Neil Armstrong, R.I.P.

(1930-2012)

Along with much of the world, seven-year-old Kent sat mesmerized in front of the TV to see mankind's first steps on another world on the evening of Sunday, 20 July 1969.  At that moment, like millions of other kids of my generation, I conceived a deep interest in science, astronomy, and so forth.  Like millions of other kids, I wanted to grow up to be an astronaut.  That didn't happen.  I didn't even become a scientist -- although I was an engineer for a time, and did try to join the Air Force as an engineer (severe myopia shot that down).  Star Trek had, sadly and ironically, aired its last new episode only six or seven weeks before (3 June), but by the next year I discovered it in early syndication and that conception was nurtured to manifest itself in my life-long love of science fiction and fantastic fiction in general.  Within a few years, I discovered Perry Rhodan.  Had I not been primed for it by the sense of wonder inspired by Neil Armstrong's first steps onto the moon, however, would I have ever picked up that first novel and gotten so caught up in it?

To play off the words spoken from Tranquility Base six or so hours before those steps, "The Eagle has ascended."

Ad Astra!  As Jerry Pournelle states in his own blog entry of last night, "We will be back."

Perry Rhodan #18, Menace of the Mutant Master (1972)

By Kurt Mahr (= German issue #25, “The Overlord,” Friday 23 February 1962)

On the very eve of Perry Rhodan's return from his extended stay on Venus, Terrania is hit by acts of sabotage and hijacking. Rhodan – and the Robot Brain – perceive that this has to be the work of other mutants besides those who have been identified and enlisted in the ranks of the New Power. They are, of course, right. The mastermind – German Overhead “Overlord,” English “Mutant Master” – is Clifford Monterny, whose powerful talent is mind control. He hates Perry Rhodan and the New Power for no good reason other than Rhodan's success. He aims to bring them down and establish his own political and economic dominance.

Almost immediately after the incidents which open this story, Monterny starts exploiting advanced technology on the market. Rhodan and the Mutant Corps cannot predict his next target. So Rhodan travels to California and confronts the president of one front company. When the Arkonide hypnoray does not work against his target, Rhodan is almost captured, but turns the tables and takes him prisoner instead, sending him back to Terrania for interrogation. Meanwhile, another of Monterny's enthralled agents inflicts a major economic blow against the New Power through Homer Adams and the General Cosmic Company – but that agent chickens out from carrying through with the complete plot, leaving the damage incomplete.

In Terrania, Khrest and Thora psychoprobe Rhodan's captive, getting nothing useful. Rhodan, however, formulates a plan and sets the Mutant Corps on lookout and guard. Eventually a hostile effort is made to abduct Khrest. The mental control from outside Terrania is detected by John Marshall, and teleporter Tako Kakuta surprises and follows the hostile teleporter as he jumps away. Reappearing in Monterny's base, Kakuta comes under overwhelming psychic attack and barely manages to jump back to Terrania. During his debriefing, Kakuta then attempts to assassinate Rhodan – but Rhodan had foreseen this and is prepared. Rhodan's people have managed to track Kakuta's jump through hyperspace, which gives them a rough idea where their enemy is based. Major Nyssen is therefore dispatched to Osaka.

Monterny's agent Ted McMurray makes a second foray into Terrania. This time he goes undetected because Monterny realizes his previous error – that it was his constant sending of mind waves to his agent that had been detected. McMurray abducts Khrest and jumps away. While in captivity, Khrest discovers that Monterny has crude technological means to augment his telepathic commands.

Nyssen having made progress in Osaka, Rhodan leads a team to support him. But Nyssen is abducted. Tracking Nyssen by means of a subdural micro-telecom allows Rhodan to further narrow the strike. Nyssen finds Khrest and coordinates their rescue/escape with Rhodan. Monterny eludes capture – abandoning his agents, including McMurray, who are all killed by a neutron bomb set in the base by Nyssen when they believe Rhodan's warning to be a ruse.

In the face of the continuing threat, Perry Rhodan sends Betty Toufry off to protect Homer Adams and the General Cosmic Company from further mental influence. Rhodan remains bothered by the nature of the sabotage which began the book – which took the form of a localized nuclear detonation in an area where no nuclear materials were detected – but receives an unexpected vote of confidence from Thora that he would solve the mystery.

Another synopsis may be found at http://perryrhodan.us/php/displaySummary.php?number=25 .

* * *

Well, overall I found this a much more engaging story than the “Venus Saga” which preceded it, but it wasn't as good as I hoped. Doubtless it is an effect of my essentially burning myself out on Perry Rhodan last year; notice how long it has been between my last and this entry. I will persevere, however, but likely nowhere near the pace I established at the beginning. I am curious how the “Mutant Master Saga” will progress....

* * *

I have nothing snarky to say about the covers, other than the bad guy with the pet monster on the English edition looks like Lex Luthor, and that I particularly like the look of sheer terror on the face shown on the German cover.

The dedication is “to (quite naturally) the Master Mind of Nexialist Fiction A. E. 'SLAN' VOGT.”

Ray Bradbury contributes the foreword, “Apollo Murdered: The Sun Goes Out.” Forty years later, we know that Bradbury's impassioned plea against gutting the US space program went tragically unheeded. Since I can find no trace of this short essay on the Internet, I am going to fly in the face of copyright restrictions and reproduce it in whole at the bottom of this post.

“Scientifilm World” is essentially a set report from Forrest J. Ackerman about the mishaps which plagued Riders to the Stars (1954, Directed by Richard Carlson) during production, which included one fatality. This is accompanied by a couple of typically low-quality, murky black and white photographs.

The first of two “Shock Shorts” is “The Survivor” by Spencer Strong, telling of an old, bald scientist who is offended by the visual appearance of a long-haired young assistant – “No hairy hippie is going to ride in my time machine!” The younger man nevertheless stows away as the older man begins his first attempt to travel forward in time. Something goes wrong and they end up tens of thousands of years in the past, where a group of Neanderthals are horrified at the old man – “Tesku targu!” they cry as they kill him. Inexplicably, they welcome the young man, who proceeds to jumpstart human technological advancement and only over time comes to understand their language, and that “tesku targu” means … “hairless monster.”

Garrett P. Serviss' unauthorized sequel to H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, here titled Pursuit to Mars, continues its serialization with Part 3, containing Chapters 5, “The Martians are Coming!,” and 6, “Touchdown: Enemy Planet.” The Martians who were detected last installment land on the asteroid, but the humans win the subsequent firefight. They then engage in some fun experiments with extremely low gravity ballistics before launching on the last leg of their flight to Mars. This includes shooting some gold toward Earth. I haven't run any of the math to know if the figures given here are in any way plausible. As they approach the red planet, they manage to learn some aspects of their single prisoner's language, establishing some rapport. Its glee as they arrive at Mars and the realization of the odds that they face are sobering. They begin their high-altitude reconnaissance of the planet ….

The last “Shock Short” is introduced with a short editorial blurb: “Careful: if you have a heart, this story by the widow of E. Everett Evans might break it.” She wrote “When the Marsboy's Time Came” under the name, T. D. Hamm. It tells of how a ten-year-old boy raised on Mars feels like an outsider on Earth and eventually comes to a bad end through a misunderstanding exacerbated by his heightened sense of hearing in Earth's far denser atmosphere.

Finally, the “Perryscope” prints several pages of fan letters and 4SJ's (half-)witty responses.

* * *

A few random thoughts that came to me as I read or wrote this blog entry....

According to Perrypedia here, “Ted McMurray” was in the original German “Freddy McMurray.” Those of us old enough to remember My Three Sons – or the actor's long career prior to that, including the honor of being the visual inspiration for artist C. C. Beck's rendition of the original Captain Marvel – can easily see why the Ackermans changed this character's name

I didn't know there was a technological means of analyzing a teleporter's jump through hyperspace.

I'm not sure we've had such an explicit description of a teleporter in action as on p. 83: “A few seconds later … the outlines of his figure began to grow blurred and shortly afterwards he vanished completely.” The teleporter in action here is Monterny's agent, McMurray, and I'm assuming the manifestation is the same for all teleporters. My impression hitherto was that teleporters basically popped out of and into existence rather than fading in and out.

It's rather quaint that this is obviously a world without general usage of mobile or cell-phones – p. 85: “Nyssen arranged with Michikai [an Osakan whom Nyssen has enlisted] that from now on they would communicate with each other only by phone. This meant that Michikai would be at a certain restaurant at certain set hours where and when Nyssen would be able to reach him.” Of course, in our world just about anyone would have such a device. On the other hand, according to the internal chronology of the series, these events are happening in 1981 according to Perrypedia. It stands to reason that the boost from the acquisition of Arkonide technology would not have spread so far as a low life in Osaka by that time, only a decade or so into the overall story.

The fate of Monterny's men is rather sobering – pp. 107-108: “Rhodan was informed of Khrest's and Nyssen's rescue. At once he ordered the attack to be stopped. One of his men, armed with a microphone and a loudspeaker, penetrated into the interior courtyard of the villa and broadcast an announcement which could be clearly heard by everybody, even the guards down in the cellars: 'Clear these premises immediately! You have five minutes to get out! Then a bomb will be detonated which will annihilate all life within a radius of 100 yards.'

“Naturally the effect of this warning was practically nil. Everyone in the farmhouse believed it to be a trick. The men tried to ask Monterny for advice but he was unavailable.

“The men decided then to wait and after the five minutes had passed without anything untoward happening, all began to triumph.

“However neutron rays can be neither seen nor heard nor smelled. Not even neutron flows of 1017 neutrons per 0.155 square inch per second.

“That the bomb actually had exploded was not noticed by Monterny's men until their skin suddenly turned red and started to hurt. Within a few seconds they lost their eyesight. In sheer panic the blind men started racing through the corridors, trying to get out of the house. But by then it was too late.

“Only two guards who had obeyed the evacuation order escaped the catastrophe. They surrendered to Rhodan's men.”

This is not exactly the effects of a neutron bomb as described here, which would seem to be from a much larger-yield weapon, although the idea is the same – killing personnel while preserving infrastructure. The specificity of the “neutron flows” given above makes me believe the effect was derived from some kind of scientific report. The technology had been conceived a few years earlier according to Wikipedia here.

* * *

And now, as promised above, I end with an unauthorized reproduction of Ray Bradbury's essay that served as the foreword to this volume. If the copyright holders – presumably his estate – contact me and insist, I will remove it, but until such a time it stays. While I do not agree with all its details, it deserves to be read, and widely.

APOLLO MURDERED:

The Sun Goes Out

By Ray Bradbury

One billion years from this night, men and women sitting around on some far world, many light years away, will cast their minds and talk back to a special year, a special decade, a special century.

What was the finest century, the finest decade, the finest year of man?, they will ask.

And the answers will come: The 20^th Century. The seventh decade therein. And the date July 20^th, 1969.

The special day when, after three billion years of genetic waiting, genetic dreaming, Man reached up to Touch Space, Touch Moon, Touch Eternity.

I wonder, those people in the far future will muse, did all the billions of people alive on the night of Apollo 11 know how special their time was? How privileged they were to be alive and witness the fulfillment of a dream? Or were their eyes in the dust and their minds with the worms and their dreams only under their fingernails and behind their ears?

If so, they let the most important date in the entire history of man pass unnoticed. How sad for them. How silly to be alive in a special fine time and not know it.

How even more silly and sad, in the middle of the time of Apollo, to dismantle the rockets, refuse Eternity, and discard the dream.

And yet, right now, that is what we are doing.

The talk is of priorities.

Why are we spending all that money on the moon?!, is the cry.

As if there were a huge crater on the moon into which, by the bushel, we were heaving tons of cash.

The facts are otherwise.

We have spent not one dollar, not one dime, not one penny on the moon.

It has all been spent right here. To buy houses, put food in mouths, purchase cars, educate people who are black, white, brown, or name your color.

Priorities? What grander priority is there than the Life force, realizing its position in a strange and cold universe, struggling to survive not just here but on other worlds, forever and forever?

Priorities? Is it better to spend $60 billion destroying the country and the peoples of Vietnam or $2 billion insuring the immortality of God's flesh on far worlds that we cannot now even imagine? $60 billion or $100 billion wasted on annihilation? Or $1, $2, $3 billion invested in some new strange green Garden into which we will invite ourselves on a morning of rebirth when our rockets touch down 6 light-years off in the Abyss?

We are so busy fighting, drawing blood, rending flesh that our eyes are on our spilled guts and not on the stars that promise us that very Life Everlasting told of in our Bibles. The fictional heavens of our half-blind ancestors have withered. The real heavens of Apollo and beyond Apollo beckon with real territory and real survival for our very real flesh.

Go out and look at the stars tonight.

Let the darkness between the stars warn you.

There is more dark than light in the Universe.

We must be part of those small touches of fire that fill an otherwise empty Space.

We must choose Light and not delay. Otherwise, Darkness chooses us.

Priorities!?

The money we invest in Space is money that will pay dividends beyond Alpha Centauri three billion years from this afternoon.

It is money invested in a revival of faith and an idealism so great and beautiful as will grow boys tall to men and make them truly proud. We go to save Mankind from itself.

Unless, of course, our priority is Vietnam and murder and death. Then, of course, let us invest all our money there and go mad.

As for me, I know where all the money is.

It lies in the hands of the military.

I would seize it away from their claws.

If you are really interested in big money, don't take away the penny I would bank for the Apollo rockets.

Grab the tens of thousands of millions of dollars that are basted each day devastating the Orient.

I will help you shout for it and grab it to invest in cities, clean air, good water, rapid transit, but save out a penny or a dime for tomorrow's rockets.

When the Sun dies, they will be our salvation.

The unborn speak to us from a million years ahead.

They are in the Garden, waiting to be secured.

Would you murder them?

Then, by all means, please, shoot down Apollo.

(pp. 8-10)

* * *

Thanks for reading.  Ad Astra!

Next (but I can't tell you when): Mutants vs. Mutants, by Clark Darlton.

Perry Rhodan #17, The Venus Trap (1972)

By Kurt Mahr (= German issue #24, Im Dschungel der Urwelt “In the Jungles of the Prehistoric World,” Friday 16 February 1962)

In a nutshell, we have a race between several groups to gain access to the Arkonide Venus Base and its technologies. Rhodan and his men win. All is well. Tomisenkov and his men remain on Venus as colonists.

Truthfully, I can't write a better succinct summary than that provided by Mark Golden at http://perryrhodan.us/php/displaySummary.php?number=24 , to which I cheerfully refer the reader rather than working up my own.

* * *

By the time I finished this book, I felt like I'd been slogging through the wilderness right along with them – and I don't mean that in any good sense, i.e. that the story was that engaging. Short as these books are, frankly I thought this one would never end. I definitely get the sense that by this point in the series the story is being padded out somewhat. I have a tentative theory as to why.

According to the Infallible Authority Wikipedia, in the beginning Perry Rhodan was conceived to run for thirty volumes. Of course, it has gone far longer than that, with no end in sight that I know of. I have wondered what the overall planned story for those thirty volumes was. If it was what would eventually become the First Cycle of the overall saga, The Third Power, that ended up being 49 issues. Perhaps early on, when the publishers realized they had a hit on their hands and determined to keep it going beyond the original plan, they started retooling stories that maybe had been outlined for a single issue so that they became two or even three issues in length. Of course, that would necessitate them hitting on what became the overall rhythm of the series, “cycles” of fifty or so issues, quite early on as well, which I'm not at all sure is the case.

Whatever, the past few books, “The Venus Interlude” I might call it, have definitely seemed like a whole lot of running around without a whole lot of progression to the story. I hope that doesn't remain the case. The next little group having to do with something called the “Mutant Master,” is something I've looked forward to reading since I was a kid. I previously related the synchronicity of my discovering Perry Rhodan ca. 1975 with my discovery of Marvel's New X-Men about the same time. Of course, at that time publication of PR was way past here – somewhere around Ace volume #70, and I only ever managed to scrounge up scattered copies of the earlier books during the next few years – not all of which I actually read. I don't think that the “Mutant Master” stories were any that I managed to acquire or read until last year when I embarked on this crazy Perry Rhodan Reading Project. I know them only from the tantalizing titles in the order forms at the back of the issues that I did have as I read forward to the end of the Ace/Master Publications era. I hope I'm not going to be so disappointed in these next few books as I have been with these just past.

* * *

UK edition, 1976

Thematically at least, Gray Morrow's painting for the Ace paperback is probably the closest to Johnny Bruck's for the German magazine of any that I've seen. Of course, if Tomisenkov (?) is shooting at something he considers more threatening than the blue T. Rex looming behind himself and Thora, they are in deep trouble! (I must say, the UK edition has an interesting cover....)

Once again, there are no interior illustrations – well almost, but I'll get to those. As far as line drawings within the story itself, are those a thing of the past?

Editorial – “Son of Science Fiction Week”: Forrest J. Ackerman reminisces about a stillborn “Science Fiction Week” proclaimed by Hugo Gernsback in 1932, his appearance giving the opening speech at the University of San Francisco's own “individually proclaimed SF week” forty years later (p. 8), and announces The Thirtieth World Science Fiction Convention for 1-4 September 1972 in Los Angeles.

“Scientifilm World” gives a fairly straightforward summary of Journey to the 7th [sic] Planet (1962).

The first of two “Shock Shorts” this issue is “Ranger of Eternity” by Donald F. Glut. The unnamed hero, an anachronistic Space Ranger who has outlived his purpose, manages to have one last confrontation with his arch enemy and assure that “for all eternity there would exist a Space Ranger” (p. 117) – basically by creating a time loop.

Part 2 of the 1898 sequel to H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds that began last issue, Garrett P. Serviss' Pursuit to Mars, contains two more chapters, 3 and 4, “The Monsters on the Asteroid” and “A Golden Planetoid” respectively. The force from Earth has its first encounter with the Martians, a group stranded on an asteroid. There is a battle, they capture one of the Martians, and discover that the asteroid is of pure gold – and that another force of Martians is approaching. One interesting point – besides the fact that in the age before radio the Earth ships must communicate with each other via other means, mainly flashing lights – is that the writer had no conception of what explosive decompression in the vacuum of space would do to the human body. The only danger identified is that of asphyxiation when the air rushes out of a hulled ship. A rescue party from another ship has time to put on space suits and rescue some of the victims in time for them to be revived.

After a subscription offer and a blurb for future “Shock Shorts,” we get the second “Shock Short” for this issue, “A Martian Oddity” by Weaver Wright. Look, I know FJA does not have a monopoly on bad puns, but reading this story that is filled with groaners based on Martians misunderstandings of Earthly sayings that they heard on radio in advance of the first men to travel to the red planet, e.g., “a burp in the hand is worth two in the bush” (p. 150), that lead to the death of said human astronauts because “one man's meat is another man's poison” (p. 151), inevitably made me wonder, “Who is Weaver Wright?” Sure enough, searching for Wright on Wikipedia redirects you to its entry on Forrest J. Ackerman and lists that name first among a rather lengthy list of pen-names Ackerman used, which includes “Dr. Acula,” and proclaims itself “incomplete”!

The “Perryscope” letters column is followed by two black and white photos that are of such poor quality that it is only the captions, “The Brain of Uranus” and “The Monster of the 7^th Planet,” that reveal them to be associated with the movie summarized in “Scientifilm World.”

Next up (but I'm not sure how soon), #18, Menace of the Mutant Master. It's gotta get better from here, right?

Cheers, and Ad Astra.

Perry Rhodan #16, Secret Barrier X (Aug 1972)

By W. W. Shols (= German issue #23, Friday 9 February 1962)

After a short chapter establishing that even mutant teleporter Tako Kakuta cannot penetrate Secret Barrier X from the helplessly orbiting Good Hope V – the attempt subjects him to literally hours of subjective time in hell during which pass only seconds for his crewmates – the balance of the story takes place on Venus itself. Basically, in addition to the wounded Perry Rhodan and Son Okura traveling slowly to catch up with John Marshall who has gone ahead to try to establish telepathic contact with the semi-intelligent seal-like creatures whom they encountered in their initial explorations of Venus (#4[b], Base on Venus), Gen. Tomisenkov with the captive Thora makes his way toward Venus Base while being harried by the rebel Lt. Wallerinski's “pacifists,” and a new force is added to the mix – the remnants of the Eastern Bloc reinforcements that were decimated before ever they landed on Venus (Menace of Atomiggedon), whose commander Col. Raskujan has declared himself the sole authority on the planet and launched an attack on Tomisenkov's forces with vastly superior forces and equipment, including helicopters. Early on, Tomisenkov ambushes and destroys Thora's robotic companion R-17, but by the end both himself and Thora have been captured by Raskujan. Meanwhile, Marshall has not found the “seals,” but has been rejoined by Rhodan and Okura, and together the three have made first an abortive attempt to steal a helicopter from Raskujan's forces, then managed to get away with an inflatable life raft and supplies with which they mean to cross a 200-mile wide stretch of Venusian sea that lies between them and Venus Base.

So, ultimately, not a whole lot happens except pieces being moved around on the playing board.

See another summary at http://perryrhodan.us/php/displaySummary.php?number=23

* * *

The Ace cover is a pretty generic science-fiction cover by Gray Morrow – literally, pretty but generic, having nothing whatsoever to do with the story. The original German cover by Johhny Bruck at least illustrates the ambush of poor R-17 by Tomisenkov's men. Once again there are no interior drawings.

The dedication is to Otis Adelbert Kline, “Whose Grandon of Terra Once Had Grand Adventures on Venus too.” Kline was an early 20th-century pulp science-fiction and adventure writer who penned planetary romances much in the vein of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars and Venus series. The oft-repeated story that Kline and Burroughs engaged in a running feud over Kline's supposed imitation of Burroughs is almost certainly not true. Kline was also important as a literary agent for Robert E. Howard.

Both the editorial and the “Scientifilm World” column are repeats from the previous issue, q.v. This period in the books' publications seems to have been rife with such production snafus.

But with this issue, Perry Rhodan does become more of a true paperback/pulp “magabook” with the inclusion of two shorter stories at the end. First there is the initial installment of Garrett P. Serviss' almost immediate sequel to H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds that began in the New York Evening Journal within weeks of Wells' original reaching its first US publication conclusion in Cosmopolitan (yes, you read that right, except that here we're not talking about the modern women's magazine, rather an earlier and “far more erudite publication whose broad remit included journalism, serious comment and stories from some of the best known writers of the age” – War of the Worlds website). Serviss' original 1898 title gives away one of the major conceits of his story, which had as its hero none other than the “Wizard of Menlo Park” – it was called Edison's Conquest of Mars. Here the tale is retitled Pursuit to Mars. Besides Thomas Edison, who in short order invented both an electrical means of space propulsion and a disintegrator beam weapon, other characters include Lord Kelvin and physicist Wilhelm Roentgen – all part of leading the Earth's effort to pick itself back up to take the war back to the Martians! By the end of the second chapter reprinted here (in Forrest J Ackerman's heavily edited form), the new united Earth fleet has launched for the red planet.

Second there is the first of what FJA calls “Shock Shorts,” short one-to-two-page stories with some twist at the end. This one is by Clive Jackson, entitled “The Swordsmen of Varnis,” and is a pretty typically ERB-esque tale of a brave hero and a beautiful maiden valiantly holding off seemingly hopeless odds on Mars ... until one of the attackers says “To hell with this!” – or to quote it exactly:

“Leaping backward out of the conflict he flung his sword on the ground in disgust. 'Bah!' he grunted. 'This is ridiculous!' And, so saying, he unclipped a proton gun from his belt and blasted Lehni-tal-Loanis and her Warrior Lord out of existence with a searing energy-beam.

“(End).”

Frankly, I found Pursuit to Mars and “The Swordsmen of Varnis” both more engaging than this installment of Perry Rhodan. It just confirms that W. W. Shols is my least favorite Perry Rhodan writer (see also here). Luckily, he wrote only one more issue after this one.

Next: The Venus Trap by Kurt Mahr.

Cheers! … Ad Astra! … and Happy New Year!

Perry Rhodan #15, Escape to Venus (1972)

by Clark Darlton (= German issue no. 22, Thoras Flucht “Thora's Flight,” Friday 2 February 1962)

19 June 1981. A year has passed since the return of the Stardust to Earth and Perry Rhodan's removal of the last major obstacle to world unification. The tenth anniversary of Rhodan's first moon mission that began the saga is a day of celebration across the world. Thora uses the distraction as an opportunity to abscond with one of the new Arkonide-designed destroyers, heading for Venus. She plans to use the hypercomm station in Venus Base to call Arkon and finally get out of this barbarian backwater. Unfortunately, she doesn't realize that the destroyers have not finished prepping with the proper authorization codes to be able to approach Venus Base – so the Positronic Brain shoots her down per Perry Rhodan's previous orders. And when Rhodan, along with two mutants, telepath John Marshall and teleoptician Son Okura, pursues her in a second destroyer, he forgets that fact as well and is similarly shot down!

So Thora along with an Arkonide robot R-17 (whom she'd outlogicked in fine James Kirk fashion), and Rhodan and his companions, end up castaways on the primeval planet – separately, but both groups without communications capability back to Earth. In fairly short order Thora is captured by a scouting party from General Tomisenkow's Eastern Bloc forces, stranded on Venus since taking a drubbing from Rhodan in #14, Venus in Danger. But two groups have splintered off from Tomisenkow – a group of “rebels” who have settled down to begin an agricultural existence, and a group of “totalitarian pacifists” who are anything but, and who in short order wipe out the agricultural rebels before heading to take on Tomisenkow's party.

Rhodan and his men have various adventures in the Venusian jungle. Rhodan is initially captured by but then takes up with Sgt. Rabow, Tomisenkow's very scout who had captured Thora but who was himself a rebel sympathizer. When they discover the destroyed rebel village and what the “pacifists'” next target is, however, they attempt to warn Tomisenkow. Realizing what a prize he has in the Arkonide woman – and that Rhodan will eventually attempt a rescue, the general has meanwhile beefed up his camp's automatic machine-gun defenses. Rabow is killed. Rhodan is shot through the shoulder, but manages to get away with Okura and Marshall.

Meanwhile, Reginald Bell and another crew including the Mutant Corps approach Venus in the Good Hope V, one of the “Guppies” from Stardust. They are stopped cold in their approach and receive a repeating transmission. The two previous approaches without proper authorization codes has resulted in the Robotic Brain locking down the planet: “SECRET BARRIER X HAS GONE INTO EFFECT. ANY PENETRATION INTO THIS PLANET'S ATMOSPHERE IS BEING REPELLED BY A HYPERGRAVITATIONAL NEGATIVE FORCE FIELD” (p. 105). Per Rhodan's orders. Only an Arkonide or Rhodan himself can countermand the order – and only from within Venus Base itself.

Rhodan determines that only with the help of the semi-intelligent seal creatures discovered in their initial trip to Venus a decade before can he hope to reach the Base. Only a telepath can communicate with them, so Marshall is elected to make a long trek to the ocean to establish contact. Shortly after his departure, Rhodan and Okura's short-range communicators pick up Bell's calls. Bell refuses Rhodan's orders to return to Earth. And so they all settle in to wait – Bell cursing in orbit, Rhodan and Okura “perched on a tree ... playing Tarzan” (p. 120), to see what the future (and Marshall's perilous quest) might bring.

(Another synopsis may be found at http://perryrhodan.us/php/displaySummary.php?number=22.)

* * *

Cover: Again, it's a great-looking Grey Morrow sci-fi cover that has absolutely nothing to do with the story inside. Or almost nothing. Beyond the basic question of who the auburn-haired central figure is (Rhodan is famously blond, and usually depicted as such on Morrow's covers), who is the bald man in a bubble space helmet at lower left? Lex Luthor? ... or better, the Ultra-Humanite before? ... and after up to the right? Actually, the white ape is the one element of the cover that seems to come from the story. Although they really don't play much of a role here, I figure something must be being set up by the number of times white ape-like Venusian creatures are referred to in this story. (Also, I know the bald guy looks a lot more like classic Lex Luthor than the original Ultra-Humanite, but the juxtaposition with the white ape made me go there....)

Once again, Johnny Bruck's original German pulp cover far more directly derives from the story, although the overall color scheme is not the impression I get for the Venus described in the book. But maybe I'm bringing my own preconception of a grey, overcast day to the table. Since Venus is closer to the sun such a bright glow would perhaps penetrate the omnipresent cloud banks. The scene is from soon after Rhodan, Okura, and Marshall are shot down – with Rhodan's bandaged head and Okura's thick glasses clearly visible. Ironically, the “teleoptician” who has, for lack of a better term, a form of “X-Ray vision,” has poor eyesight in the normally visible bands of light.

The dedication is to Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Whose 'Escape On Venus' Was Just One Of His Myriads Of Marveleous [sic] Classics Of Escape Literature” (p. [4]). Although there is no ad for other Perry Rhodan books in this volume, there is one for various of Ace's ERB novels of the early 1970s ... which is all, I think serendipitously, quite appropriate given the reference to “playing Tarzan” that appears as quoted above.

The editorial is a rather silly exercise in creating a shorter and shorter “story” by subtracting one letter from previous iterations, driven by the passing of Frederic Brown at age 65, the writer of a “wacky parallel world novel What Mad Universe” (p. 7). “Did it ever occur to you that it can sometimes be a kind of desperate thing to come up with a new editorial every 4 weeks? Well, now you see the result” (p. 8). I don't think anyone ever said Forry couldn't poke fun at himself.

Scientifilm World is largely devoted to When Worlds Collide – which could have been made almost twenty years earlier than it was (1951), and by Cecil B. DeMille. Now there's something I never would have suspected. It ended up made by George Pal. There's also an announcement of an upcoming World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles, to be held 1-4 September, followed by an announcement for the United States' first Science Fiction Film Festival for “a couple of months later.” Finally, notice is taken of a new book about to be published which would give “the most extensive coverage of fantastic films ever undertaken by the human mind,” by one Walter W. Lee Jr. “Would you beleve something like 25,000 titles?!” (p. 128).

No letters column this go'round. At the very end of the editorial Ackerman blames its absence on a glitch in publication scheduling. Once again, there are no interior illustrations to this American edition. Are those a thing of the past?

The promise last issue of a thicker magabook with other features included beginning in this issue didn't actually come true. It will next issue, however.

* * *

Random Annotations and Comments:

Here's something a bit different – a story of man versus an alien planet not written by Kurt Mahr. And the tone of Clark Darlton's story ends up being quite different – lighter, less ominous. Yes there are token references to and attacks by hostile fauna, and the requisite trek through the jungle, but generally the story is of human conflict. And it's typically quite complicated plotwise. There are several different players going – and that's without even bringing in the hanging plot thread of the stranded Eastern Bloc reinforcements that the Stardust blew right through at the beginning of the Special Release, Menace of Atomigeddon. Unless I missed something, they are never referred to in this book. Of course, original Ace readers would not even miss them. Might the Ackermans have simply edited out any reference to those reinforcements since they had not been properly introduced in the missing story? Without reference to the German original I have no way of knowing. But as the story develops here we end up with Thora and the Robot, Rhodan and his companions, three different groups of Easterners – and ultimately Bell orbiting the planet impotently!

Speculation: Perhaps the survivors of the Eastern Bloc reinforcement fleet were shot down by the Positronic Brain since they could not send the authentication code. Maybe that's why they seem to play no part in this story. And apparently Rhodan gave them no thought after observing them continuing to Venus after he inadvertently decimated their numbers. Granted, he had a lot on his mind 'round about then, but it does seem to be yet another oversight on his part. Is it just me, or have the plots lately been a bit overdriven by Perry Rhodan's own lack of foresight, especially where programming the Robot Brain on Venus Base is concerned? Sometimes, of course, it's a result of the way these stories are produced – plotted by committee, written very swiftly by individuals for weekly publication. But sometimes it seems that that's just the way the plot is driven.

P. 97: Betty Toufry described as “the 15-year-old telepathic wonder girl.” Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that she was born on 2 February 1966 according to the Perrypedia's calendar page, which cites German issue #7, American issue #4(a) Invasion from Space where she is introduced as six years old; that earlier adventure occurred in the first part of 1972. So in Earth's elapsed time she is indeed fifteen years old in June 1981. Of course, in her own elapsed time – as for Rhodan and the rest of his crew on the Stardust's mysteriously extended journey – you would need to shave four and a half years off that, making her effectively only ten years old.

Incidentally, the mystery of when the time shift noticed at the beginning of Venus in Danger continues: “For 10 years – if one took into consideration the peculiar time-leap on Wanderer...” (p. 28). It's soon yet, but I get the feeling this will become the orthodoxy, that the “peculiar time-leap” occurred while they were with the Immortal Unknown on his planet, although I think it's pretty obvious that it did not – see my comments to Menace of Atomigeddon.

The change in name of Galacto City to Terrania which occurred in Menace of Atomigeddon and was therefore “off screen” in the original Ace publication of the series is handled with just a couple of identical phrases repeated near the beginning of this book: “Terrania, formerly known as Galacto City” (p. 10 in narration, p. 21 in Rhodan's speech to the world).

The end of Rhodan's speech to the world sets up a bit of irony: “The New Power loves peace but will hit swift and hard, should peace be disturbed anywhere in this world” (p. 27). The words of him who Ackerman dubbed “The Peacelord of the Universe.” The iron hand in the velvet glove. Compare this with Son Okura's ruminations after witnessing the destruction of one of a rival splinter group of Easterners' villages – perpetrated by a fanatic devoted to pacifism: “[Okura] knew how much mischief had been committed in the name of 'pacifism.' It was the fashion nowadays to hide aggressive actions under the cloak of pacifism and to pretend that these war-like acts served the cause of peace” (p. 90). Of course, implying that the authors do not see the irony in what they are writing, this is followed by: “Thank God things had changed since Perry Rhodan's New Power had come into existence.” And, of course, things have not changed in the world since these words were written fifty years ago – some of the world's worst violence is perpetrated in the name of “peace.”

“One full Venusian day lasted as long as 10 days on Earth. This meant 120 hours of uninterrupted daylight, which was followed by an equally long stretch of darkness. One Venusian year lasted 224.7 Earth-days” (p. 30). This is preceded by a paragraph on the atmosphere and climate of Venus, which are obviously as believed until the early 1960s. The early Perry Rhodan stories set on Venus have to have been among the last science fiction stories that could be set on that putative primeval jungle planet with that environment being in any way a possibility. I've already commented on the rapidly changing understanding of the reality of Venus in my post on #4(b) Base on Venus. I'm sure the data given for the annual and diurnal cycle of Venus were given then, but I didn't do any research on it at that time. How do they stack up? According to Space.com, the length of the year is correct, “about 225 Earth days.” But the reported length of the year is wildly wrong (as I suspected from the round numbers given, but little did I dream of the magnitude of the error!). In actuality, “it takes Venus 243 Earth days to rotate on its axis.” And its rotation is unusual among all the planets of the solar system: “If viewed from above, while most planets rotate the same way on their axes, Venus rotates the opposite way. While on Earth, the sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west, if on Venus, the sun would rise in the west and set in the east. … [The disparity between the 225 Earth-day long year and the 243 Earth-day rotation], which normally would mean that days on Venus would be longer than years. However, because of Venus' curious retrograde rotation, the time from one sunrise to the next is only about 117 earth days long.”

Finally, would it be pedantic to point out that the proper adjectival form of “Venus” is “Venerian,” not “Venusian”? – Probably so, but it's another bit of odd knowledge I owe to Isaac Asimov.

Next up: Secret Barrier X.

Thanks for reading. Cheers, and Ad Astra!

Perry Rhodan Special Release: Menace of Atomigeddon (1977)

By Kurt Mahr (= German issue #21, Der Atomkrieg findet nicht statt, which Google Translate renders as “The Nuclear War Cannot Be Held,” Friday 26 January 1962)

This story takes up almost immediately after #14 Venus in Danger, with the Stardust II traveling from Venus to Earth. We get to see how the astronomically disparate technologies put Terrans at risk of even accidental annihilation as the Arkonide space sphere inadvertently plows right through the middle of an Eastern Bloc reinforcement fleet headed for Venus. It is moving at such speed that by the time the Terran ships are detected it is too late to do avert the imminent collision – in which the Arkonide protective force fields simply disintegrate the middle portion of the fleet including its command ship. The survivors can only continue to Venus where they do not suspect their first invasion force has already been decimated, and where they will themselves be stranded with no way home. Sufficient note is made of them that I can't but believe they will play a role in a later story.

The Stardust continues to Earth where Perry Rhodan implements his plan to bring about unification of the Earth even if it must be against the will of the present political powers. The stakes have become too high. He makes a show of force across the Eastern Bloc before proceeding to Galacto City. Col. Freyt is not happy, but understands, when Rhodan explains the mental compulsion against using the Third Power's Arkonide tech to intervene in Earthly politics – which Rhodan now admits was an error on his part because it allowed events to get out of hand and almost tear down what he had so painstakingly built before leaving for Vega and his unexpected delay in returning. The leaders of the Earth's major powers are “invited” to Galacto City and the process of finalizing Terran unification is begun with the establishment of an planetary court of justice. Rhodan also has what appears to be his first meeting with Thora since her and Khrest's great disappointment on Wanderer – and she seems truly taken down a few notches by the experience now that she has more or less come to terms with it.

But the core of this book follows Rhodan's agent behind the lines of the recalcitrant Eastern Bloc, Maj. Derringhouse, as he engages in a one-man campaign of espionage and sabotage that culminates with him capturing the Dictator of Russia, Strelnikow, and arranging for the wholesale surrender of the Eastern Bloc government. Arkonide technology, especially the combat suit with its invisibility screen and flight, make him virtually undetectable and unstoppable.

In the end, even as Rhodan is able to host a celebratory banquet on 19 June 1980, the ninth anniversary of the launch of his moon rocket Stardust which took him to the moon and began his journey toward this day, a day which will henceforth mark the removal of the biggest obstacle to the unification of mankind as well as the renaming of Galacto City as Terrania in hope that that unification will be finalized soon, he is able to make one last great demonstration of the might of the Third Power and its purpose to defend the Earth. An Eastern Bloc base on the moon has launched a catalytic nuclear barrage on the mother planet which Rhodan's space fighters handily sweep aside – but which Rhodan points to as further proof of the urgency of world unification.

(Another synopsis may be found at http://perryrhodan.us/php/displaySummary.php?number=21 )

* * *

This is, of course, the second of the three “lost” early adventures from the earliest years of Perry Rhodan. “Lost” at least from the perspective of followers of the American Ace translations. Ostensibly, like the previous example, The Wasp Men Attack, the reason is because the action is less “science-fictiony” and confined to Earth, therefore of less interest to fans of the series who were looking for gold old space opera adventure. In the present case, even more so, because the conflict is not between humanity and monstrous alien creatures but rather between political factions, a resumption of the Cold War of East versus West that dominated the world both that the series was born in and the earlier books in the series. The antagonists are merely human beings. And, in all honesty, the unbalance between my synopsis above and the story itself may suggest that in the present case the editors' and/or the publishers' judgment may have been more accurate. The short paragraph in which I relate the mission of Deringhouse behind enemy lines grossly downplays the proportion of the book devoted to that part of the story. Without counting words or pages, because there are scattered returns to Rhodan's efforts in Galacto City along the way, my impression is that Derringhouse's story is well more than half the book. And my short paragraph does not nearly cover the complexity of his story. But frankly in the bigger scheme of the series itself I have the essentials.

On the other hand, skipping the story entirely as was done does, I hope it's obvious, miss out on telling some very significant developments in the overall story of the unification of the Earth. Not having looked ahead to the next book I just don't know if the sudden change of “Galacto City” to “Terrania” is there explained. If those Eastern Bloc reinforcements do make it to Venus after nearly being wiped out in inadvertent collision with the Stardust, as I suspect they do, and reappear in a later book (perhaps the next, #15 Escape to Venus), what is told for the unsuspecting American reader of the circumstances by which they ended up stranded with their unfortunate predecessors? These and other such little bits make clear to me how this saga is really one long story, steadily being added to book by book, and if one piece is excised from the middle it does leave a hole. It's similar to a dilemma I face in trying to cut material out of my lectures to save time. It's not an easy task because my history lectures for a class are part of one long story, with connections back and forth through the entire semester. Inevitably if I drop something out of, say, lecture four I realize in lecture ten that I didn't set something up properly that I want to talk about and I end up having to go back and do it then – sometimes ending up with a net loss of time saved! I have identified places in previous stories where it seems the translator/editor are adding explanatory material to help the English reader along – e.g. at the beginning of #6 when there had been about a year long gap since the publication of the previous volume. I wonder how much we'll see in the next?

One comment, and I don't know if this has to do with publication schedules, when it was translated, or (and I suspect this has a lot to do with it) just that Kurt Mahr seems to have been a better writer than W. W. Schols, who wrote The Wasp Men Attack. Granted, I've only read two stories by him so far, but I've been unimpressed with either. See my previous comments. This one overall seemed much like any other Kurt Mahr story, even with the unusual setting. With one qualification: There seems to be excessive use of what I might term “shorthand,” very informal style – e.g., “thruout” (p. 22), “nextime” (p. 34), “rightime” (p. 69) … numbers are not properly spelt out so often that there's no way I could possibly enumerate them. That last is a feature I've noticed to a lesser degree in other stories so far (besides Wasp Men Attack), but here there overuse becomes downright annoying. I figure it's a quirk of the English translation rather than the German original, but it points to a problem that I think contributes to the generally low esteem with which this series is held. Yes, this is pulp fiction, but there are some standards I think should be maintained for even this level of formal prose. I've never seen such bad style in any other published works of this genre, and I can't help but believe that along with Forry's neologisms like “Atomigeddon” it contributed to an overall sense that the Perry Rhodan series was fundamentally juvenile.

And of course there's the one that made me laugh out loud – “12:00 o'clock” (p. 29). That just makes no sense whatsoever.

Enough with bashing the style. The story itself is pretty good. I hope my synopsis above conveys that. It just could have been presented so much better. I am having some tickling memories now, however, of thinking some similar thoughts way back then when I was reading some of the later books. I'm not looking ahead to confirm it, but perhaps there was an overall drop in the quality of editing as the series went eventually to as many as three novels per month...? And this “Special Edition” was published in that later period. When exactly was it translated?

Enough, I said!

Anyway, a few notes and comments:

I'm still confused about exactly when Rhodan and his crew lost the four-and-a-half years. On p. 56 of this book the indication seems to be that they were lost on Wanderer. As part of a couple of pages' exposition basically recapping the series to this point, the following statement is made: “[T]hey had come home to Earth from Wanderer after they had been absent, according to their own chronology, only a few months. However 4½ years had passed on Terra during their visit to Wanderer where time was measured on a different scale.” I don't think that's the case. If you go back and examine the end of #13 The Immortal Unknown, p. 111, they have just transited back from Wanderer to Vega, where Rhodan orders a short stopover before proceding back to Earth. Presumably that happened, and they would have noticed the time discrepancy. No, the “time-slip” had to have happened subsequently, presumably in the transition from Vega to Sol that begins Venus in Danger. I still wonder if this will ever be cleared up.

On p. 67, in his conversation with Thora, Rhodan explains why he is engaging going about the unification of mankind in the way he is, rather than making use of the overwhelming technological advantage that he enjoys and forcing the issue: “I want to achieve the concord of all peoples. This is my great goal. But not with force. I prefer to use a special method which will enable every citizen to draw the same sensible conclusion by himself. If I were to follow your advice, history would remember me as a brutal man who had insisted on uniting our nations by force. This I wish to avoid by all possible means!”

There's nothing really to say about the Ace cover. The illustration has nothing to do with the present story, but rather the Atlan story that it was paired with. Perhaps once I have made my way through the English Perry Rhodan stories I'll go back and read the few stories from that spinoff series that appeared in English – which in German went to eight or nine hundred issues. But that will be a while. If I do, I'll deal with what little extra material that appears here, which is limited to a “Guest Editorial” associated with the Atlan story and the letters column generally making reference to Perry Rhodan stories in the “hundred-teens” range.

The German cover by Johnny Bruck is interesting, however. I think this is the first time that a “real-world” locale forms the backdrop for the cover. Near the end of the story, the leaders of the Eastern Bloc are rounded up under Deringhouse's hypnoblock and marched under the guard of Arkonide robots into the Stardust … which has landed in Red Square, Moscow.

Next up: #15, Escape to Venus!

Thanks for reading, Cheers, and Ad Astra!

The Book Cave Podcast Episode #150: Perry Rhodan

Along with hosts Ric Croxton and Art Sippo, as well as fellow guest Andrew Salmon, I talk Perry Rhodan and a whole bunch of other stuff as the conversation takes us.  And a good time was had by all....

You can check it out at The Book Cave's own website:  http://thebookcave.libsyn.com/the-book-cave-episode-150-perry-rhodan, or at iTunes.  Then browse around a bit in The Book Cave.  It's full of pulpy and comic-book goodness - my kind of reading!

Cheers, and Ad Astra!