[Patricia]

Clifford D. Simak (1904–1988)
Empire: A Powerful Novel of Intrigue and Action in the Not-So-Distant Future (1951)

This novel seems to involve space exploration, an anti-entropy device and a guy smoking heavily in a spacecraft! There don’t seem to be any female characters.

Project Gutenberg Transcriber’s Note:
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.