Spacehounds of the IPC was intended to initiate a new series. When it ran in Amazing Stories in 1931, Smith had already published Skylark Three, in which the evil Duquesne is incinerated during the destruction of the Fenachrone planetary system. In the Skylark stories, Smith had sent his protagonists around the universe and across alternate dimensions. He had decided (perhaps with some prodding from critics) to restrict himself to a more probably storyline in his new series. The characters in Spacehounds were not to leave our solar system.

That said, Smith took a fair number of liberties with the solar system as we know it. In his vision, it's about as crowded as Rockefeller Center during the Christmas season. There are friendly, humanoid Titans; there are nasty, belligerant Hexans from Jupiter; we meet the Vorkuls, also from Jupiter (the southern part); other humanoids from Callisto help our protagonists; carniverous flowers menace them. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few others.

The book was not well received. T. O'Conner, the editor of Amazing Stories, irritated Smith by editing the story more than Smith approved of. Readers, as well, preferred the farther-reaching adventures that Smith had deliberately spurned with Spacehounds.

No sequel was written.

[The cover shown is from the Pyramid paperback edition. A more complete summary of the book will follow when I have a chance to write it.]

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