I think you're being a little unkind to Dorothy Seaton and (especially) Clarissa Kinnison there, Chrispy.....and female characters? Don't even hope...
Originally, the series consisted of the four novels Galactic Patrol, Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensmen, and Children of the Lens published between 1937 and 1948 in the magazine Astounding Stories. In 1948, at the suggestion of Lloyd Arthur Eshbach (publisher of the original editions of the Lensman books as part of the Fantasy Press imprint), Smith rewrote his 1934 story Triplanetary to fit in with the Lensman series. First Lensman was written in 1950 to act as a link between Triplanetary and Galactic Patrol and finally, in the years up to 1954, Smith revised the rest of the series to remove inconsistencies between the original Lensman chronology and Triplanetary.
Would it be better to go straight to First Lensman then?
I think you're being a little unkind to Dorothy Seaton and (especially) Clarissa Kinnison there, Chrispy...
But his ideas, and the tableaus he plays with, are definitely staggering to the imagination...
Dated, with frequently cardboard characters, and stilted prose.
But his ideas, and the tableaus he plays with, are definitely staggering to the imagination, and the books can be wonderful fun in a (largely) naïve and innocent fashion... though, given certain aspects, this last adjective may be just a tad misleading (see Phil Farmer on the subject).....
Not quite! Nadreck of Palain Seven is a frigid alien but on the side of good, though his mentality is as alien as his metabolism. Doc Smith is actually surprisingly good at aliens.They are dated. The science is not very convincing (= generally nonsense). Reproduction is generally oral (they might get as far as a kiss) and female characters? Don't even hope.
But they are great fun to read, cosmic billiards zooming planets across the sky, the good guys putting troops to defend polling booths (but doing it morally, 'cause they're good guys), the baddies frigid aliens that everybody cheers for the destruction of.
Subtlety? I've heard that word somewhere. But not for Doc Smith