Against the backdrop of a secret war between two all-powerful alien races, Virgil Samms of the Triplanetary Service is selected by the seemingly omniscient Arisians to be the first bearer of the Lens. Only individuals deemed brave, virtuous, capable, and incorruptible can receive a Lens, which grants its user telepathy and other powers. With it, Samms seeks out other "Lens worthy" humans and aliens, with the goal of creating a Galactic Patrol that will defend planets adhering to Civilization from corruption, vice, and piracy.
First Lensman is the second book in E. E. Smith's Lensman series but was the last to be written. Unlike the rest of the series, it was never serialized, and was first published in 1950 to help link Triplanetary with Galactic Patrol. Smith's imaginative and bizarre alien races are on full display, as well as the constantly escalating space warfare that is the hallmark of the space opera genre.
Perfect for readers who crave epic space opera adventures with telepathic heroes and galaxy-spanning conflicts! E.E. Smith's legendary Lensman series delivers classic golden age science fiction at its finest, combining thrilling space battles, psychic powers, and the ultimate struggle between good and evil across the cosmos. This foundational work will captivate fans of military science fiction and anyone who loves stories where humanity's finest defenders wield incredible powers to protect civilization itself.
The source for this public-domain ebook is Standard Ebooks (standardebooks.org). Ebooks from other sources often have typos, inconsistent spelling, missing accent marks, and missing punctuation. Ebooks from Standard Ebooks are proofread line by line against a scan of the original printed pages, then proofread again from cover to cover. They are also formatted and typeset following a professional-grade style manual, resulting in new editions supporting state-of-the-art ereader technology: automatic hyphenation, popup footnotes, complete and consistent metadata, high-resolution and scalable vector graphics, and ereader-compatible tables of contents. All of this makes the finished ebooks accurate, functional, and beautiful, a pleasure to read. (Waking Lion Press is not affiliated with or endorsed by Standard Ebooks.)
