Search Worlds Without End

Edward E. "Doc" Smith's visionary Lensmen series of stories began in 1934 in the pages of Amazing Stories, and when it finished in 1948 it was universally recognized as the greatest space opera yet written. In telling the tale of a cosmos-spanning battle between good and evil, the Lensmen saga encompassed two entire galaxies in collision, each home to a primordial race of nearly limitless power. On one side were the Arisians, uplifting agents of wisdom who had taken it upon themselves to mentor the younger races and steer them towards the enlightenment they called Civilization. On the other were the Eddorians, embodiments of crushing efficiency and unthinking obedience who had woven together a vast web of tyrannies called the Boskone, through which they plotted the enslavement of all life. As their greatest weapon in the fight against the Boskone, the Arisians created the Lenses -- almost-living complexities of crystal that released and amplified their wearers' latent psychic powers. Those chosen for this honor were called Lensmen, and as the leaders of the Galactic Patrol they formed Civilization's spearhead against the Boskone. Within the Žlite ranks of the Lensmen was an even more rarified Žlite -- the four Second Stage Lensmen, one from each of the races which the Arisians had chosen as the most capable defenders of their galaxy. It is one of these Second Stage Lensmen -- the Velantian named Worsel -- that David A. Kyle chose to headline his first authorized sequel to Smith's Lensmen canon: The Dragon Lensman.

As The Dragon Lensman opens, the Boskonian conspiracy seems to have been vanquished with its defeat at the great Battle of Klovia, and the victorious Galactic Patrol is busy re-orienting itself to face the new challenges of policing a galaxy instead of defending it against a ruthless invader. Among those adjusting to the new reality is Second Stage Lensman Worsel, the legendary warrior/scientist famed for his intelligence and dedication to the fight against ignorance and evil. Like all of his species, Worsel resembles the mythological dragons of old Tellus (Earth), with a sinewy, ten-meter-long body covered in scales and boasting great wings and terrifying claws and teeth. But Worsel's real strength is his mind and its unmatched psychic abilities, concentrated and focused by the Lens shining among his many eye-stalks. And it is the intuition bred of that power that now draws Worsel to the Velantians' incredible archive, the 18-mile-wide artificial moon known as the Planetoid of Knowledge, where he feels certain something important is waiting for him.

He is right -- but what awaits him on POK is more than he bargained for, and before long Worsel and his fellow Lensmen are racing against time to confront a threat that almost no one had thought possible: machines becoming self-aware and battling against organic Civilization, their calcuating computer brains invisible to any kind of psychic detection!

To counter this new menace, the Dragon Lensman finds himself hurtling through space to rendez-vous with the one Lensman who understands robots well enough to strategize against an inorganic uprising -- the mysterious Twenty-Four of Six, whose knowledge of machines turns out to be deeper and more hard-won than even Worsel could guess.

Soon it becomes clear that Civilization will need every bit of that knowledge, and more besides, to face the enemies that are now revealing themselves. For behind the overt power there lurks a vastly more dangerous covert one, and to defeat it Worsel will not only have to challenge the worst fears of his race, but also discover the secret of the young Lensman with whom he must entrust his life -- a secret that will shake the very foundations of the Galactic Patrol!

In his second novel building upon E.E. "Doc" Smith's original Lensmen series, David A. Kyle continues his explorations into the three non-human Second Stage Lensmen. Lensman from Rigel focuses on the enigmatic Tregonsee, the Rigellian head of S.I.S., the Galactic Patrol's Secret Intelligence Services, and one of the greatest strategists ever to wear a Lens of the Arisians.

Following the events of The Dragon Lensman (the first book in the "Second Stage Lensman" Trilogy), Tregonsee is made violently aware of a deadly new threat to the forces of Civilization when he is targeted for assassination by an unknown power capable of precisely controlling hyperspatial tubes -- portals that fold the fabric of space-time itself to make possible instantaneous, untraceable transportation anywhere in the universe. This feat is beyond any technology known to Civilization, and at a stroke it renders nearly every existing security measure obsolete. Though he survives the attempt, Tregonsee acts quickly to spread news of his death to try and lure the conspirators into the open. But even before he can put his plan into action, five of Civilization's greatest scientists are kidnapped through the same hyperspatial tubes -- only to be quickly returned, seemingly unharmed but with their brains obviously manipulated. The scientists' specialties? Hyperspace, vortices, and black holes. As more reports come in from Tregonsee's intelligence network, it soon becomes clear that the Galactic Patrol and all of Civilization is in even greater danger than it first appeared -- now they face the possibility of black holes being sent down tubes as targeted weapons!

While Tregonsee and the other Second Stage Lensmen begin mounting their defense and planning their response to this growing menace, a lower-level Patrol technician named Benson "D.D." Cloudd is about to bring them a vital piece of the puzzle. Hunting a mysterious plague of mechanical probes that have been appearing throughout the galaxy, Cloudd manages to capture a piece of a "mother ship" with several intact probes within. What he discovers next leads him into the inner circle of Tregonsee and his ultra-secret Special Mission Forces, where preparations are underway to follow the trails of the attackers back to their source.

For Cloudd and Tregonsee, that means a fateful mission to the planet Tanse and its mysterious Moon of Lost Souls, where roiling hurricanes of psychic energy rage, ready to destroy the minds of any who attempt to land on its surface. Behind this shield, awaiting discovery, is the key to all that Tregonsee has uncovered -- a secret that can either save Civilization, or destroy an entire galaxy!

With Z-Lensman, the final novel in his post-E.E. Smith Lensmen trilogy, David A. Kyle turns his attention to the strangest of the three non-human Second Stage Lensmen: Nadreck the Palainian, whose Z-type species exists in a multidimensional state beyond the familiar three dimensions experienced by most of the galaxy's life forms. The constant shifting of their bodies through unfamiliar dimensions -- together with the frightfully cold and poisonous atmosphere they breathe and their implacable emotional detachment -- make the Palainians one of the more unsettling races known to Civilization. But, as events will soon demonstrate, they are also one of its most valuable assets.

In the process of training a new class of Z-type Lensmen cadets from the Palainian Z-Academy, Nadreck makes the unintentionally fateful decision to bring a religious leader from a Boskonian Spawn-influenced planet to be studied on Tellus before continuing on to Palain VII. On Tellus, Nadreck and the newly-promoted Galactic Patrol lieutenant Benson Cloudd become aware of a strange new problem affecting Civilized space. Machines throughout a wide swathe of the galaxy have begun to malfunction, and communicators, spaceships and computers are becoming increasingly unreliable. But in the process of searching for the source of this mechanical mayhem, Nadreck discovers something even more disturbing: remnants of the Eddorian Conspiracy are planning a new invasion, and their forces are gathering on multiple planes of existence!

Faced with mysteries and threats on multiple fronts, Nadreck, Cloudd and the android-bodied Lensman Lalla Kallatra must work together while at the same time scattering themselves across the stars, each in pursuit of their own piece of the puzzle. As the final confrontation approaches, all of the power wielded by Civilization -- and all of the combined resourcefulness of its members, from Galactic Coordinator Kimball Kinnison personally leading the Patrol's Grand Fleet against an unprecedented weapon to the shade of Deuce O'Six defending the borders of the spirit world -- must be brought to bear. But will it be enough? And will the threat that is closest to home be recognized in time?

All this and much more is revealed in Z-Lensman, the mesmerizing conclusion to Kyle's galaxies-spanning saga!