Order of the Golden Sprout The New Robert Rankin Fan Club

Triplanetary by E.E. “Doc” Smith - 3 out of 5.

This is the first book in the Lensman series. (Though I believe it was actually brought out after the original series as a prequel, but based on short stories written before those original books. Confused yet? Well there are also at least two versions of this book knocking about with various additions & subtractions. I have (what I think) is the longer version).

To be honest the first 6 chapters (& nearly 100 pages) are pretty superfluous to the rest of the plot.