2025 read #72: The Skylark of Space by Edward E. “Doc” Smith.

The Skylark of Space by Edward E. “Doc” Smith

159 pages

Originally serialized 1928; first book publication 1946; revised 1958

Read from September 25 to September 26

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

A foundational text of what would become space opera, Skylark begins as an edisonade, with athletic, handsome, motorcycle-riding chemist Richard “Dick” Seaton discovering a stable transuranic metal with strange catalytic properties. “But wait, that’s basically Wells’ First Men in the Moon,” you might say. And you’d be right.

But “Doc” Smith takes us well beyond the moon. We accompany Dick into interstellar space, along with his fiancée, sensible and musically talented Dorothy “Dottie” Vaneman, and his best friend, wealthy explorer, archaeologist, sportsman, engineer, and confirmed bachelor M. Reynolds “Mart” Crane. They are dogged every step of the way by coldblooded, greedy, stick-at-nothing rival scientist Marc DuQuesne. He too has a nickname, but it feels next door to a slur here, given the swarthiness inevitably assigned to a 1920s villain. There’s also Margaret “Peggy” Spencer, secretary, who doesn’t really get any characterization beyond “kidnapped damsel.”

Skylark is, shall we say, not a sophisticated narrative.

It is plotted and paced exactly like a pulp film serial, the sort where we spend more time with kidnappings and private eyes and industrial sabotage than we do with spaceborne adventure. Hell, the first flight of the Skylark happens off-screen. I don’t know what floated readers’ boats in the Twenties, but I can assure you, I would rather read about adventures in space travel than about some millionaire heir commissioning out steelworks.

Once we do get into space, Skylark is a mixed bag. A desperate rescue from the orbit of a dead star is a thrilling read to this day. An encounter with a noncoporeal alien who takes the form of Dick and threatens to dematerialize our heroes, on the other hand, feels stale, a perfunctory first draft of some lesser Star Trek script. Speaking of Star Trek, we get some nearly naked green humanoids who traffic in slaves. This latter plotline is tedious enough to make me miss the terrestrial crime fiction (and is stuffed full of eugenics, besides).

Here’s where I say I’m glad I read it, history of the genre, and so on. Which is true. But sometimes I ask myself why I bother with books like this.