ichard Seaton's perfect life just got complicated. Yes, he's handsome and
brilliant, with a beautiful high-society fiancee in Dorothy Vaneman, but all
he cares about now is the bizarre, unknown metal he found in a consignment
of government scrap--a metal that stimulates total conversion of copper into
pure energy. And no one believes him!
Make that almost no one. Seaton's best friend, the dashing millionaire M.
Reynolds Crane, is convinced that the wonder metal, "X," is the key to space
travel. Crane and Seaton start building a spaceship. Someone else also
believes in X: Seaton's colleague, the cold genius Marc "Blackie" DuQuesne.
DuQuesne is certain only he or Seaton can unlock X's lucrative secrets;
therefore, Seaton must be eliminated.
DuQuesne builds his own ship and sabotages Seaton's. His plan is to kidnap
Dorothy, forcing Seaton to follow and be killed in the faulty ship. But
Seaton and Crane discover the sabotage and covertly build a better ship.
Worse for DuQuesne, Dorothy fights back, kicking her kidnapper into the controls.
DuQuesne's ship rockets uncontrolled into deep space.
Seaton and Crane follow at fantastic speed, discovering DuQuesne and his
captives trapped in the gravity well of a dead star. Combining intellects,
Seaton and DuQuesne save the others, including another victim named
Margaret. Thus Crane, long plagued by golddiggers, finds love among the
stars.
After a series of adventures in search of copper, the Skylark lands
on Osnome, a world shared by the treacherous Mardonalians and the physically
and mentally evolved Kondalians. At first deceived by the Mardonalians, the
humans are rescued by a prince of Kondal. Once in his land, the humans sense
a kinship with this noble race, and realize they must help destroy the
Mardonalian menace.
X marks the spot
The whiff of social Darwinism exuded by some pre-World War II science
fiction is overpowering in Skylark. It may seem a natural
extrapolation: If advanced societies and technologies are part of the dream,
why not advanced humans, as improved and purified as their cities and
spaceships? In Kondal, Smith explores the logical conclusions. Only the most
evolved may contribute to society; the weak and feebleminded are executed.
The heroes, though from Earth, blend right in, being superb physical
specimens and superlative intellects; the Kondalians marvel that a
disordered (democratic) world could have produced them. The visit to Kondal
is steeped in a charming luster--it's easy to forget that today's Captain
Kirks would pull the plug on a world that disposed of its unfortunates.
Skylark is, after all, a gripping yarn. First pulished in
Amazing magazine in 1928 (the book came out in 1946), it's considered
the original space opera--that frothy confection filled with square-jawed
pilots and doughty damsels. In this prototype, though, there's more than
might be found in lesser imitations. Seaton retains interest throughout
despite being profoundly idealized; and there's a quirky appeal to the
heartless DuQuesne, his physical and mental equal. No Ming of Mongo, Seaton's
nemesis has more complicated motives than simple malevolence.
There's even some interesting science. Though X seems unlikely to turn up in
tomorrow's chemistry textbooks, Smith displays a thoughtful attitude toward
the challenges of space travel. And the dead star DuQuesne encounters sure
sounds like a black hole, though this concept didn't gain currency until
later.
Full of ebullience and pure faith in human ingenuity, The Skylark of
Space is a fun read, and a classic example of brisk and visceral
storytelling.
