"E. E. Doc Smith - Best of E. E. Doc Smith" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

me. In fact, the more improbable a
thing, the better I like it-so long as it cannot be demonstrated
mathematically impossible. I got the idea of
inertialessness from a lecture given at the University of Michigan in 1912."

So, this time, the eight-limbed amphibians of the far planet Nevia, who were
greedy for iron rations, were properly
frustrated by Conway Costigan and his colleagues, and obliged to sign a Treaty
of Eternal Peace. And thirteen years
later, to make a book of it, Smith wrote six new chapters to precede the
Amazing story, barking back to the dawn of
creation, recalling the end of Atlantis and the fall of Rome, and drawing on
his own experiences during two world
wars. All history is seen as a titanic struggle between two races of
super-beings, the Arisians and the Eddorians,
who influence human-kind for good or ill as civilization advances to the era
of the Triplanetary League.

When the book appeared in 1948, even Smith's gentler critics had difficulty in
digesting this turgid mixture of cos-

mic imagery and rip-roaring adventure. Nevertheless it was accepted as a
useful prelude to the "Lensman"
saga-most of which had already run its course in the revived Astounding
Stories. The missing link was First
Lensman, which Smith wrote specially for book publication in 1950 to bridge
the gap between Triplanetary and
Galactic Patrol, first serialized in 1937-38. By that time Astounding readers
had claimed "Doc" Smith for their
own. Prodded by editor F. Orlin Tremaine, he had produced a third "Skylark"
story which the magazine presented
with a fanfare in 1934 and ran through seven issues. With the first
installment of Skylark of Valeron the
magazine's sales soared, and at the end the author had increased his fans by
thousands. He had also put what seemed
to be an irreversible end to the luckless DuQuesne by reducing him to a
capsule of pure intellect and flinging him
into the fourth dimension. But good villains die hard, and he was still
immortal . . .

That Astounding was in its most expansive conceptual period at this time lent
power to Smith's imagination, and
thus Dick Seaton's mental capacity, his new spaceship and his area of
operations were all enlarged to maximum
proportions. After Valeron it seemed there was nothing left to explore, nor
any more possible variations on the
familiar themes which had made Smith's tales so popular. And he was still a
part-time writer; he had business
problems to wrestle with. For seventeen years he had been employed as chief
chemist with a Michigan firm