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Spacehounds of IPC
When the Inter-Planetary Corporation's crack liner *Arcturus* took off on a routine flight to Mars, it turned out to be the beginning of a most unexpected and long voyage. Attacked by a mysterious spaceship, the liner crash-landed on Ganymede. The survivors first had to master that world's primeval terrors, then construct a new spacecraft, and finally, find a way to deal with the warring intelligences of the Jovian system. Spacehounds can do all these things, given time, resources, and freedom from attack. But . . hen will these things start to run out?
220 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published January 1, 1972
About the author
E.E. "Doc" Smith
224 books313 followersEdward Elmer Smith (also E.E. Smith, E.E. Smith, Ph.D., E.E. “Doc” Smith, Doc Smith, “Skylark” Smith, or—to his family—Ted), was an American food engineer (specializing in doughnut and pastry mixes) and an early science fiction author, best known for the Lensman and Skylark series. He is sometimes called the father of space opera.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
November 20, 2019
I have a particular love for Nineteen Thirties Sci Fi, despite the fact that much of it has become quite dated and a difficult read for people significantly younger than me.
This was serialised in Amazing Stories in Nineteen Thirty One and I last read it about thirty years ago. Interestingly, in the intervening period my mind had somehow retained the first few chapters but nothing beyond.
I do remember enjoying it immensely and, to be fair, I enjoyed it almost as much the second time around, albeit having to deal with Smith's concept of a habitable Ganymede and the savage jungles of Jupiter itself, which today, getting on for a hundred years later, is not a viable prospect.
Steve (real name Percival Stevens) is your standard Smith hero; tall, white, highly intelligent, good looking and currently seconded to the research vessel Arcturus, en route to Mars. Steve's assignment is to even out the discrepancies in journey times and the calculations needed to get them to Mars via the shortest and smoothest route, sort of.
He is also asked to give a tour of the ship to the boss's daughter, Nadia, an attractive and intelligent young woman.
However, not long into the voyage, the ship is attacked by an alien vessel, sliced up and towed off in its pressurised sections to Jupiter.
From hereon in, we have classic Smith. The hero and the woman escape to Ganymede and, following a couple of adventures there, encounter other humanoid races who are being decimated by the evil six limbed Hexans from Jupiter's North pole. They visit Titan, learn a lot of Titan tech and return to Jupiter to radio Earth for help.
The dialogue, like all Smith's dialogue, is a language all of its own. Smith invents his own slang and verbal memes and throws them into standard Nineteen Thirties American which creates a cheesey but oddly poetic mix. It always stuck in my head that highly attractive womn in his Lensmen series were described as a 'Seven Sector Callout' and for that phrase alone, I salute him. He employs it here in a discussion about a woman
“You two seem to know Miss Pickering extraordinarily well. Would I be stepping on your toes if I give her a play?”
“Clear ether as far as we’re concerned.” Brandon shrugged his shoulders. “She’s been kicking around under foot ever since she was knee high to a duck—we gave her her first lessons on a slide rule.”
“Don’t be dumb, Norman. That woman’s a knock-out—a riot—a regular tri-planet call-out!”
“Oh, she’s all x, as far as that goes. She’s a good little scout, too—not half as dumb as she acts—and she’s one of the squarest little aces that ever waved a plume; but as for playing her—too much like our kid sister.”
“Good—me for her!” and they made their way back down to the control room.
Sexism, as evinced by such remarks, was a given for the early Nineteen Thirties and exacerbated by the demographic at which Amazing Stories was aimed, but here, refreshingly for the time, the heroine turns out to be very capable and does her share of the hunting, fighting and engineering work. (There's a lot of engineering work.)
She does however have to be rescued from a woman-eating orchid, just to stamp a seal on the masculine superiority thing in case readers were worried.
As always - Smith had a genius for this - the technobabble sounds amazing and appears to contain a mongrel mix of then contemporary science knitted into a big cardigan of waffle. I find it warm and comfortable personally, but that might be just me. I often feel the author would ave made a good politician, as he has the gift for putting over exciting concepts without really making a great deal of sense.
It looks like he was hoping to get more mileage out of this, given that Steve's friends, two other mental genii, enter the fray quite late on.
It's a well worn plot for Smith and as suspected, ends in genocide, with the humanoid races victorious. To be fair, the genocide is mostly carried out by another non-humanoid and antisocial race, but Steve's actions were the catalyst that led them to do it.
He's a bit too fond of his genocide, is Smith. I'm glad, now I think about it, that he stuck to writing and never went into politics.
This was serialised in Amazing Stories in Nineteen Thirty One and I last read it about thirty years ago. Interestingly, in the intervening period my mind had somehow retained the first few chapters but nothing beyond.
I do remember enjoying it immensely and, to be fair, I enjoyed it almost as much the second time around, albeit having to deal with Smith's concept of a habitable Ganymede and the savage jungles of Jupiter itself, which today, getting on for a hundred years later, is not a viable prospect.
Steve (real name Percival Stevens) is your standard Smith hero; tall, white, highly intelligent, good looking and currently seconded to the research vessel Arcturus, en route to Mars. Steve's assignment is to even out the discrepancies in journey times and the calculations needed to get them to Mars via the shortest and smoothest route, sort of.
He is also asked to give a tour of the ship to the boss's daughter, Nadia, an attractive and intelligent young woman.
However, not long into the voyage, the ship is attacked by an alien vessel, sliced up and towed off in its pressurised sections to Jupiter.
From hereon in, we have classic Smith. The hero and the woman escape to Ganymede and, following a couple of adventures there, encounter other humanoid races who are being decimated by the evil six limbed Hexans from Jupiter's North pole. They visit Titan, learn a lot of Titan tech and return to Jupiter to radio Earth for help.
The dialogue, like all Smith's dialogue, is a language all of its own. Smith invents his own slang and verbal memes and throws them into standard Nineteen Thirties American which creates a cheesey but oddly poetic mix. It always stuck in my head that highly attractive womn in his Lensmen series were described as a 'Seven Sector Callout' and for that phrase alone, I salute him. He employs it here in a discussion about a woman
“You two seem to know Miss Pickering extraordinarily well. Would I be stepping on your toes if I give her a play?”
“Clear ether as far as we’re concerned.” Brandon shrugged his shoulders. “She’s been kicking around under foot ever since she was knee high to a duck—we gave her her first lessons on a slide rule.”
“Don’t be dumb, Norman. That woman’s a knock-out—a riot—a regular tri-planet call-out!”
“Oh, she’s all x, as far as that goes. She’s a good little scout, too—not half as dumb as she acts—and she’s one of the squarest little aces that ever waved a plume; but as for playing her—too much like our kid sister.”
“Good—me for her!” and they made their way back down to the control room.
Sexism, as evinced by such remarks, was a given for the early Nineteen Thirties and exacerbated by the demographic at which Amazing Stories was aimed, but here, refreshingly for the time, the heroine turns out to be very capable and does her share of the hunting, fighting and engineering work. (There's a lot of engineering work.)
She does however have to be rescued from a woman-eating orchid, just to stamp a seal on the masculine superiority thing in case readers were worried.
As always - Smith had a genius for this - the technobabble sounds amazing and appears to contain a mongrel mix of then contemporary science knitted into a big cardigan of waffle. I find it warm and comfortable personally, but that might be just me. I often feel the author would ave made a good politician, as he has the gift for putting over exciting concepts without really making a great deal of sense.
It looks like he was hoping to get more mileage out of this, given that Steve's friends, two other mental genii, enter the fray quite late on.
It's a well worn plot for Smith and as suspected, ends in genocide, with the humanoid races victorious. To be fair, the genocide is mostly carried out by another non-humanoid and antisocial race, but Steve's actions were the catalyst that led them to do it.
He's a bit too fond of his genocide, is Smith. I'm glad, now I think about it, that he stuck to writing and never went into politics.
January 4, 2024
Spacehounds of IPC is a stand-alone novel by E.E. "Doc" Smith, the father of space opera (and donuts). It's a fun pulp adventure that was serialized in Amazing Stories in 1931 (a couple of years after Buck Rogers debuted and a few years prior to Flash Gordon) and was made available in a slightly revised hardback edition in 1947. Smith's writing style wasn't as good as he later achieved in the Lensmen books... for example, the pet-names of endearment Steve directs to Nadia seem odd (old golf sock and similar such) and there is the occasional poorly chosen exclamation like ""Great sputtering snakes!" Steve ejaculated. (Sounds painful.) And there are occasional lecture-blocks of science-theory that draw on too long, but the science is accurate as far as was known in the late 1920s, and science fiction was seen as a good vehicle for reader education. In fact, that was frequently promoted as its purpose. The slang and vernacular are somewhat difficult, but Nadia is a competent and intelligent young woman, not someone who's just there to be rescued. It's a fun story, and I enjoyed re-visiting it via this fine LibriVox presentation.
August 19, 2018
This is less a review than an explanation: some of it duplicates material in earlier reviews, but I've tried to tie it all together.
"Spacehounds of I.P.C." is one of the odd loners in E.E. Smith's output of science fiction, much of which is found in two series, the "Lensmen" stories (also modestly known in one edition as "The History of Civilization"), and the much shorter "Skylark" series (most of which which preceded the Lensman series, although a fourth novel was added late in Smith's long career).
It is a product of the early pulp era of magazine science fiction, written at a time when most science fiction that was published appeared only in the magazines. Those who expect a higher level of writing and world-building may be disappointed, but the story was a stage in the maturation of science fiction, and can probably be read out of curiosity -- although I still enjoy it as an adventure story.
Like pretty much the rest of Smith's output, it can be classed as "space opera," a sub-genre of which he was a founding father. It is rather creaky, with lots of dated assumptions about human behavior, among other things, but the story keeps moving.
The "Spacehounds" (compare "sea-dogs") -- the crews employed by the Inter-Planetary Corporation -- are a tough and resourceful bunch: maybe a little too resourceful for plausibility. (Some have compared them to Heinlein's omni-competent heroes, and a Wikipedia article mentions a suggestion that it was an influence on Heinlein.)
To complicate things, "Spacehounds" may not have been intended as a standalone, and things left inadequately explained or developed may once have had explanations held back for a story yet to be written.
The story was serialized in 1931, but with unauthorized changes by the magazine editor, apparently to produce equal-length installments, and, although Smith apparently considered it his best *science* fiction (in accordance with the physics, chemistry, and astronomy of the late 1920s), fans -- urged on by the editor -- wanted more interstellar adventures, like the "Skylark" stories (which reinvented or ignored physics to get interstellar spaceships to their destinations quickly).
In response to this editorial treatment, Smith took his next novel, "Triplanetary" (magazine text 1934), with some interstellar elements, to a different market. There are some marked similarities to the world of "Spacehounds," but also differences in the background and technology, and I have wondered whether the new story was deliberately altered in the writing so that it would *not* appear to be a planned sequel to something that had appeared elsewhere.
"Spacehounds" eventually got book publication in 1947, when a lot of (mostly quite good, or important) pulp-era stories were finding their way to (mostly fan-sponsored) hardcovers. It had a paperback Ace edition in 1966, in which I encountered it a few years later. (I don't know of any other hardcopy editions.)
I never had a chance to compare the two texts when I still had the paperback, so I don't know if Smith's original version was restored -- and if he otherwise modified it in any way. It was certainly not drastically revised -- the language and characterizations are clearly from the 1920s, and although Smith's style did not change a lot over the years, it did change (in my opinion, anyway).
In any case, the various Kindle editions all seem to be based on a Project Gutenberg transcript of the 1931 magazine text: Gutenberg even has it available in html format, which includes the original illustrations.
So you have a chance to discover what didn't go over as well as expected, but was a popular writer's favorite among his own books.
(The available texts of "Triplanetary" all seem to be from the 1948 revision for book publication -- more precisely, its Pyramid paperback reprint of the 1960s -- which added stories at the beginning to make it, retroactively, a part of the very popular Lensman series of the late 1930s and 1940s. So making comparisons to the available 1931 text of "Spacehounds" is tricky.)
"Spacehounds of I.P.C." is one of the odd loners in E.E. Smith's output of science fiction, much of which is found in two series, the "Lensmen" stories (also modestly known in one edition as "The History of Civilization"), and the much shorter "Skylark" series (most of which which preceded the Lensman series, although a fourth novel was added late in Smith's long career).
It is a product of the early pulp era of magazine science fiction, written at a time when most science fiction that was published appeared only in the magazines. Those who expect a higher level of writing and world-building may be disappointed, but the story was a stage in the maturation of science fiction, and can probably be read out of curiosity -- although I still enjoy it as an adventure story.
Like pretty much the rest of Smith's output, it can be classed as "space opera," a sub-genre of which he was a founding father. It is rather creaky, with lots of dated assumptions about human behavior, among other things, but the story keeps moving.
The "Spacehounds" (compare "sea-dogs") -- the crews employed by the Inter-Planetary Corporation -- are a tough and resourceful bunch: maybe a little too resourceful for plausibility. (Some have compared them to Heinlein's omni-competent heroes, and a Wikipedia article mentions a suggestion that it was an influence on Heinlein.)
To complicate things, "Spacehounds" may not have been intended as a standalone, and things left inadequately explained or developed may once have had explanations held back for a story yet to be written.
The story was serialized in 1931, but with unauthorized changes by the magazine editor, apparently to produce equal-length installments, and, although Smith apparently considered it his best *science* fiction (in accordance with the physics, chemistry, and astronomy of the late 1920s), fans -- urged on by the editor -- wanted more interstellar adventures, like the "Skylark" stories (which reinvented or ignored physics to get interstellar spaceships to their destinations quickly).
In response to this editorial treatment, Smith took his next novel, "Triplanetary" (magazine text 1934), with some interstellar elements, to a different market. There are some marked similarities to the world of "Spacehounds," but also differences in the background and technology, and I have wondered whether the new story was deliberately altered in the writing so that it would *not* appear to be a planned sequel to something that had appeared elsewhere.
"Spacehounds" eventually got book publication in 1947, when a lot of (mostly quite good, or important) pulp-era stories were finding their way to (mostly fan-sponsored) hardcovers. It had a paperback Ace edition in 1966, in which I encountered it a few years later. (I don't know of any other hardcopy editions.)
I never had a chance to compare the two texts when I still had the paperback, so I don't know if Smith's original version was restored -- and if he otherwise modified it in any way. It was certainly not drastically revised -- the language and characterizations are clearly from the 1920s, and although Smith's style did not change a lot over the years, it did change (in my opinion, anyway).
In any case, the various Kindle editions all seem to be based on a Project Gutenberg transcript of the 1931 magazine text: Gutenberg even has it available in html format, which includes the original illustrations.
So you have a chance to discover what didn't go over as well as expected, but was a popular writer's favorite among his own books.
(The available texts of "Triplanetary" all seem to be from the 1948 revision for book publication -- more precisely, its Pyramid paperback reprint of the 1960s -- which added stories at the beginning to make it, retroactively, a part of the very popular Lensman series of the late 1930s and 1940s. So making comparisons to the available 1931 text of "Spacehounds" is tricky.)
July 15, 2010
This is my first encounter with E.E. "Doc" Smith (not counting the anime adaptation of Lensman, which I am assured bears little resemblance to the novels).
Anachronisms aside, this was a pretty engaging listen (I found it as a free podcast from Uvula Audio, who puts out a staggering array of work for both children and adults- check them out at http://www.uvulaaudio.com/). It was really two stories- the first half of the book focuses on a pair of shipwrecked survivors of an unexpected attack on an interstellar transport. Then, once they are rescued, the rest focuses on the "war of science" between the various united humanities of the inner planets and the diabolical Hexans, as each attempts to replicate and improve upon the others' weaponry and sensory equipment in a mad race to deal the deathblow to the adversary.
The narrator (whose name I can't seem to find) has a truly incredible number of voices with which to portray the multitude of characters. It's quite impressive, even though a few of the voices grate on the ears over long stretches of dialogue, and a few others elicited involuntary snickers (the Vorkovians have a decidedly foppish lisp, for instance), but you have to give the guy credit for keeping them all straight.
The writing itself is typically hyperbolic pulp fare, with a fairly convincing pseudoscientific underpinning that I'm sure was the height of science fantasy in its day. The heroes are nearly infallible, nobody with a name ever dies (there are plenty of redshirts left floating around deep space, though), and scientific problems that seem insurmountable are solved in bursts of inspiration and thinktanks of intellectual giants from nearly every planet and moon, each of which seems to be a fully inhabited world with its own sentient race and ecosystem.
Having recently become a fan of the game Danger Patrol (http://dangerpatrol.com/), this is exactly the sort of background reading one might suggest for inspiration. Just be prepared for the trace elements of chauvinism and anthrocentricity that are inevitable in work from this genre and time.
Anachronisms aside, this was a pretty engaging listen (I found it as a free podcast from Uvula Audio, who puts out a staggering array of work for both children and adults- check them out at http://www.uvulaaudio.com/). It was really two stories- the first half of the book focuses on a pair of shipwrecked survivors of an unexpected attack on an interstellar transport. Then, once they are rescued, the rest focuses on the "war of science" between the various united humanities of the inner planets and the diabolical Hexans, as each attempts to replicate and improve upon the others' weaponry and sensory equipment in a mad race to deal the deathblow to the adversary.
The narrator (whose name I can't seem to find) has a truly incredible number of voices with which to portray the multitude of characters. It's quite impressive, even though a few of the voices grate on the ears over long stretches of dialogue, and a few others elicited involuntary snickers (the Vorkovians have a decidedly foppish lisp, for instance), but you have to give the guy credit for keeping them all straight.
The writing itself is typically hyperbolic pulp fare, with a fairly convincing pseudoscientific underpinning that I'm sure was the height of science fantasy in its day. The heroes are nearly infallible, nobody with a name ever dies (there are plenty of redshirts left floating around deep space, though), and scientific problems that seem insurmountable are solved in bursts of inspiration and thinktanks of intellectual giants from nearly every planet and moon, each of which seems to be a fully inhabited world with its own sentient race and ecosystem.
Having recently become a fan of the game Danger Patrol (http://dangerpatrol.com/), this is exactly the sort of background reading one might suggest for inspiration. Just be prepared for the trace elements of chauvinism and anthrocentricity that are inevitable in work from this genre and time.
December 21, 2012
Aliens, esoteric weapons, physics, romance! A fun, old-fashioned, outer space romp.
September 12, 2019
This space epic is stamped with E. E. "Doc" Smith's unique style. A buff, brainy hero and his female counterpart battle everything from perfumed plants to spacegoing aliens.
Some aspects of the book are a bit jarring in the 21st century. Its 1931 publication date is partly responsible for the quaintly (and wildly) incorrect physical conditions on the planets of the solar system. No trendy flawed heroes for Doc Smith; Sir Galahad barely compares to hero Steve. Attitudes toward women are much more equal than 1931 attitudes, but still a bit cringe-inducing by mainstream standards.
Other aspects of the book are still killer fabulous. Smith lavishes a lot of love on the battle descriptions, and the reader can almost smell the ozone. In general, and within the fairly outrageous sci fi plot devices, Smith has a great grasp on physics. This knowledge comes through when Steve and Nadia build a power generator - from scratch. His Venus, Mars, and Titan natives are crafted to suit their environments and among the best alien visions in the sci fi realm even by today's standards. He and the reader always know what acceleration the rockets are feeling. He kept track of energy expenditures, even if he made up fictional units to describe them. He shows nostalgic love for vacuum tubes, which, of course, are a key component of all his fictional communication devices (and in 1931 were the mainstay of electronics).
This book doesn't categorize well in today's market. It's an early sci fi classic, but it's also definitely a dinosaur in many ways. It contains visions vastly more sweeping than anything H. G. Wells could conjure up - if you can forgive the cartoonish characters.
Recommended? YES. If you don't have time to read the 5-book Lensman series, read Spacehounds of IPC instead.
Some aspects of the book are a bit jarring in the 21st century. Its 1931 publication date is partly responsible for the quaintly (and wildly) incorrect physical conditions on the planets of the solar system. No trendy flawed heroes for Doc Smith; Sir Galahad barely compares to hero Steve. Attitudes toward women are much more equal than 1931 attitudes, but still a bit cringe-inducing by mainstream standards.
Other aspects of the book are still killer fabulous. Smith lavishes a lot of love on the battle descriptions, and the reader can almost smell the ozone. In general, and within the fairly outrageous sci fi plot devices, Smith has a great grasp on physics. This knowledge comes through when Steve and Nadia build a power generator - from scratch. His Venus, Mars, and Titan natives are crafted to suit their environments and among the best alien visions in the sci fi realm even by today's standards. He and the reader always know what acceleration the rockets are feeling. He kept track of energy expenditures, even if he made up fictional units to describe them. He shows nostalgic love for vacuum tubes, which, of course, are a key component of all his fictional communication devices (and in 1931 were the mainstay of electronics).
This book doesn't categorize well in today's market. It's an early sci fi classic, but it's also definitely a dinosaur in many ways. It contains visions vastly more sweeping than anything H. G. Wells could conjure up - if you can forgive the cartoonish characters.
Recommended? YES. If you don't have time to read the 5-book Lensman series, read Spacehounds of IPC instead.
December 12, 2022
I dug through the archives for this ‘blast from the past’ a novel that introduced me to classic science fiction many years ago (many, many, many years). One of the classics of the space opera genre. A little jarring for 21st century readers but read this with a little nostalgia and I am sure you will enjoy.
I won’t go into much detail on the story but in short; A brainiac hero who turns the nerd stereotype on its head and a gorgeous, capable, love interest (smarter of course, as she doesn’t smoke). Space ships, aliens, battles to save the good guys. Everything a real science fiction should have. No annoying romance tropes, the protagonists know they love each other pretty much from the outset. Refreshing in its simplicity. I won’t ruin the ending but the good guys … (read and see).
Recommended as a trip to the past, and the future. Dig through your local 2nd hand book shop or buy via Apple book app for a very low price.
I won’t go into much detail on the story but in short; A brainiac hero who turns the nerd stereotype on its head and a gorgeous, capable, love interest (smarter of course, as she doesn’t smoke). Space ships, aliens, battles to save the good guys. Everything a real science fiction should have. No annoying romance tropes, the protagonists know they love each other pretty much from the outset. Refreshing in its simplicity. I won’t ruin the ending but the good guys … (read and see).
Recommended as a trip to the past, and the future. Dig through your local 2nd hand book shop or buy via Apple book app for a very low price.
October 9, 2023
This novel was originally written in 3 parts, and published in 3 issues of the Amazing Stories pulp magazine back in 1931, and this was certainly a common way for a number of authors to get their work published in that era. I downloaded my copy from the Gutenberg Project.
This does lead to a slight disjointedness between the three parts, although it doesn't really detract from the story. In other respects, this novel is classic Doc Smith - the heroes are bigger than life, the villains are irredeemably evil, there are plenty of weird alien lifeforms, and no shortage of coruscating beams of force 😁
Smith has copped plenty of criticism over the years - some of it is deserved, most (in my opinion) is not - but there is no denying that he was a giant of the early days of the Golden Era of science fiction. If you are familiar with Doc Smith's work, nothing in this novel will change your opinion. If you're not familiar, this novel is not a bad starting point - it's not as good as his Lensman series, but it is a standalone. This certainly comes under the category of classic space opera.
This does lead to a slight disjointedness between the three parts, although it doesn't really detract from the story. In other respects, this novel is classic Doc Smith - the heroes are bigger than life, the villains are irredeemably evil, there are plenty of weird alien lifeforms, and no shortage of coruscating beams of force 😁
Smith has copped plenty of criticism over the years - some of it is deserved, most (in my opinion) is not - but there is no denying that he was a giant of the early days of the Golden Era of science fiction. If you are familiar with Doc Smith's work, nothing in this novel will change your opinion. If you're not familiar, this novel is not a bad starting point - it's not as good as his Lensman series, but it is a standalone. This certainly comes under the category of classic space opera.
July 21, 2021
I was really surprised to find this at a library book sale... you don't see alot of EE Smith around, and a non-lensman book at that!
This was a strange mix of attempts at Hard Sci-fi (As best as one can do in the 40s at least) and Burroughs' style planetary travel.. which each planet and moon having their own biosphere and aliens.
The language and style scream the time period, when science could do anything if someone just tried hard enough and thought about it. I suspect there was written originally as a few short stories, as there are pretty distinct parts.. some space battles, some parts where the aliens take center stage (including some flying snake creatures), and a Robinson Crusoe part where two of the heroes are stuck on Ganymede and proceed to build their own ship.
Much of the tech is ridiculous.. massive techincal leaps are made in days but just reviewing alien tech, and everyone who knows science seems to know everything, but that's ok, it's a fun old sci fi book.
This was a strange mix of attempts at Hard Sci-fi (As best as one can do in the 40s at least) and Burroughs' style planetary travel.. which each planet and moon having their own biosphere and aliens.
The language and style scream the time period, when science could do anything if someone just tried hard enough and thought about it. I suspect there was written originally as a few short stories, as there are pretty distinct parts.. some space battles, some parts where the aliens take center stage (including some flying snake creatures), and a Robinson Crusoe part where two of the heroes are stuck on Ganymede and proceed to build their own ship.
Much of the tech is ridiculous.. massive techincal leaps are made in days but just reviewing alien tech, and everyone who knows science seems to know everything, but that's ok, it's a fun old sci fi book.
April 20, 2014
Unfortunately this book did not age well. While the author cannot be blamed for his failure to foresee the internet or the PC or any of the advances that science has since made in understanding the universe, the result is a story that I found very alien in its references to fourth order beams, a habitable Mars and nearly habitable Venus, warrior scientists and humans native to Jupiter's and Saturn's moons. For those familiar with the author's other works, some of the concepts like the serpentine Vorkuls, for example, were clearly reused in his later novels.
The protagonists, comprising an all capable. highly intelligent, physically perfect white male accompanied by a demure, supportive intelligent but submissive white female, is also a little jarring to the modern reader.
The protagonists, comprising an all capable. highly intelligent, physically perfect white male accompanied by a demure, supportive intelligent but submissive white female, is also a little jarring to the modern reader.
January 21, 2015
I read this after I read the author's 'Lensmen' series, although Spacehounds was written somewhat earlier. To be honest, I loved all the Lensmen books, and re-read them every so often. Spacehounds is ... well, the term 'purple prose' probably fits it best. However, to be fair, it does reflect the era that it was written in, and SF was very new as a genre.
So, OK, the prose is florid and the writing style is florid and all that, but it does show some writing talent and promise for better things. Which, of course, the author went on to do.
With all that in mind, you might enjoy it, despite its limitations.
So, OK, the prose is florid and the writing style is florid and all that, but it does show some writing talent and promise for better things. Which, of course, the author went on to do.
With all that in mind, you might enjoy it, despite its limitations.
May 20, 2017
For me, it's the archetype of the planetary adventure story. It has heroes (and even a heroine, of course properly deferential to her hero, but quite able to kick butt otherwise), technobabble, alien cultures (the running commentary on the boxing match between 10-armed aliens is fantastic) and all kinds of space ships, force planes, and cosmic energy. Not a "good book", but a book that entertainingly manages to represent a whole genre. It's also out of copyright and available for free from Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20857) and even LibriVox (https://librivox.org/spacehounds-of-i...).
May 15, 2018
The good guys are on a flight to mars when they are attacked and hijacked by some otherwise unknown inhabitants of the solar system. These newfound baddies are residents of Jupiter, and the scourge of the various races inhabiting the Jovian and Saturn's moons. Everyone gangs up together and puts the baddies in their place.
This story happens earlier in the timeline of Smith's universe. The IPC has only made contact with Martians and Venusians previous to the start of the story, and makes contact with the races of the outer planets in this story. Later in the Smith timeline, such as the Lensman stories, the residents of Tellus have made contact with races outside of the solar system and across our galaxy.
This story happens earlier in the timeline of Smith's universe. The IPC has only made contact with Martians and Venusians previous to the start of the story, and makes contact with the races of the outer planets in this story. Later in the Smith timeline, such as the Lensman stories, the residents of Tellus have made contact with races outside of the solar system and across our galaxy.
February 9, 2021
I know that Doc Smith is one of those seminal classics in SF, but man -- was he ever in love with his technobabble exposition. And given that this was written in 1931, his "future science" makes absolutely no sense. It's a great window into what was expected of the future, though: intelligent life on Mars and Venus and Callisto and Titan and TWO unrelated sapients on the surface (!) of Jupiter. Oddly enough, all of those species except the Jovian ones are all lumped in as "humanity," being the product of either remarkably similar parallel evolution or some kind of prehistoric seeding, and no one's really interested in which it is.
Gotta love the characterization, though -- everyone's personality can be described by one word: "Chipper!"
Gotta love the characterization, though -- everyone's personality can be described by one word: "Chipper!"
December 1, 2023
Doc Smith was a staple in my college years but I hadn't read this one. I read all the Skylark and Lensmen books I could lay hands on back then (and still have the paperbacks). However I don't remember the prose being so truly awful, especially the dialogue! There were some entertaining bits that reminded me that this book was written in 1931: Smoking--everybody smokes, except the lead female character (excuse me, "girl")! They hop around the solar system, all the way out to Neptune (Pluto was discovered in 1930)! Some weird ideas about radiation, though that might have been the usual SF mumbo-jumbo. Anyway a fun and nostalgic read.
December 19, 2023
Written in 1931 with an old-fashioned idea of the various planets in our solar system, yet surprisingly insightful with regards to how the assumed temperatures, pressures and atmospheres of various planets and moons would affect the humanoids who lived on them.
At a point late in the book, the ship's German doctor exclaims, 'Schrecklichkeit!', which I read as 'strike-a-light!'. I looked up the phrase, but can't find any mention that 'strike-a-light' is a corruption of 'Schrecklichkeit', meaning 'terror' or 'frightfulness'. There's also no other explanation as to where the phrase comes from, as far as I can see.
At a point late in the book, the ship's German doctor exclaims, 'Schrecklichkeit!', which I read as 'strike-a-light!'. I looked up the phrase, but can't find any mention that 'strike-a-light' is a corruption of 'Schrecklichkeit', meaning 'terror' or 'frightfulness'. There's also no other explanation as to where the phrase comes from, as far as I can see.
July 8, 2019
The Spacehounds of IPC is the kind of book you could write back in the classic pulp age when everything was possible. The solar system could have many different intelligent species, and some of them could have six-fold symmetry. Jupiter's moons could have life and breathable atmospheres. The first half is "Robinson Crusoe" experience, followed by a good bit of space opera. This is an example of the kind fiction written by people like Smith, John W. Campbell, and Edmund Hamilton.
I read this as part of a collection "The Works of E.E. "Doc" Smith"
I read this as part of a collection "The Works of E.E. "Doc" Smith"
July 13, 2021
Fantasy listening 🎧
Due to eye issues and damage from shingle Alexa reads to me, I find it like be there.
A will written fantasy Sc-Fi space adventure by EE Smith. The characters are interesting and will developed. The story line is futuristic far in to space as the main characters deal with space issues and problems. I would recommend to readers of space adventure. Enjoy the adventure of reading or listening 2021 🚀🎉✨😎
Due to eye issues and damage from shingle Alexa reads to me, I find it like be there.
A will written fantasy Sc-Fi space adventure by EE Smith. The characters are interesting and will developed. The story line is futuristic far in to space as the main characters deal with space issues and problems. I would recommend to readers of space adventure. Enjoy the adventure of reading or listening 2021 🚀🎉✨😎
August 22, 2018
Spacehounds of IPC was one of the first Doc Smith novels I read as a younger man and it called out to the space opera fan in me. I credit it for starting me down the path of lighthearted space adventure that I still enjoy to this day. As a stand alone novel it does not require the time it takes with the lensmen novels, and is a very enjoyable read.
August 23, 2018
Read on LibriVox (free audio books in the public domain).
September 9, 2018
What an imagination Doc Smith must have had add to that an obviously incurable romantic as well as a gifted story teller ; he is fast becoming a contender for my favourite author of the 20th century.
April 1, 2019
Couldn't get far at all. The 1950'S stilted affectatious language is simply too much for me.
April 26, 2019
Rambling unrelated short stories centered around the moons of Jupiter with long passages about technical aspects of space travel from the 1930s' perspective. Does not age well.
January 29, 2020
I really liked this story! I would much rather listen to these older “space opera” stories than watch the immoral garbage that is called “television” these days!
December 16, 2022
Having recently enjoyed Astor’s A Journey in Other Worlds I thought I would revisit Spacehounds of IPC and Triplanetary as examples of the next science fiction developmental stage on. They are separate books, not part of Smith’s two long Skylark and Lensman series, and although not strictly linked, they do share a common vision of Earth’s future. Note that Triplanetary is the 1934 serialised novel, not the 1948 novel of the same title which opens the Lensman series.
In many ways the tales have dated terribly – the gender divide is rather extreme in these earlier books of Smith’s. Women can be intelligent, and have aspirations to be part of the overall solution, but at their best they only want to be loyal supporters rather than leaders. In his later writing this shifted a little, and capable women do start to make their presence felt more – though still in subordinate rather than true leadership positions. Smith also clearly felt strongly that mental ability and physical perfection went hand in hand, and so his heroes and heroines are staggeringly beautiful as well as supremely smart. Along with this, the dialogue between men and women is stilted, and is heavily laced with rather sickly compliments. In short, male-female relationships feel very artificial.
The ruling Earth population is essentially made up of white Americans. Perhaps it is revealing that he chooses the masculine Tellus for Earth rather than the feminine Terra (again, this changed in later writing). Politics is quite naive – the style of rule, a heavily militarised but benevolent government, is seen as self-evidently right, and is only opposed by criminals or the hopelessly selfish. There is no credible opposition party. Of course, Smith is not alone in this and many modern writers also cannot conceive of well-founded political opposition outside simple hostility.
Where Smith is wildly inclusive is with aliens – unlike say Asimov, whose career overlapped Smith’s, he has no qualms about having radically nonhuman aliens in positions of authority, and he takes great delight in conjecturing many kinds of life forms in addition to humanoid ones. Some are no longer so persuasive in the light of scientific progress, but the variety is refreshing.
Smith is hugely profligate of human and alien life, with whole cities often destroyed along with their occupants as a casual byproduct of battles between adversary spaceships. This is not praised or glorified, but seen as an inevitable consequence of technological war, easily forgotten when the peace treaty is drawn up. I suspect this is a motif built on his observations of the First World War, expanded many times over to accommodate new weaponry. By coincidence I saw the HG Wells film Things to Come (based on his story of similar name) a few days ago and this shares many common features.
Where the books still shine is in the fast pace of their plots. They always remind me of old western films migrated up into space. Idealised heroes and villains utter pithy stereotyped lines in improbable settings – but they do so with great energy and excitement, and it is easy to get caught up in the swing of the tales and emerge at the far end slightly breathless.
Well worth reading by those interested in tracing the development of science fiction through the years, or else anyone who wants a space-based yarn without needing believable dialogue, and who is not troubled by recent scientific findings. Since I have to give a star rating here, 4* for the fun value.
In many ways the tales have dated terribly – the gender divide is rather extreme in these earlier books of Smith’s. Women can be intelligent, and have aspirations to be part of the overall solution, but at their best they only want to be loyal supporters rather than leaders. In his later writing this shifted a little, and capable women do start to make their presence felt more – though still in subordinate rather than true leadership positions. Smith also clearly felt strongly that mental ability and physical perfection went hand in hand, and so his heroes and heroines are staggeringly beautiful as well as supremely smart. Along with this, the dialogue between men and women is stilted, and is heavily laced with rather sickly compliments. In short, male-female relationships feel very artificial.
The ruling Earth population is essentially made up of white Americans. Perhaps it is revealing that he chooses the masculine Tellus for Earth rather than the feminine Terra (again, this changed in later writing). Politics is quite naive – the style of rule, a heavily militarised but benevolent government, is seen as self-evidently right, and is only opposed by criminals or the hopelessly selfish. There is no credible opposition party. Of course, Smith is not alone in this and many modern writers also cannot conceive of well-founded political opposition outside simple hostility.
Where Smith is wildly inclusive is with aliens – unlike say Asimov, whose career overlapped Smith’s, he has no qualms about having radically nonhuman aliens in positions of authority, and he takes great delight in conjecturing many kinds of life forms in addition to humanoid ones. Some are no longer so persuasive in the light of scientific progress, but the variety is refreshing.
Smith is hugely profligate of human and alien life, with whole cities often destroyed along with their occupants as a casual byproduct of battles between adversary spaceships. This is not praised or glorified, but seen as an inevitable consequence of technological war, easily forgotten when the peace treaty is drawn up. I suspect this is a motif built on his observations of the First World War, expanded many times over to accommodate new weaponry. By coincidence I saw the HG Wells film Things to Come (based on his story of similar name) a few days ago and this shares many common features.
Where the books still shine is in the fast pace of their plots. They always remind me of old western films migrated up into space. Idealised heroes and villains utter pithy stereotyped lines in improbable settings – but they do so with great energy and excitement, and it is easy to get caught up in the swing of the tales and emerge at the far end slightly breathless.
Well worth reading by those interested in tracing the development of science fiction through the years, or else anyone who wants a space-based yarn without needing believable dialogue, and who is not troubled by recent scientific findings. Since I have to give a star rating here, 4* for the fun value.
July 11, 2011
This is old school pulp sci-fi in its rawest sense. Written in the 30s, when spaceflight was described in ways that made it feel like sea-travel, but without the water, and written long enough ago that, in the context of this story, a computer is a person that performs the calculations for a spaceflight, rather than the electronic box of tricks we're familiar with.
The plot is quite fun, totally unrealistic, and really the main reason one reads these old pulp novels anyway. After an ambush in space, our heroes are castaway on Ganymede, but are soon rescued. The rest of the story describes how the brave men of Earth help the helpless men of Titan overcome the enemy that is the monsters of Jupiter, with the help of the men of Venus and the men of Mars. Quite a busy little solar system. Apparently, E E "Doc" Smith was proud of this story because he regarded it as one of his "hardest" SF stories, relying on science rather than magic in the plot. I can't imagine why.
At the end of the day, however, the book isn't terribly well written. This by turns grates and creates laughable prose. I found myself highlighting some of the funnier sections in my Kindle just so that I could return to them. The dialogue in particular, where the protagonists frequently refer to each other as "ace", "buddy", and, most hilariously, "old golf-shootist", has really aged badly. But ultimately, the quality of writing is what pushes this down to a 2 star rather than up to a 3 star. The story isn't really enough fun to make it worth pushing through the bad writing.
The plot is quite fun, totally unrealistic, and really the main reason one reads these old pulp novels anyway. After an ambush in space, our heroes are castaway on Ganymede, but are soon rescued. The rest of the story describes how the brave men of Earth help the helpless men of Titan overcome the enemy that is the monsters of Jupiter, with the help of the men of Venus and the men of Mars. Quite a busy little solar system. Apparently, E E "Doc" Smith was proud of this story because he regarded it as one of his "hardest" SF stories, relying on science rather than magic in the plot. I can't imagine why.
At the end of the day, however, the book isn't terribly well written. This by turns grates and creates laughable prose. I found myself highlighting some of the funnier sections in my Kindle just so that I could return to them. The dialogue in particular, where the protagonists frequently refer to each other as "ace", "buddy", and, most hilariously, "old golf-shootist", has really aged badly. But ultimately, the quality of writing is what pushes this down to a 2 star rather than up to a 3 star. The story isn't really enough fun to make it worth pushing through the bad writing.
March 3, 2014
Bombastic does not even begin to describe it.
There is hardly one single line of dialogue, especially between the two protagonists, that is not overflowing with cheesy epiteths like "ace of my bosom", "my little dove" and other rather ridiculous exclamations.
The story isn't so bad. Of course, the scientific knowledge of the time makes for a rather funnily ingenuous story, which is not unlike reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' martian chronicles. But there are some original ideas, like the inhabitants of Titan being used to thin and frigid atmospheres so that they marvel at the hotness of human bodies.
However it's the style in which this book is written that really makes it a tough read for me, and that's because of how pompous and overflowing with the above mentioned epiteths and exclamations it is. There is hardly one single page in which any one character does not say "all x!" and an overabundance of exclamation marks.
I've read a lot of authors from the 20's, and none of them were ever this horribly cheesy.
My first and last encounter with this author: curiosity satisfied.
There is hardly one single line of dialogue, especially between the two protagonists, that is not overflowing with cheesy epiteths like "ace of my bosom", "my little dove" and other rather ridiculous exclamations.
The story isn't so bad. Of course, the scientific knowledge of the time makes for a rather funnily ingenuous story, which is not unlike reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' martian chronicles. But there are some original ideas, like the inhabitants of Titan being used to thin and frigid atmospheres so that they marvel at the hotness of human bodies.
However it's the style in which this book is written that really makes it a tough read for me, and that's because of how pompous and overflowing with the above mentioned epiteths and exclamations it is. There is hardly one single page in which any one character does not say "all x!" and an overabundance of exclamation marks.
I've read a lot of authors from the 20's, and none of them were ever this horribly cheesy.
My first and last encounter with this author: curiosity satisfied.
May 22, 2010
I rate this book 1 star, and that's being generous by allowing for the era in which it was written. Silly concepts, sexist and patronising toward women and simple, simple storytelling. It starts with whole pages of dialogue and discourse from the main male protagonist in an attempt to tell the story. It assumes the reader is stupid so he has to show how smart he is by boasting to the main female protagonist about how much he knows. Then, as EE 'Doc' Smith progresses into the story it becomes lazy and he resorts to pages of description using similes; but similes of the era! Who would have thought a cantilever truss could ever be as horrifying and awesome as an alien spacecraft? Ridiculous book. I only read it because I needed something to put me to sleep - which it was very successful in doing. Only recommended if you feel like having a good laugh.
September 3, 2011
Ususally the Doc Smith books are bad science, good fiction. And I REALLY wanted to like this book, as I think of myself as a fan of pulp sci-fi... But this was just SO bad I couldnt find anything redeeming about it. The science was of course badly dated, and embellished badly, even for the time it was written in. The fiction was wooden and uninteresting. The dialogue was so over wrought with gitchy dated phrasing as to make you reread some parts to figure WTF he was talking about. OH! And I think I got my fill of "All X" (or some minor variant) by page 50, but it didnt keep it from showing up 3 times a page till the end. This was so bad I found myself skimming and just trying to get it over with. Unless you are a hardcore completist, and E.E. "Doc" Smith has gotten on your radar or authors to read everything of, go ahead and skip this.
June 7, 2012
Observations so far: Contrary to popular belief, Smith is pretty accurate in his portrayal of chicks. I think some people have some skewed perceptions about girls, especially the silly jades in Smith's books. If you're one of the politically correct individuals laboring under one or more of these sad delusions about babes, allow me to enlighten you.
The first mistake folks like you usually make is thinking that any of this has anything to do with reality. Your second mistake may be believing that anyone's impressed by your sensitivity toward fictional characters. Your third mistake may be thinking that women can't handle this book and need to be warned about it or that men need to be appropriately chastened for enjoying it. None of this is true.
Anyway, those are just my initial thoughts.
The first mistake folks like you usually make is thinking that any of this has anything to do with reality. Your second mistake may be believing that anyone's impressed by your sensitivity toward fictional characters. Your third mistake may be thinking that women can't handle this book and need to be warned about it or that men need to be appropriately chastened for enjoying it. None of this is true.
Anyway, those are just my initial thoughts.
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