Skylark DuQuesne
(category: science fiction)book 4 of Skylark by
E. E. "Doc" Smith
published by Panther Books in 1974... 79 and originally in 1965read in September 2009 (and many times before, over many years)
Agamedes' rating: 7 out of 10
Agamedes' opinion:
Another re-reading for the umpteenth time... This is the book where Marc "Blackie" DuQuesne is -- admit it! -- the hero. Sure, he's cold, ruthless, self-centred. But he's not evil -- just doesn't care who lives or dies, as long as it supports his own view of what should be happening. At the end, he's the only one with enough of the callous, cold-blooded killer instinct to save the cosmic all. And all he really wants, is a single Universe to rule... This book was written 30 years after the first three Skylarks. The Doc has introduced references to sex (purely for the purposes of racial improvement, of course), the women are stronger (when he remembers) and the secondary characters such as Shiro have a role to play (again, when Doc remembers them). The four original Skylarkers even have children... in the first chapter. When eight people are whisked to a safe area -- the children must have been left behind. Still space opera, still much, much larger than life, still with major oversights...
1 comment:
March 2018: I read this book... yet again. And enjoy it... yet again :-)
This time I think, This is both the best of the four Skylark books -- and the worst. The best because, well, perhaps because of the shift to DuQuesne. The worst, because the plot jumps and skips and -- as far as I can tell -- misses. I'm sure there are enormous holes in continuity!
Still, it's space opera and it's great fun.
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