By Kurt Mahr (= German issue #8, 27 October 1961)

Perry Rhodan and company take off from the Gobi Desert aboard the Good Hope for an extended mission to establish a base on Venus. The Third Power and defense of the earth are left in the capable hands of Ras Tschubai and Betty Toufry. Their first stop is to be the Arkonide cruiser wreckage on the moon, but as they approach they find a crashed duplicate of Rhodan's old Stardust– which fires on them! It is the secret US rocket Greyhound, which had been sent to scavenge from the crashed Arkonide ship, with the astronauts Michael Freyt (an old colleague of Rhodan's), Conrad Derringhouse, Rod Nyssen, and William Sheldon (who died in the Greyhound's crash). They mistakenly took the approaching Good Hope for a Mind Snatcher attack and opened fire. Too quickly for Rhodan to stop her, Thora retaliates with a “crystal field neutralizer” disintegrator beam that dissolves the hull of the Greyhound– and reveals to the US astronauts who recognize the technology that it's really the Third Power. The Good Hope lands nearby. “Well, the only thing we can do now is walk over to them and apologize for having attacked them by mistake!” (p. 109)

Rhodan overrules Thora's objections to letting Freyt and his men aboard the space sphere – Freyt was the pilot who destroyed her cruiser (#2[a], The Radiant Dome) – forcefully asserting his command authority. Afterward, Khrest cautions Rhodan that another such clash of wills with Thora may well drive her to the brink of insanity. Rhodan dresses down Washington for their perfidious attempt at “piracy” - and demands reparations in the form of a discharge for the three astronauts from US service so they can join him if they so wish. They so wish. The Good Hope then spends several days salvaging and inventorying machinery and supplies that survived the destruction of the cruiser. Thora agrees to submit to Rhodan's command authority henceforward; Khrest points out that only now has she given up hope that the cruiser could be returned to spaceworthy condition and accepted that she must depend on the earth if she hopes to return to Arkon. The Good Hope proceeds to Venus, but when approaching the landing site selected based on the earlier scouting expedition (from which the Good Hope had been returning at the end of the previous story), a gravitational beam seizes the ship and starts drawing it toward its source. A challenge is received, but it is in a primitive dialect of Arkonide. Only Rhodan's skill as a pilot manages to break the ship free to a landing in a deep crater, hidden from the enemy.

They spend some time scouting the local area, including making contact with primitive but intelligent seal-like creatures who regard them as gods. Then an expedition consisting of Rhodan, Reginald Bell, Eric Manoli, the three US astronauts, Tako Kakuta, and Anne Sloane – along with a robot dubbed “Tom” - sets out to march cross country the three hundred miles to the source of the gravitational beam. Khrest and Thora remain with the Good Hope, which remains undiscovered by various small scout probes that flit through the skies. Over the course of a few long Venusian days (a couple earthly weeks) – and verious harrowing encounters with Venusian monsters – the expedition makes its way across jungles, rivers, and mountains to a high plateau and into a cave which serves as a disintegrator cannon emplacement, which does not fire but does show evidence of being maintained. Not knowing they are being observed by the puzzled commander of the base, and with all other attempts at finding entrance to the base coming to naught, Rhodan finally orders Tako to teleport inside. Tako is captured and interrogated under psychohypnosis by the base commander's robots. Then paths open up for the earthlings to be shepherded into the base, ultimately to a human-like robotic alien who speaks first Japanese, then English, extracted from Tako's brain, and who leads them to a large central chamber housing a gigantic positronic robot brain. “This is the commander. He is happy to see you” (p. 179).

It turns out that the base on Venus was established by Arkonides over ten thousand years ago as a staging area for colonization of the earth – specifically a continent between America, Europe, and Africa – Atlantis. But that colony was destroyed with few survivors in a great cataclysm. The survivors proceeded in the remaining ships to another destination and contact was lost with them. The robot brain has been maintaining the base by means of its robots ever since, through the millennia, waiting for Arkonides to return. It recognizes Rhodan and Bell's psychoenhanced brains as Arkonide, and based on its own observations and what it learned from interrogating Tako it recognizes Rhodan as its new master. Perry Rhodan gains all the weapons, power, resources, and facilities he needs to defend the earth from any alien threat.

Another synopsis may be found at http://perryrhodan.us/php/displaySummary.php?number=8

***

The first impression is that “Base on Venus” refers to the base that Rhodan plans to establish. But in reality, it is the ancient Arkonide base that he discovers and takes possession of.

See my previous comments on the soon-to-be (1962) untenable image of Venus as a primitive earth.

Derringhouse is another name that I remember from my long-ago reading of the later US Perry Rhodan. I actually recognized him when he first appeared in #2(a), The Radiant Dome, accompanying Freyt in the destruction of the Arkonide cruiser, and wondered then exactly how he would be brought to Rhodan's side.

Anne Sloane appears here as another typical female character of an age gone past. She is presented as something of a weak sister, even an outright damsel in distress in one sequence – dragged away by a big worm-monster and saved from a horrific fate only in the nick of time by our heroes. She engages in self-pitying self-recrimination when her telekinetics and “radar-sense” clairvoyance prove to be of little value - “[S]he reported to Rhodan what she had been able to find out about the passageways. She seemed to be discouraged and crestfallen. 'You've lost a lot of precious time, haven't you?” she asked. 'And because of me.'” Our gallant hero denies this, of course (p. 167).

In an earlier story, Khrest intimated that Thora didn't like Anne Sloane because of the attention Rhodan was giving her – she was jealous! Good thing she didn't accompany this expedition, where she could have witnessed Anne pretty overtly flirting with Rhodan: “Anne Sloane pushed her way close to Rhodan. 'It's pretty scary here, don't you agree?' she asked, as if Rhodan were a teenage pal of hers.” Rhodan of course takes her in his arms and comforts her … er, no he doesn't: “Rhodan gave a signal to his troop. 'Let's go!'” (p. 139)

***

Some thoughts on the nature of story-telling in the Perry Rhodan universe:

I think that one of the attractions of Perry Rhodan for me was thirty-odd years ago and continues to be the overall similarity of the idea of a huge, shared universe with what can be found in comic books – whether the DC Universe or the Marvel Universe. (I'm a DC man myself.) I've been thinking along these lines for the last week or so, since a conversation with a colleague on whom I've foisted my three-volume library-bound collection of the recent New Krypton mega-sized story arc in the Superman titles. We were considering how this type of story-telling is almost unique to comics – a huge shared universe in which sprawling stories such as New Krypton, Blackest Night, or a number of other examples that cross over a large number of titles over several months, perhaps even over a year or more, can be told.

It's something that's not possible – or at least not done – on TV, for instance. Most series are there self contained. The only examples that even hint at something larger that come readily to mind are the occasional crossovers that happen (or happened) between, say, the various Jerry Bruckheimer shows, or the various Law & Order iterations, etc. Or when Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine or the latter and Voyager overlapped. Or – an example I threw out, that period in the 1960s when you had the "Hooterville" family of shows – Green Acres and Petticoat Junction, to which was related The Beverly Hillbillies. Not even in the same ball park! Or (and I have only the vaguest notion of such things) perhaps some of the old daytime soap operas – some of them do or did at least have the longevity! In that respect, although it hasn't been continuous, I cannot pass up mentioning Doctor Who– almost as old as Rhodan, appearing first in 1963.

But Perry Rhodan seems to comprise something like the large shared universe in prose form, as I understand it. Already when I was reading the Ackerman translations in the 1970s I was aware of such things as the spinoff Atlan series, the so-called Planet Novels, and so forth. Well, it turns out that thirty-plus years have expanded the Perry Rhodan universe exponentially. Courtesy of the Perry Rhodan Yahoo group member David Sears, here's what it looks like currently:

2582 Perry Rhodan: Main Series;
850 Atlan: Main Series;
12 Atlan: Traversan;
12 Atlan: Centauri;
12 Atlan: Obsidian;
12 Atlan: Die Lordrichter;
12 Atlan: Der Dunkelstern;
12 Atlan: Intrawelt;
12 Atlan: Flammenstaub;
36 Perry Rhodan: Action;
11 Perry Rhodan: Extra;
415 Perry Rhodan: Planet Stories;
6 Perry Rhodan: Classics;
4 Perry Rhodan: Space Thrillers;
5 Perry Rhodan: Autorenbibliothek;
2 Perry Rhodan: Kosmos Kroniken;
6 Perry Rhodan: Andromeda;
6 Perry Rhodan: Odyssee;
6 Perry Rhodan: Lemuria;
3 Perry Rhodan: PAN-THAU-RA;
6 Perry Rhodan: Der Posbi-Krieg;
6 Perry Rhodan: Ara Toxin;
3 Perry Rhodan: Das Rote Imperium;
3 Perry Rhodan: Die Tefroder;
3 Perry Rhodan: Jupiter;
3 Atlan: The Arkon Trilogie (14-16, 1-13 are reprints of Planet Stories, 17 on are reprints of Atlan main series);
2 Atlan: Moewig Fantastic;
3 Atlan: Lepso Trilogie;
3 Atlan: Die Rudyn Trilogie;
3 Atlan: Die Illochin Trilogie;
6 Atlan: Der Monolith Zyklus;
1 Atlan: Rico;
3 Atlan X: Kreta Zyklus;
3 Atlan: Hollenwelt;
3 Atlan: Marasin Trilogie;
3 Atlan X: Der Tamaran Zyklus;
for a total of 4070 Total unique episodes!

I have no idea what most of that material is. Only a minuscule fraction of it is available in English – just the first 146 or so of the Main Series (leaving the third major story arc or “cycle” incomplete), five of the Atlan adventures, and one Planet Story were published back in the 1970s; as I understand it another four of the Main Series appeared as an abortive attempt to restart US publication sometime in the 1990s; and another abortive attempt to bring Perry Rhodan back to the US several years ago folded after only one volume, the first of the six Lemuria stories. And a lot of that mass of material listed above is currently available to the German readers – there have been several reprint series, starting at the beginning and republishing the stories in sequence, as well as collections in various paperback, trade, and hardcover formats as well as, most recently, electronic versions. It is a wide, wonderful, accessible universe … if you read German. Unfortunately, I do not. Sigh.

It does occur to me that there is something similar in the making in the Star Trek and Star Wars licensed novels, but the similarity is only superficial, especially in the case of the former. Back in the day, I read a lot of Star Trek novels; they are almost all in independent continuities with no connection and many inconsistencies between them. As I understand it the Star Wars novels from the early 1990s forward do in general fit into some kind of overall continuity and there is some effort at keeping some kind of consistency – but I've read few of them. And in both cases anything that appears in print may well be later rendered outside any continuity by a subsequent show or movie which then preempts canonicity.

To bring this back toward my initial point, I see a lot of similarity between Perry Rhodan and the comic book universe (multiverse?) that I love so deeply. The breadth of story-telling is just one aspect. There is of course also the larger-than life characters facing universe-threatening menaces. And I already mentioned in a previous post how my discovery of the Mutant Corps in Perry Rhodan coincided with my discovery of the “All-New, All-Different” X-Men (I've not always been exclusively DC!). As I continue reading my way from the beginning, such similarities will doubtless be a recurring theme as I try to convey my renewed enthusiasm for “Die Grosse Weltraum-Serie” “the Great Space Series” (thanks, Google translator).

Cheers!

By W. W. Shols (= German issue #9, “Help for the Earth,” 3 November 1961)

Still on Venus, Rhodan has been in deep consultation with the Robot Brain, discovering the existence of six single-seat fighter spaceships. Meanwhile, Freyt, Derringhouse, and Nyssen have been subjected to hypnotraining and raised to Arkonide-level intelligence. They are given guardianship of the new ships.

Two days later, during a training flight outside the Venusian atmosphere, Rhodan and his men detect an urgent message from John Marshall. A Mind-Snatcher ship has been detected landing on the moon. As preparations are made for a return to earth, further communications reveal that a number of Mind-Snatcher transformations are suspected around the world, most notably a powerful Chicago crime boss named Clive Cannon. The need for some kind of Mind-Snatcher-detector (besides the few telepathic mutants available) is urgent. On the flight back to earth, they detect two Mind-Snatcher ships headed for the moon. Rhodan's pilots prove the worth of the Arkonide fighters, destroying the invaders, but a life boat escapes and makes its way to the moon. The Good Hope tracks it to its landing in a farside crater, then deposits a contingent of Arkonide robots in a nearby crater before proceeding to earth.

In the time Rhodan and company have been on Venus, a great deal of building and development has been accomplished in the Gobi Desert surrounding the central energy dome. But they are greeting with news of near panic on the earth. Rhodan orders only proven non-transformed personnel to be allowed into the dome. He sets in motion the recruitment of a police force for the “New Power” by Allan Mercant. Freyt and his pilots are tasked with round-the-clock patrols of earth space. Rhodan assigns Dr. Haggard to find some biological weakness in the Mind Snatchers, toward which Rhodan plans to capture a Mind Snatcher in both its own alien body and possessed human body. Bell and Marshall are sent to lure “Clive Cannon” to the Gobi Desert. Rhodan begins consulting the Gobi Robot Brain for a way to devise a Mind-Snatcher-detector, but is interrupted by sirens. There is panicked rioting among the peoples who have been flocking to the borders of the New Power. Rhodan takes control of the situation by asserting his personality and restores order – but sees the world descending into chaos.

In Chicago, Marshall makes contact with “Clive Cannon,” saving him from an assassination attempt ordered by the US Federal Police, while telepathically confirming that he is indeed a Mind-Snatcher. He makes “Cannon” an offer he cannot refuse – a lucrative contract with the New Power, arranging a visit with Rhodan in the Gobi Desert center to seal the deal. But he also detects plans for an attempt to possess the New Power's finance minister, Homer Adams.

As a gift to Rhodan, “Cannon” brings a large-scale replica of the Stardust– which secretly houses its body and the trapped ego of the real Clive Cannon. With its body and Rhodan in close proximity, “Cannon” could bounce from Cannon through its own body thence into Rhodan, possessing the leader of the New Power and the Mind-Snatchers' greatest enemy. But Rhodan captures the Mind-Snatcher's body and immediately arrests “Cannon,” presenting it with one option by which it might preserve its own body and therefore life. Meanwhile, Bell arrives in New York too late to prevent the attack on Adams – and finds himself in the middle of an all-out Mind-Snatcher assault on the city, which has been encased in an energy shield which prevents any outside communications that their agents do not control. Bell barely escapes by using his Arkonide spacesuit. Adams has, however, successfully resisted his own Mind-Snatcher attacker – killing it and fleeing the city.

Before Rhodan interrogates “Cannon” in the presence of the Robot Brain, Adams makes contact. The nature of Adams' mutant brain (eidetic memory) had tied his own personality too closely to his own memory cells for the Mind-Snatcher to displace. He took a small plane into Canada. Rhodan dispatches Ras Tschubai to bring Adams in – even as Bell brings news of the situation in New York. Based on the interrogation of “Cannon,” the Robot Brain devises a solution to detecting Mind-Snatcher possessions, and Rhodan immediately puts a device into production. Awaiting Tschubai, Adams wonders why he fled to the specific place he had ended up. He realizes that the Mind-Snatcher's assault left an imprint upon his eidetic memory – which has subconsciously led him to the location of a cache of two hundred of the alien bodies in hiding.

Rhodan tests the new Mind-Snatcher detector on Mercant's recruits. Out of 304, one is found to be a Mind-Snatcher. The rest, plus the mutants and Rhodan's associates, are to be armed with detectors for the rescue of New York. Meanwhile, Bell is to take command of the Arkonide robots on the moon and prepare to attack the Mind-Snatchers there. And Adams and Tschubai are to lead an attack on the hidden base in Canada. The attacks are carried out simultaneously. The capture of hundreds of Mind-Snatcher bodies in Canada and on the moon renders the New York invaders easily defeated because they are powerless to flee. Rhodan dictates terms to the invaders that have them returning to their home solar system in defeat and shame, knowing they have encountered a race with the ability to detect and destroy them. This crisis has convinced the world that only with the New Power can earth hope to survive in a dangerous universe: “The will of the people forced their elected representatives to go the way of Perry Rhodan in the Gobi Desert and finally to cooperate in uniting the peoples of the Earth” (p. 122).

Another synopsis can be found at http://perryrhodan.us/php/displaySummary.php?number=9

***

For some reason, allegedly because the publisher did not consider them to have enough science-fictional action, three early Perry Rhodan novels were skipped in the original Ace publication sequence. Later, near the end of the Ace run, they were presented as “Special Release” double novels, paired with three tales of the Immortal Arkonide Atlan, a character who first appeared about fifty issues into the series and became popular enough to carry the main spin-off series from Perry Rhodan, the Atlan series that ran for 850 issues from 1969 until the late 1980s.

I don't personally see an insufficiency of science-fictional action here, although this novel does have a different “feel” from the previous stories. For one thing, it just feels unfinished, like a first draft, compared to the 1969-era publications. My speculation is that the first draft of this story was rejected and went unfinished until, near the end of Ace's run the decision was made to get whatever product that was at hand out before the plug was pulled altogether. On the other hand, here in this story I find the first appearance of chapter titles, which it is my understanding do not appear in the German originals but were rather provided by Forrest J. Ackerman. Does the odd name for Rhodan's new state – the “New Power” here where it's always otherwise been the “Third Power” (which would seem to be the German original) - have anything to do with this unusual path to publication?

Perhaps exacerbating the odd feel of this story – and here I'm necessarily hampered by the fact that I do not know how much of its character is attributable to the author as opposed to the translator – is the fact that this is the second book I've read by W. W. Shols. I did not like his portrayal of the Third Power in #3(b), The Mutant Corps. I found this a less than pleasurable read as well. Especially at the beginning, Rhodan himself seems more arrogant and brusque with his colleagues than usual. At this point, Shols is definitely my least favorite of the Perry Rhodan scribes whom I've read. On the other hand, Clark Darlton is my favorite. Even in translation, he just seems to have a more polished writing style and presents more likeable characters with a touch of humor. This matches my memories of reading the later volumes in the 1970s, how I looked forward to any book with Darlton's name on it. I did not know then that “Clark Darlton” was the pen name for one of the co-creators, Walter Ernsting. As an aside, I also remember having less of a liking for Kurt Mahr, but so far in this current reading I find his work almost as enjoyable as Darlton's. I wonder if that will remain so.

In any case, despite my misgivings about the execution of this story, the original decision to skip it in US publication was unfortunate. (Not just because I'm an inveterate completist!) Here is the climax of the first major alien threat to the earth brought by the Arkonide cruiser's distress call. Some new Arkonide technology is introduced that I feel sure will play a role in later stories – the single-seat fighters. It also would seem to bring to a close the opening story arc of the series. Although we are only nine stories into what would be the first fifty-issue Cycle, looking ahead to the beginning of the next story it is apparent that several years pass in the meantime, during which the Third Power expands further and becomes more firmly established. The end of this book provides a satisfying conclusion to Rhodan's first goal, the unification of the earth – not complete, but well on its way.

Cheers, and Ad Astra!

By K. H. Scheer (= German issue #10, 10 November 1961)

Three years have passed since the defeat of the Mind Snatchers. General Lesley Pounder, US Space Force Commander, visits the Third Power, where he is greeted by Captain Klein and Colonel Freyt. He is to attend a diplomatic conference where Perry Rhodan will propose a central Terrestrial government. The Third Power has grown to cover 14,400 square miles and almost a quarter million inhabitants in “Galacto City,” still centered around the energy dome. But in the midst of Pounder's tour, a Condition One Alert sounds – a robot sentinel station on Pluto has detected hyperspatial transitions in the local stellar neighborhood. The Third Power goes into lock down awaiting the return of Rhodan from a space test flight. The earth's existence is in danger of being revealed to the rest of the galaxy.

In a war council convened among the founders and rulers of the Third Power, it is revealed that over two hundred hyperspatial incursions have occurred in the Vega system, just 27 light years from the earth. Thora and Khrest are convinced that it is an Arkonide fleet seeking their own original goal of the planet of eternal life, which Khrest believes is in the Vega sysem. Thora demands an immediate launch to meet it. Reginald Bell scoffs that the degenerate Arkonides could ever launch such an expedition – and is astonished when Rhodan declares his intention to take the Good Hope to the Vega system on a reconnaissance mission. In his estimation, the ships appearing at Vega are an unknown invasion force responding to the destroyed Arkonide cruiser on the moon's emergency beacon (#2[a], The Radiant Dome), an invasion meant for earth but missing by a “fraction of a decimal point” error in hyperspace navigation. It must be investigated.

After a hasty conference lays out Rhodan's plans to Pounder and the assembled delegates, the Good Hope lifts off for the stars. A short detour takes them to Venus to consult with the larger positronic brain there. The Good Hope carries a crew of fifty, including two new mutants also picked up from the Venusian base. Besides John Marshall, Betty Toufry, and Tako Kakuta, we now meet Wuriu Sengu (another clairvoyant) and Ralf Marten (can “possess” any other individual's senses, seeing through their eyes and hearing through their ears). Accelerating to near light speed, the Good Hope coasts to the orbit of Jupiter. Rhodan does not want to jump into hyperspace from too deep in the solar system because of gravitational effects on surrounding space. He uses the time to pass on the Venusian brain's data about the Vega system: 42 planets, with intelligent life on the eighth, Ferrol, which had just developed gunpowder ten thousand years ago.

Humanity's first hyperspatial jump goes without a hitch, the Good Hope appearing in the Vega system fortuitously concurrent with fifty more alien ships, whose incursions mask its own transition. But as the Good Hope coasts into the system, the telepaths report “the crying of souls. Someone is dying. Space is filled with whispered grief and sobbing. Despair, pain, death!” (p. 49) It quickly becomes apparent that the Good Hope has indeed stumbled into a massive space battle in the vicinity of the fourteenth planet. The defenders in egg-shaped vessels without shields are hopelessly outclassed by attacking rod-shaped warcraft. The Good Hope draws fire but its shields hold. Khrest recognizes the attackers as a hostile reptilian race from Orion Delta, the planet Topid, and presumes that the victims are the native humanoid Ferrons. Recognizing that the Good Hope is far advanced even over the attacking Topides, sure that he can outrun them into hyperspace, Rhodan searches for Ferron survivors, finally rescuing one. He orders that in interacting with the refugee no reference be made to “Earth” or “Terra” - as far as the Ferrons are concerned, they are to be Arkonides.

With the aid of the Good Hope's positronic translator and the mutant telepaths, communication is quickly established with the Ferron named Chaktor. The Ferron have colonized several planets of the Vega sysem and have, despite an innate inability to comprehend the fifth-dimensional mathematics fundamental to hyperspatial mechanics, possession of highly advanced matter transmission technology. Khrest takes this as evidence of previous contact with technologically superior beings, perhaps those of his world of eternal life. The Ferron were totally unprepared for the invasion that has just befallen their system.

The Good Hope“microjumps” toward Ferrol – right into the middle of a raging battle in which the Terrans take the Ferrons' part – until suddenly a massive hyperspace incursion hits almost literally “on top of” them. A 2400-foot-diameter Arkonide battleship appears only thirty miles away from the much smaller Good Hope. To Khrest's astonishment the battleship does not respond to the Arkonide auxiliary vessel's recognition code signal, except to attack. It takes but a glancing blow from an enormous energy beam that virtually wrecks the ship to send the Good Hope careening off into space. They manage to limp to a crash landing at a Ferron colony on the ninth planet, Rofus.

Meanwhile the Arkonide battleship and the Topides decimate the Ferron fleet and start setting down on Ferrol. Rhodan surmises that the Arkonide ship must have been captured by the Topides previously – they would not be in alliance with them – so he sets Khrest to training his 43 surviving crew in operating an Arkonide battleship. He has in mind to capture it back, for earth. The Ferron ruler, the Thort, and many ruling Ferrons are using the matter transmitter to evacuate from Ferrol to Rofus. Rhodan negotiates use of the matter transmitter to place his men in position to take the battleship. Discovering that a Topide life boat crashed near the north pole of Rofus, he has Tako Kakuta and Betty Toufry capture the reptilian aliens by means of a psychoradiator to render them compliant. Interrogation confirms that the Arkonide battleship had been captured and its crew killed, further proving how rapidly the Arkonide Imperium is decaying. Rhodan and his men finalize their plans for an assault to capture the battleship for themselves.

***

Suddenly, the Perry Rhodan series becomes a true space opera – massive space battles, alien worlds, the stage suddenly being the galaxy rather than just the earth (with a little action on Venus, our nearest planetary neighbor). As the blurb on the back of the English edition puts it: “Thunderous warfare in interstellar space.”

Only really hinted at hitherto, the characteristic faster-than-light travel of at least the early parts of the Perry Rhodan series makes its first appearance here. I think something else called a “linear drive” had appeared by the end of the English run, but what I remember most about the Perry Rhodan series is a hyperdrive much like that postulated in and perhaps most identified with Isaac Asimov's Foundation series – instantaneous leaps across the light years – but with what seem to be some well thought out descriptions and effects here. It seems that ships must accelerate to near light speed in order to transition – with the effects of relativistic speeds at least alluded to. The gravitational effects of the sudden warping of space on either entry or exit from hyperspace are detectable across interstellar distances – instantly – the assumption being that such gravitic warping of space is not itself relativistic. Such warp effects are implied to be potentially devastating to nearby celestial bodies, making it inadvisable to jump to or from too deep in a planetary system. The effects are felt on the smaller scale as well, such as when the huge Arkonide battleship emerges only thirty miles away from the Good Hope (pp. 71-72) – the hull of the smaller ship rings like a bell, with equipment and instrumentation being overloaded and ruined. I only recall reading of such potential effects of space travel on the local space and objects in one of Diane Duane's Star Trek novels – The Wounded Sky if I remember correctly, where (again, if I remember correctly, not having read the book in perhaps 25 years) a starship uses its warp field to induce a star go go nova and destroy its pursuers. It seemed to me then and still does today that here you've got a weapon of mass destruction of nearly unimaginable force, far beyond that of nuclear or even antimatter bombs. I do seem to remember (vaguely) reference to “nova bombs” or somesuch in other Perry Rhodan stories from way back when, so maybe our authors continue to deal with the ramifications of the technology they are postulating here.

Another interesting technological appearance is that of “heavy neutron ray projectors” which “[attack] only organic life” (p. 67). I immediately thought of the neutron bomb which was a major issue in the news in the late 1970s, early 1980s if I recall correctly. The idea of the neutron bomb was a smaller scale nuclear device that would wipe out all life in a target area which leaving the technological infrastructure more or less intact except right at the blast site. A smaller-yield nuclear blast that produced a pulse of hard radiation that spread beyond the blast radius itself. It was, if I recall, condemned as a particularly insidious form of warfare. Anyway, the German author seems to have been up to date on current weapons research and development when this story was written (1961) – according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_bomb ), the concept was conceived and developed from 1958 forward.

It's these kinds of things that make it hard for me to fathom the rather low reputation the series seems to have among wider science fiction fandom, at least here in the US. This all seems rather well thought out to me. Sure, the writing style is not the highest – this is not literature, it's essentially pulp– but even in translation I find the stories generally quite readable with a driving narrative that doesn't get boring. (So far the nearest thing to what I'd call “unreadable” would be The Wasp Men Attack, but I've already postulated a reason for why that turned out as it did.) I have certainly read much worse, and sometimes by authors who have much higher reputations than our Perry Rhodan scribes. A host of Star Trek novels that I used to read come to mind.

I'm not quite sure what the implications are of the passage on p. 92 where Rhodan makes one of the Topides disrobe (after gallantly having the “lady-folk” Thora and Betty leave their presence!):

“Rhodan clamped his mouth tight in order to suppress the same horrified outcry that the Ferronian ruler had made. Here for the first time was a revelation that the returning doctors would no doubt be able to verify.

“'My God!' whispered Dr. Haggard, his forehead reddening with shock. 'I had not considered this!'”

There follows an extended description of the “reptilian” Topides … but in my opinion no real explanation of the shock that Rhodan and Haggard feel. What in the world did Haggard see? What was the revelation that the doctors were to confirm?

I would think that perhaps the message would be that this is the first truly alien intelligence that humans have encountered – the Arkonides could basically pass for humans, while the Ferrons are described as more or less stocky blue-skinned, coppery-haired humanoids – but the fact that the Topides are reptilian was made way earlier and we've already dealt not just with the insectoid Mind Snatcher “Wasp Men” but the really weird-looking inhuman Fantan who preceded them:

“'...[I]magine a cylinder with rounded off ends, my dear Haggard,' Rhodan began to lecture in professorial tones. 'This cylinder is elastic to a certain degree and is completely covered with fine scales. In its upper part this cylindrical body contains several openings, which to us would look like so many dark holes. But in reality they do fulfill the functions of eyes, nose and mouth.

“'Six identical extremities branch off this cylinder at various places. They serve as organs of locomotion, food intake and the usual functions of our own legs and arms. The only difference is that there is no difference between the Fantan people's extremities; they are all alike.

“'The Fantan race is asexual and is propagated by a process similar to one known in some of your houseplants, Doctor Haggard, where a branch of a shoot off the parent plant gives rise to a new offspring.

“'This is what the Fantan people look like. Did you assume that all intelligent races from the universe must have the same appearance as you or me or Khrest? In time we will meet up with intelligent living beings that will seem more repulsive to us than our toads or tapeworms.'” (#3[a], Galactic Alarm, pp. 94-95).

Then again, I guess it must be remembered that these books were being plotted essentially by committee then written by individuals, a number of issues being written concurrently by necessity to keep up a week-in, week-out pace of publication. There probably was no way to assure any kind of really detailed consistency beyond what was accomplished.

Cheers, and Ad Astra!

By Kurt Mahr (= German issue #11, 17 November 1961)

After flying the crippled Good Hope to a remote desert base on Rofus as directed by the Ferron ruler, the Thort, where the ship can be better hidden away, Perry Rhodan finds that he has furthermore been given command of that base! He meets with the Ferron commander Hopthman and outlines his plan to use matter transmitters to invade Ferrol itself and capture the Arkonide battleship. It is known that there is a transmitter in the Red Palace on Ferrol that has gone undiscovered by the invading Topides, but it is not properly attuned to any transmitter to which they have access therefore cannot be currently used. The logistics are eased when a resistance movement on Ferrol, the Sicha mountain-people, manage to transmit a message cylinder to Rofus, letting their presence be known and requesting aid and direction. Rhodan dispatches Klein and Derringhous piloting the two Arkonide fighters on a reconnaissance and harassment mission against to Topides on Ferrol. Unfortunately they find that the Arkonide battleship, berthed at the Ferron capital Thorta's spaceport, has better tracking and fire control than they believed when it manages to score a glancing hit on Derringhouse's fighter. As he himself ejects, Derringhouse orders Klein to get back to Rhodan with their reconnaissance.

There follow parallel story-lines. Using Klein's reconnaissance, Rhodan finalizes his plans. He and his mutants plus a force of about thirty of the Good Hope's crew and 45 Arkonide fighter-robots pass through the matter transmitter to the Sicha hideout and make contact with Kekeler, leader of the Sicha resistance. They concoct a plan to move from Sic-Horum, the Sichas' capital, to Thorta. Meanwhile, Derringhouse, although hampered somewhat by Ferrol's forty percent higher gravity than earth's (which Rhodan and his men are able to ameliorate using Arkonide travel suits), makes his way toward the Ferron town nearest his landing site in a forested area. He manages to passably disguise himself by means of evenly applied “blueberry” juice-stains on his skin plus native clothing “borrowed” from a lone native (who will unfortunately wake up naked). In the town, Derringhouse first encounters an old Ferron man who directs him to a tavern, emphasizing that he should tell his son, the tavern-keeper, that Perk'la sent him. That son, Teel, accepts and feeds “Deri,” then takes him into a back room – where he is greeted by a small force of Ferrons with weapons drawn. Derringhouse identifies himself to Teel and his men as an Arkonide, from the sphere that had appeared and given aid to the Ferron defenders but then suffered damage and an emergency landing on Rofus. Teel and his group are an independent resistance movement. Derringhouse starts to work with them.

Not knowing of each others' activities, Rhodan and Derringhouse both end up working their way toward Thorta over a period of a couple of weeks, as Klein continues his strafing harassment of the Topides. This latter, unfortunately, provokes reprisals in the form of bombardments of Ferron cities on Rofus, disheartening the Thort. Rhodan manages to steal a matter transmitter from a Ferron post office (!) and sends Tako Kakuta into the Red Palace where the Topides have established their own headquarters to tune the secret transmitter there to the correct frequency to link the two. Working along similar lines, Derringhouse penetrates the Red Palace, hoping to use the transmitter to call in help from the desert fortress on Rofus. He and Tako end up discovering each other.

Knowledge of Teel's independent resistance group simplifies Rhodan's plans and allows him to consolidate his own forces for the capture of the battleship rather than dividing them to provide a diversion. Using the various mutants' abilities for scouting and diversion, Rhodan captures the Topide commander Chrekt-Orn and influences him by means of the psychoradiator to have the battleship moved to a berth on the edge of the spaceport and emptied of crew so new weapons can be installed. Unfortunately, Chrekt-Orn's own subordinates question his actions – very much against the basic Topide mentality – and the plan is almost scuttled. Rhodan and his force do manage to take the ship, but he is forced to abandon his intention of taking Chrekt-Orn as a prisoner. On the other hand, he does capture a squad of Topide guards sent back aboard the battleship at the last minute. The matter transmitter is quickly installed on the captured ship and Rhodan brings his full (albeit spare in numbers for a battleship crew) complement of men and robots through from Rofus. Just in time, as Chrekt-Orn's subordinate orders a full-scale attack on the battleship – to destroy it rather than let it be lost – it lifts off.

To Thora's astonishment, Rhodan does not make a break for interstellar space but rather heads to Rofus, to relieve the bombardment of their new allies there. He makes a risky hyperjump directly from Ferrol to Rofus orbit, returning to the refuge of the desert base. There, Rhodan lays out his plan to the Thort. He knows that, with the loss of their primary super-weapon, the Topides will be forced to an all-out attack. He plans to use the Arkonide battleship to inflict such losses on the Topides that they will take some time to recover – time that will allow him to return to earth to fill out a full crew. He also lays out a strategy for winning the war that requires deploying batteries of new transmitter stations in such numbers that the Ferrons cannot manufacture enough. To meet that need, he wheedles out of the Thort full technical data and schematics so that the Arkonide-based automated manufacturing plants of the Third Power can build them as quickly as necessary. The Thort reluctantly agrees to giving up this state secret to Rhodan. When the Topide attack comes, Rhodan and Bell employ what the latter calls “a game of hyperspace leap-frog” (p. 186) to keep the enemy from concentrating their own fire on the Arkonide battleship, which systematically decimates them with disintegrator fire. It is a total rout.

On the way out of the Vega system, Rhodan detours to Iridul, a moon of the twenty-eighth planet, where he deposits a secret base with supplies and equipment for future use. Interrogation of the Topide prisoners confirms what Rhodan had suspected, that the Topides had come to Vega in the belief that here was the source of the Arkonide distress signal, therefore a planet capable of taking out an Arkonide cruiser. Earth was saved from discovery – this time – by a simple error of calculation. As they jump for earth, “Bell mutter[s] to himself, 'It's too beautiful a region to leave to the lizards. We'll be coming back!'” (p. 189)

Another synopsis may be found at http://perryrhodan.us/php/displaySummary.php?number=11

***

The original German issue appeared the day before I did. I was born on Saturday 18 November 1961. And every Friday thereafter (I presume – the math seems to work out), down to today (I'm actually writing this on Friday 4 March 2011), there has been a new Perry Rhodan adventure. That is mind-boggling. And I guess, if nothing else, it means I could always know how many weeks old I am! The current issue is #2585, minus ten previous issues equals 2,575 weeks. Wow. (Interestingly, the official website from which I'm getting the original publication dates currently is in error as to today's date, listing it as “Fr., 3. März 2011” - http://www.perrypedia.proc.org/wiki/Quelle:PR2585 .)

Apparently my impression that a ship must accelerate to near light speed to jump and cannot jump to or from near a planetary body or BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN is mistaken, at least to a degree. Or the authors are already engaging in the time-honored tradition of breaking their own “rules” for story-telling purposes. Whichever, Rhodan hyperjumps basically from orbit around Ferrol to orbit around Rofus – a stunt which does admittedly make Khrest break out in a sweat and which he calls “reckless” (p. 178).

I love it! - the Arkonides are basically described as human-appearing although having somewhat albinoid characteristics. Now we find that the Ferrons are near enough to human appearance that Derringhouse can basically just stain his skin blue with “blueberry juice” and pass for a native! I'm reminded of an issue of the old Legion of Super-Heroes in Adventure Comics (#369, June 1968), where the blue-skinned Shadow Lass is hiding out in Smallville, disguised as a human by simply applying (human) flesh-colored cosmetics. The game is almost up when some smears off her arm – alerting the other students that something's not quite kosher with their new classmate. But quick thinking on Clark's part squirts blue ink from his old-style fountain pen on the face of one of the students, allaying their suspicions! Of course, in the Perry Rhodan universe these humanoid aliens are basically the good guys (at least so far as we've seen) – not so the “wasp-men” Mind Snatchers, the “lizard” Topides, or the whatever-the-hell-they-are Fantan!

Interestingly, the Ferron have technical information and schematics as well as the ability to manufacture matter transmitters although the science upon which they are based is far beyond their own technological level – based on their “inherent” inability to comprehend “fifth-dimensional math” it would seem beyond their very comprehension. The matter transmitter technology itself is beyond even the Arkonides' development. I guess given the proper plans they could duplicate the machine itself without understanding it. But where did it come from in the first place? I'm sure we'll find out sooner rather than later – probably sooner, given Khrest's conviction in the previous story that it comes from the same race as his planet of eternal life, which it seems to me will be found fairly soon in the series. They are making too much of it, and Khrest was furthermore already convinced it is in the Vega system. Note that the title of Ace #13 is The Immortal Unknown. Anyway, now earth has access to this technology that even the Arkonides lack. Thora has to admire Rhodan's ability to do the seeming impossible even as it alarms her: “One of these days you're going to convince me that you could become dangerous to Arkon itself – in which case I'll probably put some hemlock in your wine!” (p. 183). Aw yeah, she's falling for him!

Cheers, and Ad Astra!