The Vortex Blaster

"Masters of The Vortex" is a departure for Doc Smith and the Lensman series. Unlike the rest of the series, Vortex's main protagonist is not a Lensman. Its placement in the series needs to be revised. It is often placed as book seven (last) in the series, some as book six of seven, and others exclude it entirely. I would read it stand-alone.

They were initially written as three short stories for the pulp magazine Cometks, a change in Doc's writing style. This style is much more representative of his adopted style a few years later.

Atomic vortices menace various planets throughout the universe. They can be eliminated with a carefully timed blast at the center of each Vortex. But timing and locating the correct amount of explosives at the center of these atomic tornadoes is tricky—a hit-and-miss problem for the average person.

Enter our protagonist, Neal "Storm" Cloud, an atomic engineer with a calculator-fast brain. Being a quick read, I will not spoil the reasons Storm gets drawn into the effort of shutting down the vortices or his adventures afterward.

My rating is four stars; I hope you agree.

If you wish to track down the pulps or download them. The three short stories that appear in Pulps that make up the novel are;

"Comet" 7/41 "The Vortex Blaster"

"Astonishing Stories" 6/42 "Storm Cloud on Deka"

"Astonishing Stories" 10/42 "Vortex Blaster Makes War."