WHAT OTHER BOOKS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE "LENSMAN" UNIVERSE?


    Recent paperback printings of various "Lensman" novels have 
 included EES' novel, "THE SPACEHOUNDS OF I.P.C." in the column of
 "Lensman" titles facing the title page.
   "THE SPACEHOUNDS OF I.P.C." doesn't even take place in the same
 universe, uses different technology, and can not be fitted into the
 series by any even marginally sane leap of imagination.

    William B. Ellern wrote a short piece called "MOON PROSPECTOR,"
 set in the Lensman universe.  It was published, with EES' knowledge
 and approval, in the April, 1966 "ANALOG."  Michael Richards and
 James Corrick have provided further info: additions to this story
 were serialized as "NEW LENSMAN" in "PERRY RHODAN" books #61-#74,
 inclusive, about 1975, and followed by a stand-alone novella called
 "TRIPLANETARY AGENT," which appeared in "PERRY RHODAN" books #100-#105,
 inclusive, in 1976.  "TRIPLANETARY AGENT" has apparently never been
 reprinted, and is reported as very poor writing; it uses the same main
 character as "NEW LENSMAN."
    The novel version, "NEW LENSMAN," compositing  "MOON PROSPECTOR" and
 "NEW LENSMAN," was printed by Futura in 1976.  James Corrick describes
 "NEW LENSMAN"'s use as a framing encapsulation for "MOON PROSPECTOR,"
 which appears as chapters 8, 9, 12, 14, and 17 of the book; and says
 that the two stories appear to have no characters in common.  Reports
 on quality of the book vary from "putrid" to "tolerable."  I haven't
 read the book version, primarily due to having read the magazine piece.

   EES worked with a fan/writers' group called "The Galactic Roamers."
 These folks, aggressive and professional, delighted in tearing apart
 anything vulnerable in EES' works in progress; they were a great help
 in his writing, as well as being good friends.
   At the end of "SECOND STAGE LENSMEN,"  EES addresses specific 
 appreciations to Dr. James R. Enright and to the following Roamers:
 E. Everett Evans, F. Edwin Counts, Paul Leavy, Jr, Alfred Ashley;
 and to Verna Trestrail.

   One of the later Roamers, David A. Kyle, was a long-time writer, publisher,
 collector and fan; using extant outlines, fragments of EES' unpublished
 work, and years of wrangling, arguments, and discussions as his source,
 he wrote three books EES had intended but never gotten around to. 
   Cover paintings on the Kyle books, by Bob Larkin, start sloppy in story
 detail, portraying Worsel as a sort of large four-eyed dinosaur, and then
 improve both in technique and correlation to the stories.


 ( On the subject of Worsel's eyes, herewith a slight digression:
       The original illustrations from "ASTOUNDING," presumably
     approved by EES and Campbell, usually show Worsel with either
     four or six eyes on stalks.   Rogers shows Worsel in flight
     with six stalked eyes, and Schneeman shows Worsel walking, with
     four; perhaps the other two are specialized for in-flight
     applications.....or maybe Worsel just makes however many he needs!
        When queried about the four-eyed dinosaurian Worsel who
     appears on the cover of "DRAGON LENSMAN,"  and about the
     equivalent creature in the Japanime,  David A. Kyle 
     amusedly pointed out that, in voluminous research, he has
     never been able to find a number of eyes specified in any
     manuscript or working notes!  I checked.  We have only the words
     "multiple" and "stalked," although in "SECOND STAGE LENSMEN,"
     Worsel "thrust out a half dozen of his weirdly stalked eyes,"
     and in "CHILDREN OF THE LENS," "eight weirdly stalked eyes
     curled out..."
     So we don't know how many eyes Worsel has, except (a) they're
     stalked; (b) he can muster *at least* eight!  ...and, of course, 
     (c) he has more than two.
 
   Kyle's three books are copyrighted by Verna Smith Trestrail, so
 they are owned by the Smith estate.  They are:


* * * *

  "DRAGON LENSMAN"     (Bantam Books, Sep '80, ISBN 0-553-13741-7, $1.95);

  "LENSMAN FROM RIGEL" (Bantam Books, Oct '82, ISBN 0-553-20499-8, $2.50);

  "Z-LENSMAN"          (Bantam Books, Aug '83, ISBN 0-553-23427-7, $2.75).

    Each of these books features one of the non-Terran second-stage
 Lensmen as its primary character.
    I'm only aware of one printing on each of these, but I've been told
 there were later, brief print runs of at least one or two.
 "Z-LENSMAN" seems to be hard to find, which is something of a pity;
 I liked it best of Kyle's books.
   Kyle's writing, while not initially fabulous, is readable, improves
 in the second, and is quite decent pulp SF in the third.
   I don't know whether this is a result of achieving a successful 
 synthesis between his own styles and concepts and EES', or whether 
 the editor he drew at Bantam didn't understand what he was trying to
 do at the outset, but it should be noted that even in the first
 book, Kyle adds a number of interesting plotlines to the "Lensman"
 universe; his machine intelligences, for example, were something EES
 had avoided in the original series, possibly to keep the plot 
 complexity down to something he could handle in a mere four books.

 By his third book, Kyle added concepts and characters that could
 eventually generate a whole new cycle of novels;  hopefully someone
 will do them right, some day, if Kyle is too busy.


Above text (c) 1991-1998 gharlane@ccshp1.ccs.csus.edu;
           (c) 2002 lenmenfaq@allrod.com all rights reserved.
lensmenfaq@allrod.com (c) 1991-1998. (Gharlane) 2002 (Rodriguez)
Above photos (c) as noted in "Credits;" all rights reserved.


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