The Skylark of Space

[ffutures]

If anyone's been thinking about a retro SF game and looking for inspiration, I heard recently that Project Gutenberg is about to add the first two or three books of E.E. "Doc" Smith's "Skylark Of Space" series, which presumably means they're out of US copyright - unfortuately Euro copyright law works differently, or I'd definitely be interested in using them as source material for an RPG. But an American publisher might not have that problem.

Obviously you'd need to check the legal situation carefully, but they've got FTL, antigravity, mysterious explosive elements, all sorts of death rays and gratuitous violence a-plenty. Well worth a look.

Comments

[chronivore.livejournal.com]

How is the technology of "Skylark of Space" different than in the Lensman stories?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It's different, though he was obviously playing with the ideas he later used for the Lensman series. Much less hand-waving about the technology of FTL travel, just "okay, we've come x number of light years in a couple of hours, Einstein was wrong," then they get into an action sequence and it's never really explained. Later on there's a lot of weird pseudo physics about different types of energy etc., but you have a repeating villain (DuQuesne) who occasionally ends up being heroic despite himself, alien princesses, galaxy-wrecking technology, Q-style enigmatic aliens, evil chlorine-breathing bug eyed monsters, etc. etc., the feel is different enough that it isn't the same universe. You could easily run the setting using GURPS Lensman, but you'd have to ditch most of the psionic side of things.

[draconin.livejournal.com]

If you get the chance to read it then do. It's not so refined as the Lensman series but just as galaxy-spanning in its concepts. It's one of the ones in my collection that gets re-read every few years.
BTW, E.E.(Doc)Smith wrote a number of other series than the Lensman. For example, "The Galaxy Primes", "Spacehounds of the IPC" and "Family D'Alembert". The guy was an absolute genius when it came to vast, cosmic plots with twists and turns.

[chronivore.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads-up!

I think I'll give more of his stuff a read (it's been at least a decade since I read the Lenmen books)... as soon as I make my way through the stack that's waiting for me now. ;)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I know that Family D'Alembert ran to 10 or 12 books as published, but it should be remembered that the whole vast edifice was based on one fairly straightforward novelette by Smith - everything else, including at least half of the first book, was written by other authors after his death.

[draconin.livejournal.com]

You're right, I probably shouldn't include that one as "his" but the ghost writer Stephen --?-- really did an excellent job. He captured E.E.(Doc)'s style quite well. I keep the series on the shelf with all of the others and don't have any problem with that.

PS. All this started me reading the Skylark series again! I'm just passing the halfway point on the fourth one as I write. You're right, the succession of threat/resolution, higher-level threat/resolution etc would probably lend itself very well to the creation of a game.

[w00hoo.livejournal.com]

On a very vaguely related note, Radio 4 mentioned this morning that Peter Pan goes out of copyright next year...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Not going near that one while Disney are on the prowl.

[suewilson.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that Great Ormand St Commissioned a new story in order to hold onto the royalties for a bit longer.

[armb.livejournal.com]

They have. I thought that they had been given a perpetual copyright on the original as a special case, but checking, I see that's "the unique right to royalties from stage performances of Peter Pan (and any adaptation of the play), forever".
And that while European copyright on the book expires in 2007, it's 2023 in the USA, giving Disney another 17 years to lobby for yet another extension.

[w00hoo.livejournal.com]

Ah, serves me right for only half hearing something then!