Book description
Jarvis Hilton is in charge of a handpicked team of scientists - and a
navy warship on a deep space mission, dubbed Project Theta Orionis. On
the outbound journey, automatic sensors drop their ship - the Perseus -
into normal space for an encounter with a mysterious skeletal object.
The encounter leaves them baffled, and leads them to a view an epic
space battle. But strange as that is, it's nowhere near as mysterious as
finding a planet covered in radioactive fuel ore - and populated with
humanoid robots who have been expecting their arrival and greet them as
returning masters. . . !
E. E. 'Doc' Smith (1890 - 1965)
Edward Elmer Smith was born in Wisconsin in 1890. He attended the
University of Idaho and graduated with degrees in chemical engineering;
he went on to attain a PhD in the same subject, and spent his working
life as a food engineer. Smith is best known for the 'Skylark' and
'Lensman' series of novels, which are arguably the earliest examples of
what a modern audience would recognise as Space Opera. Early novels in
both series were serialised in the dominant pulp magazines of the day: Argosy
, Amazing Stories
, Wonder Stories
and a pre-Campbell Astounding
, although his most successful works were published under Campbell's
editorship. Although he won no major SF awards, Smith was Guest of
Honour at the second World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago, in
1940. He died in 1965. E. Everett Evans (1893-1958)
Edward Everett Evans was a long-time genre fan who later became a minor
SF writer. He helped to put on the first Westercon and published the
fanzine The Time-Binder
in the 40s. His professional works included the novels Man of Many Minds
(1953), The Planet Mappers
(1955), Alien Minds
(1955), and the posthumously-published collaboration with E. E. 'Doc'
Smith Masters of Space
(1976).
