Book Note: Edward E. Smith, Masters of the Vortex

This note contains spoilers for the book.

Originally titled The Vortex Blaster.

This is a very fine lensman-universe book. Storm Cloud, who turns out to be a Type 6 mentality (which puts him past Kimball Kinnison and friends, since the highest known type is 5; or perhaps the gentlemen of the second stage have managed to escape the notice of the Manarkans so far), takes on the job of ridding the universe of loose atomic vortexes. Along the way, much about statistics is revealed.

The lensman-universe stuff is pretty peripheral, but does explain the overall government structure well enough. None of the main characters are lensmen, but they interact with them on many worlds.