Gray Lensman by E.E. "Doc" Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First read AFTER reading the books preceding it. 2/11/26

Enjoying it even more now that I'm continuing the adventures of the Unattached Lensman. It's very much a story of a roaming sheriff of the galaxy. :)

Very fun.


Original Review:

Sometimes, I'm a fool. I thought, perhaps, that the "so called" golden age of sci-fi before Heinlein would be as painful to read as the old Jules Verne. I even tried to read the first ten pages of the first book of the Lensman of E. E. Smith PHD and cringed down to my soul. I was thinking that nothing would be worth the pain of reading this trash. And yet, all of my favorite past couple of generations of sci-fi authors swore by the old doc, and there are still generations of readers that are surprised and delighted by the stories. Heck, the fourth book is considered by some to be the 98th best sci-fi book of all time. I buckled down, gritted my teeth, and picked up the fourth without so much as reading eleven pages of the first three.

I WAS DUMBFOUNDED. I was awestruck. I was plainly amazed and giddy in the reading of these little serialized bubblegum stories of sci-fi heroes. I'm too young to have watched Flash Gordon, but I understand the draw. I'm certainly old enough to have sat amazed through all the Star Wars at the inception. I've watched all of the original Star Treks, (not to mention every iteration after). I was forced to re-evaluate my entire internal consistency engine of sci-fi idea sources and lineage, and all of a sudden, the mitochondrial eve of sci-fi tropes (at least the best surviving eve) is FOUND. Now I understand. The light shines upon my mind. The great cosmic egg lights up like a big bulb.

So I asked in a small voice... "So the Lensman series is what encouraged the Green Lantern Comics into being? It also encouraged the biggest space operas? It took over as the sci-fi successor to all westerns and greek hero myths?" And E. E. Smith replied, "Yes, you dumbshit."

AAaaahhhh... ok... I feel like a moron now, but at least I didn't proliferate that weird-ass idea about galaxies colliding... whew... I'm back on my moral high ground again. :)

I might just have to read them in order again and ignore, dutifully, the Really Bad Physics in favor of the Great Fun.

Update:
I can't get this out of my head: The proper term for the collision of two planets is "Squishingly". I can't unread what I have read, so I pay it forward. :)

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Falling with Folded Wings 3 by Plum Parrot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

LOL of course it had to go this way. The moment it really picked up steam and I was getting into the characters seriously, it has to be the last released. And the new directions the characters take are INTERESTING. I want to know what will HAPPEN now. Damn it.

Even so, this series really hearkens back to the early days of LitRPG with mostly standard classes and a full DnD 5 ruleset, including extra races, bloodlines, etc. Pretty cool for all that and while it's also pretty usual, it's also still pretty neat. There are better out there, but this was quite fun regardless.


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Falling with Folded Wings 2 by Plum Parrot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The series is growing on me. Usually it's the first book that grabs because everything is shiny and new. But this wasn't the case. Indeed, it was only after these characters started getting their stride, branching off in new directions, or even joining Hogwarts, that it really grabbed.

Suffice to say, I'm happy I stuck with it. Now I'm rearing to read the next.

Progression fantasy, let's go!

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Falling with Folded Wings by Plum Parrot
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have to say that this feels like a pretty generic LitRPG at this point. It might have been a bit hotter before, but with so many that do the straight level-up sequence and this one is just sitting pretty as a standard paladin, it doesn't really stand out.

That's not to say it isn't decent. It is. It even has a gentle love interest and a little politics in town. But that's just it.

I'm going to continue because it's still entertaining enough, but that's mostly because I've learned to trust the author in all his other works which WERE rather damn entertaining. Who knows? Maybe it'll get wild later.

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House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think I really wanted to like this more than I did, so I wind up making more excuses for it than I probably would have, otherwise.

What's good? If you call it good? The feel of a labyrinthine mind trying to lay that string to work its way back out again, both literal and figuratively, both mirroring each other in the text itself. Indeed, I got the very distinct impression of a Borges literary romp. I LOVE the idea of it.

In actuality, I found myself wishing I was doing something else the entire time. Sure, the horror bits, whenever they came back around in their dry, existential horror of banal I-hate-humanity documents displaying all that's worst, was properly horrific. Sure, the maze drove me crazy.

But honestly? I didn't feel anything for the PoVs. And that's a death sentence.

It's very smart. Yes. It's also a bit insufferable. Sadly.

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Hell Difficulty Tutorial: Book Five by Cerim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Should rename this as hot sociopathic monster continues to bribe his so called friends into working for him as he continues to abuse himself out of sheer pride in his training.

But anyway, it's STILL a fun LitRPG and I am still getting a kick out of all the training and skill-ups and occasional utter trouncing of local monsters and kings. After all, the only true way to get through hell difficulty is by massively overpowering your skills, you know.

Fun. :)

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Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Obligatory reference to Dungeon Crawler Carl here, since it's the same author--BUT this isn't a LitRPG.

This is, quite simply, a fantastic SF with multiple takes on AI, Colonialism, Corporatism, and simply just LIVING. A lot of these topics are more than topical and even heartbreaking in the way that any mirror to reality can be.

*cough*g-za*cough*g-cide.

But more importantly, we spend a lot of time with these New Sonora farmers and their youthful stupidities and it just feels REAL, especially the rock band stuff, their dreams, their messed up romances, and the sheer, nasty reality that hits them. And even after it all becomes tragic and war devastates everything they'd known, they fight. A true underdog situation that had me on the edge of my seat to the end.

Even with Roger helping them out.

I'll admit I've read a number of books quite like this, but this one in particular hit me in the feels. It's the happiness, the strive to be better, to just LIVE that was the best part of it. Oh, the tactics and the mechs and the explosions and insults were fantastic, mind you, but it was the softer stuff that brought me to tears even at the very last page.

Very, very good SF.

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