'Doc' Smith wrote a number of books which have influenced science fiction authors and readers for over 80 years. Compared to more modern authors there is a lack of complexity in the stories but there is a joy and exuberance that is sometimes lacking elsewhere. Smith's stuff is usually characterized as Space Opera, but shouldn't be dismissed too lightly - his descriptions of aliens are second to none, and if his men seem to be impossibly brilliant at everything (science, athletics, etc...) then they are balanced by the women who are not just there to look pretty and scream when the aliens bent on galactic domination turn up.

The Skylark of Space is the first in the Skylark Series and is considered to be one of Smith's best books. An adventure into unknown space with daring heroes and unscrupulous villains, aliens both exotic and mundane and the Skylark, the first spaceship of it's kind...