The Vortex Blaster
Encyclopedia
The Vortex Blaster is a collection of science fiction
short stories by author Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.
. It was simultaneously published in 1960
by Gnome Press
in an edition of 3,000 copies and by Fantasy Press
in an edition of 341 copies. The book was originally intended to be published by Fantasy Press, but was handed over to Gnome Press when Fantasy Press folded. Lloyd Eshbach, of Fantasy Press, who was responsible for the printing of both editions, printed the extra copies for his longtime customers. The stories originally appeared in the magazines Comet and Astonishing Stories.
In 1968, Pyramid Books
issued a paperback
edition under the title Masters of the Vortex, promoting it as "the final adventure in the famous Lensman series." While the stories are set in the same universe as the Lensman novels, they are only tangentially related. They references events that happen in the Lensman series, but only “off stage”. No characters from the other Lensmen books show up in this book. From the events spoken of in this book it apparently falls between Second Stage Lensmen
and Children of the Lens
.
Then things change in a major way. Cloud's family is tragically killed when a misguided attempt blow out a vortex lands one of the fragments right on his house. Devastated by the loss of his family, Cloud takes a leave of absence from the Radiation Lab where he works studying the vortices. As he drives he is struck with an idea for "blowing out" a vortex. It is slightly technical (Smith explains it so it can be easily followed), but the general idea is that Cloud's brain works so fast that he can calculate exactly where the center of the vortex will be at a moment in time and how big an explosive is needed, then hit it with a bomb that is set at the exact strength to actually extinguish the vortex instead of blowing it apart and making more vortices.
As you might expect, this works, and it makes Cloud a very popular guy. As it continues the book tells of Cloud's new job as the universe's one and only vortex blaster. This job takes him from planet to planet where he blows out vortices, matches wits against drug dealers and gangsters, meets new life forms, and acquires a crew for his small scout ship. His adventures are many and varied, and the lifeforms he meets are strange and interesting.
Eventually the Galactic Patrol decides that having only one “Vortex Blaster” is inviting disaster. If something happens to Storm Cloud, they are at the mercy of the loose vortices again. As a result Dr. Cloud is called back to Tellus (what the Earth is called in Smith's stories) and given a new ship. A specially modified, light cruiser (called Vortex Blaster II ) outfitted to carry everything that is needed to extinguish vortices. He is also introduced to Joan Janowick, the leading computer expert of Civilization. Her job is to build a computer that can reproduce whatever it was that Storm Cloud does and blow out vortices like he can. Working closely with Joan on a series of ever faster computers, his eyes soon turn more and more toward his pretty, super smart, and self-taught psychic co-worker and his heart begins to heal. As they fall in love, he bonds psionically with Joan, a pivotal point in the novel, as this leads him to find and communicate with the pure-energy alien beings that have been unknowingly causing the problems. The original vortices are found to be the incubators that an alien species uses to breed and raise its young! That makes the Vortex Blaster an inadvertent murderer of children, a fact that does cause him anguish. In the end an agreement is reached, the aliens close down the "incubators" and move their offspring to vortices the Patrol has helped set up on uninhabited planets. As the story ends, "Storm" Cloud, the Vortex Blaster, is out of a job.
reviewer Floyd C. Gale noted that "while the modern trend of sf has passed good Doc Smith by" he still got "a huge bang out of this super-duper yarn."
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
short stories by author Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.
E. E. Smith
Edward Elmer Smith, Ph.D., also, E. E. Smith, E. E. "Doc" Smith, Doc Smith, "Skylark" Smith, and Ted was a food engineer and early science fiction author who wrote the Lensman series and the Skylark series, among others...
. It was simultaneously published in 1960
1960 in literature
The year 1960 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 2 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case in the United Kingdom....
by Gnome Press
Gnome Press
Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics.The company was founded in 1948 by Martin Greenberg and David A. Kyle. Many of Gnome's titles were reprinted in England by Boardman Books...
in an edition of 3,000 copies and by Fantasy Press
Fantasy Press
Fantasy Press was an American publishing house specialising in fantasy and science fiction titles. Established in 1946 by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach in Reading, Pennsylvania, it was most notable for publishing the works of authors such as Robert A. Heinlein and E. E. Smith...
in an edition of 341 copies. The book was originally intended to be published by Fantasy Press, but was handed over to Gnome Press when Fantasy Press folded. Lloyd Eshbach, of Fantasy Press, who was responsible for the printing of both editions, printed the extra copies for his longtime customers. The stories originally appeared in the magazines Comet and Astonishing Stories.
In 1968, Pyramid Books
Pyramid Books
Jove Books, formerly Pyramid Books, is a paperback publishing company, founded in 1949 by Almat Magazine Publishers . The company was sold to the Walter Reade Organization in the late 1960s. It was acquired in 1974 by Harcourt Brace which renamed it to Jove in 1977 and continued the line as an...
issued a paperback
Paperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
edition under the title Masters of the Vortex, promoting it as "the final adventure in the famous Lensman series." While the stories are set in the same universe as the Lensman novels, they are only tangentially related. They references events that happen in the Lensman series, but only “off stage”. No characters from the other Lensmen books show up in this book. From the events spoken of in this book it apparently falls between Second Stage Lensmen
Second Stage Lensmen
Second Stage Lensmen is a science fiction novel by author Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.. It was first published in book form in 1953 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 4,934 copies. The novel was originally serialized in the magazine Astounding beginning in 1941...
and Children of the Lens
Children of the Lens
The Children of the Lens are characters in the fictional Lensman universe created by E. E. "Doc" Smith.One male and two pairs of twin females, they are the children of Kimball Kinnison and Clarissa Kinnison, both of whom are second-stage lensmen...
.
Plot synopsis
The hero of the book is Neal "Storm" Cloud. Although the story happens in the “Lensman” universe the he isn't a Lensman. Instead he is a nuclear engineer with an amazingly mathematical mind. He is a high level genius and a lightning calculator. In his universe there is something we have apparently don't have in ours, self-sustaining vortices of atomic energy. These are like a small piece of the heart of a star. A churning vortex of heat and light that slowly grows while consuming whatever it is in contact with. In theory they can be blown out by a precise amount of explosives, placed at an exact spot in the vortex, at exactly the right time. The problem is, it takes the best computers available hours to calculate the factors needed, and only seconds are available to get the correct amount of explosives on target. Also, if you try to blow one out, but don't get the factors right, all you do is split the vortex into many separate vortices and scatter them far and wide, and soon each is as dangerous as the original. Although Storm Cloud, being a nuclear engineer and lightning calculator, should be able to calculate the factors and extinguish a vortex, in practice he can't. It would be very dangerous and Storm has a wife and kids, and putting himself in that kind of danger ties his mind up with worry so much that he just can't do it.Then things change in a major way. Cloud's family is tragically killed when a misguided attempt blow out a vortex lands one of the fragments right on his house. Devastated by the loss of his family, Cloud takes a leave of absence from the Radiation Lab where he works studying the vortices. As he drives he is struck with an idea for "blowing out" a vortex. It is slightly technical (Smith explains it so it can be easily followed), but the general idea is that Cloud's brain works so fast that he can calculate exactly where the center of the vortex will be at a moment in time and how big an explosive is needed, then hit it with a bomb that is set at the exact strength to actually extinguish the vortex instead of blowing it apart and making more vortices.
As you might expect, this works, and it makes Cloud a very popular guy. As it continues the book tells of Cloud's new job as the universe's one and only vortex blaster. This job takes him from planet to planet where he blows out vortices, matches wits against drug dealers and gangsters, meets new life forms, and acquires a crew for his small scout ship. His adventures are many and varied, and the lifeforms he meets are strange and interesting.
Eventually the Galactic Patrol decides that having only one “Vortex Blaster” is inviting disaster. If something happens to Storm Cloud, they are at the mercy of the loose vortices again. As a result Dr. Cloud is called back to Tellus (what the Earth is called in Smith's stories) and given a new ship. A specially modified, light cruiser (called Vortex Blaster II ) outfitted to carry everything that is needed to extinguish vortices. He is also introduced to Joan Janowick, the leading computer expert of Civilization. Her job is to build a computer that can reproduce whatever it was that Storm Cloud does and blow out vortices like he can. Working closely with Joan on a series of ever faster computers, his eyes soon turn more and more toward his pretty, super smart, and self-taught psychic co-worker and his heart begins to heal. As they fall in love, he bonds psionically with Joan, a pivotal point in the novel, as this leads him to find and communicate with the pure-energy alien beings that have been unknowingly causing the problems. The original vortices are found to be the incubators that an alien species uses to breed and raise its young! That makes the Vortex Blaster an inadvertent murderer of children, a fact that does cause him anguish. In the end an agreement is reached, the aliens close down the "incubators" and move their offspring to vortices the Patrol has helped set up on uninhabited planets. As the story ends, "Storm" Cloud, the Vortex Blaster, is out of a job.
Contents
- "The Vortex Blaster"
- "Storm Cloud on Deka"
- "The Vortex Blaster Makes War"
Reception
GalaxyGalaxy Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...
reviewer Floyd C. Gale noted that "while the modern trend of sf has passed good Doc Smith by" he still got "a huge bang out of this super-duper yarn."