While his novels were often considered "Space Opera," and offered almost non-stop action, they were, in most ways, still "true" science fiction, in that they used extrapolation of known science and, often, extrapolation of existing and historic social and political patterns.
In recent years many have characterized his writings as cliche-ridden, or as using tired old themes. But it is sometimes forgotten that these were not tired old themes or cliches when he wrote them; they were totally new, at the time.
The Skylark series includes:
The Lensman series includes:
Masters of the Vortex is set in the same universe as the Lensman novels, but is not part of the main storyline. Spacehounds of IPC is not a part of the series, despite occasional erroneous statements to the contrary.
Robert Heinlein reported that Doc had planned a seventh Lensman novel, set after the events described in Children of the Lens, which was unpublishable at that time (the early 1960s). Careful searches by people who knew Doc well (including Fred Pohl, Doc's editor, and Verna Trestrail, Doc's daughter) have failed to locate any material related to such a story; Doc apparently never wrote any of it down. Doc told Heinlein that the new novel proceeded inexorably from unresolved matters in Children, a statement easily supported by a careful reading of Children.
The GURPS role-playing game includes a worldbook based on the Lensman series.
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