The Skylark of Space (by E.E. "Doc" Smith)

By Narrow-Rabbit

So this is often treated like the starting point for “space opera.” Even before the Lensman stuff, the Skylark series feels like where a lot of the big ideas got rolling. I’ve also seen it called an “Edisonade” type thing—this weird little subgenre where super-scientists do heroic, larger-than-life actions, and it shows up around 1900. One detail that really stands out to me is how “this is where it all started” might actually be true. The first chapter ran in the same magazine as the first Buck Rogers chapter (at the time it wasn’t even called Buck Rogers yet—it was something like Armageddon 2419 AD). And it came out almost ten years before the first Flash Gordon comic, so it feels like an early setup for a bunch of later stuff. Plus, it’s over a hundred years old, so the slang and wording are super dated, even if it matches other stories from the same era. I kind of like reading it with a “historical science” lens. The stories (the 1928 vs 1946 versions have some differences) bounce between talking about relativity and then going way past what’s normally allowed—then it’ll switch gears to things like Roche’s limit and escaping black holes, which, as far as I know, didn’t really get talked about much until later. It’s definitely a relic, but honestly it’s comforting. I like seeing heroes who are just straightforwardly brave and smart, and the main bad guy is someone you might still trust a little (within reason). Anyway, I’m glad I reread it—I’ve blocked out time to get through the rest of the series over the next few days. I didn’t really look up or keep track of plot points ahead of time, but if you’re curious about space opera or Edisonade, I’d say it’s worth starting with this first book just to see how the whole vibe began.