Masters of the Vortex (Lensman, #7) by E.E. Doc Smith

Masters of the Vortex (Lensman, #7) Reviews

• 
  Wanda Pedersen

  Nice to read a novel set in the Lensmen universe, but not starring one of the Lensmen (although they still feature prominently in this tale). It was also interesting to note that computers make their first appearance in the series and that absolutely no one uses a slide rule in this book. In fact, Dr. Neal Cloud is a human computing machine, performing feats of calculation unmatched by other mortals. He is partnered with Joan Jankowski because of her expertise with computers, which are improving but are still no match for Cloud’s brain.
  
  In many ways, this book felt like an episode of Star Trek (TOS). There are telepathy, super-human abilities, a cast which includes many interesting aliens, a mysterious source of “nuclear vortices,” a Dudley-DoRight type main character and a romantic sub-plot. Dr. Neal Cloud starts out more like the Lone Ranger (with Joan as Tonto), but ends up with a band of aliens (largely female) who refuse to leave his side. I loved the cat-woman, Vesta, and her unabashedly sensual ways! Also loved the cigar-smoking female engineer (I pictured her as rather reptilian).
  
  Of course, Neal and Joan end up being strongly attracted to one another. I do love Smith’s insistence on providing intelligent female companions for his heroes. Mind you, when Cloud manages to become a telepath, he rates 6 on a scale of 5 and is acknowledged by all for his superiority! (Poor old Joan is only rated a 3). No ordinary heroes with average abilities for Doc Smith. He manages to convey a lot of romantic atmosphere with very little description, no doubt necessary for the morays of the time (published in 1960).
  
  This is book number 154 of my science fiction and fantasy reading project.
  
• 
  Rex Libris

  Doc Smith stories are pulp Sci-Fi, and just so much fun to read. If you want action, heroism, and no moral ambiguity, anything he writes is for you.
  
  In this installment of the Lensman series, a man who lost his family in an atomic vortex figures out how to eliminate them. The story culminates in his harrowing flitter trip into the heart of the vortex.
• 
  Adrian

  A good story, pacy as ever, however it is slightly divorced from the rest of the Lensman series which really ended with "Children".
• 
  Karl Kindt

  I just finished the entire Lensman series, all seven books in seven weeks. It was a rollicking good ride. Pure pulp space opera. It reminds me of Jack Kirby's Fourth World, in that the plots are unpredictable in a good, mind blowing way. It has the snappy dialogue like Hammett. It reminds me of Star Wars Episode IV, with its bickering romance of Han and Leia. It reminds me of Heinlein's powerfully unique characters who talk like no one really talks, but who cares because it's entertaining. It reminds me of PKD's wonderfully unpolished, almost amateurish writing that ignores half of the established conventions of narrative and just tells its crazy plot the way the author wanted to tell it, v with reckless abandon, joyfully ignoring what a staid editor would have wanted to fix. It reminds me of these things and many more, but how could that be when it predates all these things? It's more accurate for me to say that the Lensman series informed all these things, spawned them into our cultural consciousness. This last of the series is unique in that it makes the Lensman secondary characters. Instead the story is more grounded in a relatively normal Joe's POV, seeing the Lensman universe more like us readers would if we were in that weird, wacky, wonderfully unpredictable world that grew out of the feverishly fertile brain of E.E. "Doc" Smith. I'm sad the ride is over.
• 
  NeilWill

  Masters of the Vortex, the last Lensman novel by E E Smith, is not actually about the lensmen but takes place in the same setting, sometime between Second Stage Lensman and Children of the Lens. Neal “Storm” Cloud is studying loose atomic vortexes when his family is killed by one. Having extraordinary mathematical abilities and no sense of self preservation he’s able to figure out how to extinguish them, by flying close and using a big bomb.
  
  This makes everyone very keen for him to visit their planet and put out their atomic vortexes. Also he tangles with criminals, especially one Fairchild, a radiation scientist that is able to use his knowledge to make thionite, the galaxy’s best drug, and also make loose atomic vortexes to attack his enemies.
  
  Cloud picks up some castaways who become his crew, and then a computer scientist who wants to build a machine to take his job away from him. She succeeds and also teaches him telepathy, and they fall in love. He promptly discovers the secret behind the loose atomic vortexes so as not to be upstaged by the computer built by a woman.
  
  It’s a fun adventure, a bit more episodic and unfocused than the other ones in the series. Because of this there are asides which don’t quite work; there’s a certain amount of discussion of statistical analysis to determine suspicious patterns, but no one actually does that or acts on it until late in the story. Also there’s a moment when they start telepathing and all the women are obsessing about babies which seems a bit over the top. Although Cloud is a member of the Galactic Patrol, he’s a little closer to ground level than Kinnison in the mainline Lensman stories so we see a bit more of ordinary life on planets. Which is cool.
  
  Apparently Smith intended to write more spin off novels but never did.
  
  Read This: For an entertaining if somewhat disjointed space opera adventure.
  Don’t Read This: If you don’t want to read about travelling to odd societies that are measured according to how they differ from 1940s America
  
  My reviews of the rest of the series:
  
  
  Triplanetary
  
  First Lensman
  
  Galactic Patrol
  
  Grey Lensman
  
  Second Stage Lensman
  
  Children of the Lens
• 
  Karl

  The Vortex Blaster is a collection of three science fiction short stories by author Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.. It was simultaneously published in 1960 by Gnome Press in an edition of 3,000 copies and by Fantasy Press in an edition of 341 copies. The book was originally intended to be published by Fantasy Press, but was handed over to Gnome Press when Fantasy Press folded. Lloyd Eshbach, of Fantasy Press, who was responsible for the printing of both editions, printed the extra copies for his longtime customers. The stories originally appeared in the magazines Comet and Astonishing Stories.
• 
  Teresa Carrigan

  Reread for first time in several decades, so I had forgotten almost all of the plot points. It’s extremely dated. The treatment of women is grating although there are female characters who are competent. The entire premise is a bit hard to swallow (the vortexes and governments allowing tech that has chances of accidents that create vortexes). With that said it did keep my attention, which I didn’t expect.
  
  Odds are very low that I’ll want to reread this in the future.
  
• 
  Ralph McEwen

  Sometimes you must go through hell to get the right attitude.
  
  Audio Book MP3 downloaded from
  
  http://librivox.org/short-science-fic...
  Public Domain stories from Project Gutenberg, that are read by volunteers.
  I listen to these short stories while walking to and from work.
  
  Play Duration: 00:46:13
  Read By: Gregg Margarite
• 
  Timothy Boyd

  This book is the least in the series is not as awesome as the main Lensman series but a very good classic space opera style SiFi series by one of the early masters. Very recommended
• 
  Ray Heuer

  (Do I really need a spoiler warning for a book written over 60 years ago?)
  This is traditionally the last book in E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series. While it is undoubtedly set in the Lensman universe, and a Lensman is a supporting character, it could be set anywhere.
  Various planets are being infested by Atomic Vortexes. Tremendous concentrations of atomic destruction disintegrate anything solid, turning the very soil into molten lava and emitting toxic vapors and hard radiation. The theory of extinguishing these conflagrations was simple - a large enough explosive at an exact yield in a precise location in the vortex. But if either of these constantly-changing requirements were off, the vortex would fracture into several loose vortexes, instantly killing the unfortunate operator. The problem was predicting the activity of these unstable vortexes far enough into the future to deliver the explosive charge and get out of the area before it explodes (the inertialess drive was a godsend for the latter part, of course).
  Enter Neal Clous, a mathematical prodigy. He had been living a quiet life as a paper-pusher with a wife and child and a house in the suburbs when someone's failed attempt to extinguish a vortex split off several new vortexes, one of which landed on the Cloud home! With nothing left to live for, he is convinced to pit his mathematic genius against the oldest (and largest) vortex on Earth/Tellus. With a small, fast ship and a hold full of missiles with various explosive yields, Cloud launches the appropriate missile, and suddenly, a nuclear vortex is extinguished! As Cloud continues to destroy vortexes on his home planet, requests, pleas, and demands from all over the galaxy flood into Galactic Patrol headquarters. The Galactic Patrol outfits Cloud with a spaceship containing an even more extensive assortment of explosive missiles and a list of priorities.
  A deep space rescue mission ends up with Captain Neal Cloud unexpectedly having a multi-racial crew, and suddenly The Vortex Blasters are hunting down Zwilnicks between blowing out vortexes. But there is a secret to the creation of vortexes that neither the Vortex Blasters nor the Zwilniks can guess at.
  (By the way, I know that the proper plural of "vortex" is "vortices". I used the one truer to the author's usage.)
  
• 
  PSXtreme

  Another tough read. Highly technical in nature, this work didn't flow well for the "layman" reader. The hard science makes this not readily available for the common man, even with the 50 or so years from the original creation date to today. I believe that the dated science actually works against the title rather than helps it along. Written during the Atomic Revolution of the 60s SF era, the vortices probably could have been more modernly called wormholes or micro-black holes but the author seemingly wanted to cash in on the new atomic scare-wagon that the era had created. Another aspect that may have worked against this piece is that it was the 7th of 7 works in a series and I hadn't read any of the prior works. Although I can't guarantee this, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the author. Nevertheless, this wasn't one of the better literary works I've read recently and the score reflects that opinion. I'm definitely going to give Dr. Smith another try in the future and hopefully he won't fall as short in the next experience.
• 
  Kevin O'Brien

  The Vortex Blaster is set in Smith's Lensman universe, and some Lensmen and the Galactic Patrol make an appearance, but is really a stand-alone novel that really does not need to be read as part of the series. The plot involves a man with a computer in his brain who takes on the job of snuffing out "atomic vortices" that periodically erupt from nuclear power stations. It turns out that he is the first person capable of doing this, which sets him up a tour of the galaxy and various adventures. And being in the Lensman universe, mental powers are involved, but in this case distinct from the powers of the lensmen.
• 
  Guy Worthey

  Compared to the main Lensman novels, this one has a few spokes missing from the wheel. For some reason, although it's just the way it was, the 1950s patriarchal attitude bugged me more than average, as the hero inherits a nearly all-female crew and manages to talk down to all of them. Also, the plot arc had no teeth. There's just an intellectual puzzle to solve, and when the heroes do it (actually, the male hero does it while the female watches), the entire situation resolves instantly.
• 
  Chris Aldridge

  In Librivox SSF collection vol 017. Another classic tale of heroic Sf from EE "Doc" Smith. Just what the doc ordered if you happen to be suffering from an atomic vortex outbreak threatening your planet!
• 
  Anne

  Not as good as the rest of the books.
• 
  Philip Chaston

  An add-on to the Lensman series. Unnecessary and bent out of shape - no villains this time, just nuclear nurseries. A quaint idea and brought in at the final chapter, as a deus ex machina.
• 
  Guenter

  Not really linked to the Lensmen saga and quite trite at times. I recommend stopping at Children of the Lens (# 6).
• 
  Fred Katterjohn

  
  "Masters of The Vortex" is a departure for "Doc" Smith and for the Lensman series. Definitely in the Lensman Universe the main protagonist is not a Lensman. Placement in the series is problematic. Most often it is placed as book seven (last) in the series, some as book six of seven, others exclude it entirely.
  
  Originally written as three short stories for the pulps "Comet" and "Astonishing Stories", it marks a change in writing style for Doc. Much more representative of the style he would adopt a few years later. Can be read as a standalone novel outside of the series.
  
  Atomic vortices menace various planets throughout the universe. They can be eliminated with a carefully timed blast at the center of each Vortex. But timing and locating the correct amount of explosives at the center these atomic tornadoes is a difficult matter. A hit and miss problem for the average person.
  
  Enter our protagonist Neal "Storm" Cloud and atomic engineer with a calculator fast brain. Being a quick read, I will not spoil the reasons Storm gets drawn into the effort of shutting down the vortices, nor his adventures afterwards.
  
  My rating 4 stars, hope you agree.
  If you wish to track down the pulps or download them. The three short stories that appear in Pulps, that make up the novel are;
  "Comet" 7/41 "The Vortex blaster"
  "Astonishing Stories" 6/42 "Storm Cloud on Deka"
  "Astonishing Stories" 10/42 "Vortex Blaster Makes War".