This book was attached to the end of the Lensman Super Pack I bought a long time ago, but after I read through all of the main books, I looked at this one and it seemed like it was mostly unrelated to the Lensman series, at least in the first few pages that I read. So, I neglected it for a while.
Last weekend, I decided to give it a look, and I quite liked what I found. This book is a novel created by stitching together three of Doc Smith's stories about a guy named Neal Cloud. It has also been called Masters of the Vortex, but the version I read was called The Vortex Blaster. There might be some small differences between versions.
Neal Cloud is a physicist and mathematical prodigy. This book introduces a strange problem: every once in a while, for no apparent reason, atomic power plants melt down and turn into these weird "atomic vortices." They are extremely destructive and dangerous, and nobody knows what to do about them. Over time, they even threaten whole planets.
Neal thinks he has figured them out. He devises a method to use his mathematical super-skills and duodec bombs to take out an atomic vortex, and, after a few tries, is successful in closing one. This gets him a new career as the "vortex blaster," jumping around the galaxy and closing these vortices wherever they are found.
The first third of the book is a solo adventure, and we get to see Doc Smith's skill in description, without too much of the sometimes overwhelming and distracting dialog we know him for. That first third pulled me in, and by the time the rest of the characters got introduced, I was hooked.
It's a fun book with a cool plot and some really fun moments. Check out the spoiler sections in the embedded video if you want more details. Without spoiling much, we get to see Cloud's development as a vortex blaster, the Galaxy Patrol's work to make use of his skills, some fun and interesting sideplots, and some creative (and some uncreative) alien designs.
If you liked the Lensman books, you'll almost certainly enjoy this one. So give it a look if you missed it.
You can grab a free Gutenberg copy here.
Or pick up the Lensman Super Pack at Amazon.
And if you like sci-fi adventures like this, maybe take a look at my Derelict Project Series.
If you like getting your eBooks off-Amazon, you can get copies of The Hyacinth Rescue, Missed Contact, and Pursuit of the Heliotrope at these links.
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