lensman continuity as "far from convincing."
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 and space opera
Space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...
by 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 serialized in the magazine Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
in 1934. After the Lensman series was published, Smith expanded and reworked the novel into the first of two Lensman prequels (the second prequel was a new original novel, First Lensman
First Lensman
First Lensman is a science fiction novel and space opera by author Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.. It was first published in 1950 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 5,995 copies. Although it is the second novel in the Lensman series, it was the last written...
). It was published in book form in 1948
1948 in literature
The year 1948 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The Pulitzer Prize for the Novel is renamed the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction....
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...
.
The novel covers several episodes in an eons-long eugenics
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
project of the super-intelligences of the Arisia
Arisia
Arisia is a Boston-area science fiction convention, named for a planet in the Lensman novels by E. E. "Doc" Smith. The name was chosen as an homage to an older Boston-area con, Boskone, which took the typical ending for a convention—con—and then altered the spelling to match the name of an...
. This alien race is breeding two genetic lines to become the ultimate weapon in Arisia's cosmic war with their arch enemy, the Eddore. The initial chapters cover the Kinnison genetic line during the fall of Atlantis and Nero's (Gharlane of Eddore) reign in Rome. These tales were inserted into the novel following the serialized release, along with chapters covering members of the Kinnison line in World Wars One, Two and Three.
The final chapter of Triplanetary tells of the discovery of the inertialess drive that allows faster than light travel. Patrolman Conway Costigan and his friends engage in a space battle with Gray Roger the pirate gangster. This conflict is complicated by the arrival of the technologically superior, extra-Solar, amphibian-like Nevians, resulting in the first interstellar war involving humans. In this story Virgil Samms and Roderick Kinnison, two very important members of the eugenics
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
project, are introduced. They will play the leading roles in the next story, First Lensman
First Lensman
First Lensman is a science fiction novel and space opera by author Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.. It was first published in 1950 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 5,995 copies. Although it is the second novel in the Lensman series, it was the last written...
.
Background
TriplanetaryTriplanetary
Triplanetary was a science fiction board wargame published by Game Designers' Workshop in 1973. It was a simulation of space combat within the solar system in the early 21st Century. The game was designed by Marc W. Miller as part of a series to be named "The Stars! The Stars!". A second edition of...
is a prologue in the Lensman series. It consists of two major parts. The first explains the series background, which consists of a war of mental power between the evil Eddorians and the benevolent Arisians. This conflict is carried out through the history of an oblivious humankind on Earth, during which the Arisians perform a eugenics project to breed two human genetic lines. These lines are intended to become the ultimate weapon in Arisia's cosmic war with Eddore.
The author takes five defining chapters to cover the background of the Kinnison line: the fall of Atlantis (through a nuclear war), an attempted coup in Rome against the Eddorian-controlled Nero, the First and Second World Wars, and, finally, a nuclear Third World War. In each of these periods he tells part of the story of the two families who will be of importance later on, and who will produce the two people whose children will be the culmination of the human eugenics project, Kimball Kinnison and Clarissa MacDougall. One genetic line is always male and is called "Kinnison" or some close variation. The other line can be male or female, and is distinguished by red-bronze hair and unusually colored gold flecked-tawny eyes.
The final part of the book, which was originally published as a magazine story, takes up the tale after civilization has been rebuilt with the covert help of the Arisians. Humanity has explored the Solar System
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
and formed the Triplanetary League, which consists of an alliance of Earth with the governments of Mars and Venus. Prior to the start of the main story, humans have set up colonies and fought the first interplanetary war against the Adepts of North Polar Jupiter.
Main story
As the story begins, interplanetary commerce is plagued by pirates. The fleet of these pirates is led by Gray Roger, a surviving Adept of North Polar Jupiter. Unbeknownst to the Patrol, Gray Roger is actually Gharlane of Eddore. The pirate fleet and the Triplanetary Patrol are in the midst of a large scale engagement when an alien race known as the Nevians show up. The Nevians are the dominant, amphibious race of the planet Nevia, located many light years distant from the Sun. Their planet is desperately short of iron, so they set out with a spaceship to try to obtain more.The Nevians decide that humans are inferior beings, and carve up both fleets using a ray that reduces every atom of free or combined iron in both sides' ships and men into a red, liquid "allotropic iron". This substance is used by the Nevians to power their interstellar ships and their power plants at home. However, the use of this ray means the death of nearly every person in both fleets. Roger survives the battle and flees to start a new operation on a distant world.
After absorbing the fleets, the Nevian ship goes on to the Earth and the same action is taken against the city of Pittsburgh before the ship heads for home. A Triplanetary Patrol agent named Conway Costigan is captured by the Nevians, along with his love interest, Clio Marsden, and an old space hand and friend, Captain Bradley. Costigan is actually an undercover operative of Triplanetary Intelligence and uses a secret technology called an ultra-wave spy ray to examine the Nevian technology, then he sends reports home to Earth scientists.
On Earth, Patrol scientists are working feverishly on their new "Super Ship" the "Boise". This ship has mankind's first Inertialess Drive and hence can travel faster than light. Using Costigan's reports, human scientists figure out Nevian technology, improve upon it, and install it on the "Boise". After forcing a second Nevian ship to flee, the "Boise" heads for Nevia. On the way, the "Boise" locates the new pirate base. After much fighting, Roger is defeated by a resurgent Patrol armed with both human and Nevian technology.
The three live captives taken by the Nevians as zoological specimens are taken home to Nevia and put on display. Costigan and his companions stage several escape attempts from their Nevian kidnappers, but are repeatedly foiled. Finally they escape and head for Earth, being chased by the first Nevian ship. The "Boise" reaches them before the Nevians, and Costigan and his companions are rescued. The Nevians are then fought to a stalemate. A peace is negotiated and the Nevians are forced to acknowledge humans as equals.
Publication history
Triplanetary was first serialized in the magazine Amazing StoriesAmazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
in 1934. Following the success of his Lensman series, Smith expanded and reworked the novel into the first of two Lensman prequels (the second prequel was a new original novel, First Lensman
First Lensman
First Lensman is a science fiction novel and space opera by author Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.. It was first published in 1950 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 5,995 copies. Although it is the second novel in the Lensman series, it was the last written...
). It was published in book form in 1948
1948 in literature
The year 1948 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The Pulitzer Prize for the Novel is renamed the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction....
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 4,941 copies.
Major changes to the original version were new introductory chapters concerning the history of the benevolent super-race, the Arisians (who resemble giant human brains) and their enemies, the demonic super-race, the Eddorians (who resemble amoeba). Smith also introduced the idea that the original novel's villain, Gray Roger, had always been secretly Gharlane of Eddore, but disguised in human form. We also learn that Gharlane had previously disguised himself as Nero.
- 1934, USA, Amazing StoriesAmazing StoriesAmazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
, (January 1934) serialized magazine publication in 4 parts - 1948, USA, Fantasy PressFantasy PressFantasy 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...
, (1948) Hardback, 4,941 copies - 1950, USA, Fantasy PressFantasy PressFantasy 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...
, (1950) Hardback, 2,505 copies, title in yellow - 1954, UK, Boardman BooksBoardman BooksFounded by Thomas Volney Boardman in the 1930s, T.V. Boardman, Ltd. , was but one of many London publishing houses turning out both paperback and hardcover books, pulp magazines, and comics. Boardman Books is best known for publishing the long-running monthly series of hardcover Bloodhound...
, (1954) Hardback - 1960, Germany, Zimmermann, (1960) Hardback, as Die Planetenbasis
- 1965, USA, Pyramid BooksPyramid BooksJove 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...
, (1965) Paperback - 1997, UK, Ripping Publishing ISBN 1-899884-12-2, (July 1997) Paperback
- 1997, USA, Old Earth Books ISBN 1-882968-09-3, (November 1997) Paperback
Reception
P. Schuyler MillerP. 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...
, reviewing the 1948 edition, praised the novel as the opening of "an epic which has no parallel in science fiction."
Algis Budrys
Algis Budrys
Algis Budrys was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names "Frank Mason", "Alger Rome", "John A. Sentry", "William Scarff", and "Paul Janvier."-Biography:...
said that Triplanetary "validated the melding of engineers' dreams and pulp grandiosity, dubbed 'superscience fiction'."
Everett F. Bleiler
Everett F. Bleiler
Everett Franklin Bleiler was an editor, bibliographer, and scholar of science fiction, detective fiction, and fantasy literature. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he co-edited the first "year's best" series of science fiction anthologies, and his Checklist of Fantastic Literature has been called...
, however, characterized the novel as "old-fashioned space opera, with a typical romance"; he faulted Smith's modifications to fit the story into his Lensman continuity as "far from convincing."