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

December 28, 2011, 2:37 pm
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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.

* * *
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 Venusseries. 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 Rhodanwriter (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!
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Perry Rhodan #17, The Venus Trap (1972)

February 7, 2012, 8:03 pm
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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.
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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 Rhodanwas 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 previouslyrelated the synchronicity of my discovering Perry Rhodanca. 1975 with my discovery of Marvel's New X-Menabout the same time. Of course, at that time publication of PRwas 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.
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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 deeptrouble! (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 Worldsthat 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 7thPlanet,” 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.
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Perry Rhodan #18, Menace of the Mutant Master (1972)

August 10, 2012, 8:47 pm
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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.

* * *
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 Rhodanlast 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 Perrypediahere, “Ted McMurray” was in the original German “FreddyMcMurray.” Those of us old enough to remember My Three Sons – or the actor'slong 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 poppedout 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.

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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 20thCentury. The seventh decade therein. And the date July 20th, 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)
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Thanks for reading.  Ad Astra!

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

August 26, 2012, 4:16 pm
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(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."
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Perry Rhodan #19, Mutants vs. Mutants (1972)

October 9, 2012, 5:56 pm
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By Clark Darlton ( = German issue #26, “Duel of the Mutants,” Friday 2 March 1962)

A space pilot training mission is ambushed near Mars by one of the destroyers previously stolen in the first move by the as yet unknown supermutant against the New Power. Captain Hawk is killed in the initial attack, but cadet Julian Tifflor, “Tiff,” takes charge and is able to turn the tables and capture the enemy pilot. The attacker is brought back to Terrania, but under telepathic/hypnotic interrogation he simply dies at the Mutant Master's mental command.

A New Power defensive fort outside Terrania attacks the New Power's space ship manufacturing plant. We read this section from the perspective of one of the soldiers who manages to keep some degree of awareness for a time but is unable nonetheless to resist the mental compulsion of the supermutant. Using Arkonide technology, Perry Rhodan manages to quell the attack, but these two assaults are just the beginning of attacks around the world on various fronts. The Mutant Corps is running ragged resisting the enemy's campaign, simply putting out fires until Fellmer Lloyd captures the Russian telepath Tatjana Michalowna.

Tatjana is subjected to interrogation by telepath John Marshall. In this section we receive a clear statement of Perry Rhodan's philosophy:

“Mankind [has] to learn that it is not the only intelligent life in the universe. Should mankind remain in isolation in order to one day become the victim of a hostile invader's surprise attack? Or isn't it better to adjust to your surroundings? That's all we are really doing! Only a united Earth, with a strong leadership, will not fail to join up with the rest of the galactic civilizations – on a par with them. Not too long ago, such developments seemed to lie in the very remote future for mankind; they were looked upon like the wild dreams [of] fantasy writers. But today it has become reality. ...”

Tatjana protests Rhodan's statement: “Do you consider yourself the policing force of this globe, or even the peacelord of the universe?”

Rhodan answers her: “In a way. But we are mainly trying to pave the way for a better understanding among the nations of this Earth and a peaceful existence with the rest of intelligent life all over the universe.” (pp. 55-56)

These arguments make an impression on Tatjana, but the clincher is when she learns that the Mutant Master unscrupulously compels his followers to suicide, whereupon she reveals to Rhodan her ability to block the supermutant's compulsions, and furthermore that she knows his identity: Clifford Monterny.

This is the break the New Power needed. With Tatjana's help, working with Allen Mercant and the world's intelligence organizations as well as the FBI, Rhodan and the Mutant Corps nullify as many of Monterny's mutants as they can and mount a raid on his stronghold in the Utah desert. Ray guns and atomics versus Arkonide force shields! Telekinetics versus Arkonide robots! Hypnotics versus ground troops! – until finally Tatjana and Arkonide technology (hypno rays) overwhelm Monterny's forces. Monterny himself cuts and runs, fleeing in one of the other captured destroyers into space. Tiff and a crew in high orbit as a picket line see the launch and follow, but Monterny demonstrates the ability to gain control of a subject's consciousness even through a communications link and gets away – leaving Tiff and his crew compelled to attack Reginald Bell in the pursuing Stardust IIuntil Pucky teleports into Tiff's ship and disable it.

Back on the ground, once Monterny was gone Rhodan and company managed to free the mutants he left behind, about a dozen, who seemingly were none of them following the supermutant willingly but who were helpless against his powerful hypnotic compulsion. They all join Rhodan, but tell him that Monterny has one other secret, and very powerful, mutant as an ace-in-the-hole.

Calm seemingly restored, and Monterny having slipped away into hiding, Rhodan convenes a summit of world leaders. The crisis precipitated by the Mutant Master simply highlights the dangers that face the still-divided world. He gives the world's leaders an ultimatum: They have one year to put aside their differences and bring true unity to the world, or he, Rhodan, would impose unity by force.

* * *
I'm very curious about Tatjana's question to Perry Rhodan: “Do you consider yourself the policing force of this globe, or even the peacelord of the universe?” (p. 56, quoted above, emphasis added here). “Peacelord of the Universe” – virtually a subtitle to the series included on many of the covers of the Ace paperbacks. My question is, however, whether that phrase is original to the German or is it (as I suspect) something that Forrest J. Ackerman dreamed up? Hopefully a reader can elucidate that in the comments.

Judging from the comments from Tom and Peter Brülls to the previous book (see here), Julian “Tiff” Tifflor becomes a very important character. His prominence in this story maybe would have tipped me off to that even were I not clued in by their comments. From the similar emphasis given to Tatjana Michalowna, I would guess she also will be at the very least a recurring character. I have no memory of either of them from my teen-aged reading, which was mainly of English numbers seventy or so onward to about #140-ish (and not every one of those), and only very spottily outside that range. I do remember Monterny's “ace-in-the-hole,” despite Peter's surprise that I remember him and not Tiff. I remember him as a member of the Mutant Corps. ([Spoiler – Highlight to see] But the image of a two-headed giant who can telekinetically create nuclear explosions made quite an impression on teen-age me!)

Captain Hawk who meets an early demise in this book immediately reminded me, solely because of the name, of the rather ill-conceived avian warrior of the same name introduced in the equally ill-conceived second season of the 1970s TV show, Buck Rogers in the 25thCentury, as played by Thom Christopher. But once the image was in my mind, it stayed.

One feature of the Ace series pretty much since it started regular publication with #6, I believe, was little blurbs at the end of each chapter announcing what adventure would be coming ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred or more volumes after the current book. I was mildly amused to learn on p. 106 of this issue that “300 ADVENTURES FROM NOW [we would] Gasp at The Fantastic Four.” Needless to say, that didn't happen; publication of the English translation of Perry Rhodanhad ended far short of that mark, but for what it's worth I believe that the adventure in question would have been German #327, Die vier Unheimlichen, “The Four Terrifying Ones,” by K. H. Scheer, accounting for various discrepancies in numbering.
* * *
The Gray Morrow cover on the Ace paperback edition – I got the 1974 2ndedition, but the first edition had the same cover – sports what I most remember about the 1970s Perry Rhodan covers in that the man and woman (Rhodan and Thora?, except her hair is too dark) are clad in garb that is very much like then-current comic book super hero costumes.  I find the design aesthetic in this case very reminiscent of Mike Grell's costumes for the Legion of Super-Heroes. 
And doesn't that Arkonide robot's face on the Johnny Bruck German edition cover look very Cylonish?

This volume is dedicated “to the late ROG PHILLIPS who, among many other stories, wrote 'The Mutants' in 1946. Gone but Not Forgotten” (p. [4]). Wikipedia has a very short entry on Phillips here; his bibliographyappears on The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. “The Mutants” appeared in the July 1946issue of Amazing Science Fiction.

For the first time in I believe several volumes, there's actually an interior illustration – of our favorite mousebeaver, Pucky – on p. 6:

Ackerman gives over his “Stardust Editorial” to a rebuttal against an Australian reviewer who went by the nom de plume“Mouser,” who in SFNews #36 evidently heaped a good amount opprobrium on Perry Rhodan, specifically #6, The Secret of the Time Vault, which ultimately considered and rejected coining a new term for “this sort of stuff … moroni-fiction” before concluding “that there is already a completely satisfactory category: trash.” Ackerman's retort? – “One man's trash is another man's treasure” (p. 9). … I'll bet that made “Mouser” reconsider his judgment!

… As insulting as it is, I'm kind of tickled by the term, “moroni-fiction” ….

After the Perry Rhodanlead story abstracted above, there is a “Shock Short,” “Relics from the Earth,” by John Pierce. An archaeological expedition makes its way from Triton to the mother world of humanity and back, retrieving the Woolworth Building (the tallest building in the world at the time of this story's writing – 1929 says the introduction although it was published in Science Wonder Stories' March 1930 issue according to the ISFDB here) as well as the Eiffel Tower. Frankly, however, I can't figure out the point of this story. It's pretty straightforward as a narrative although there is some kind of undefined trouble on the return trip.

We are then treated to Part Four of the serialization of Garrett P. Serviss' unauthorized sequel to H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, “Pursuit to Mars,” comprising two more chapters, seven and eight, “Mars' Mask of War” and “Mars' Great Surprise.” [ Links to Parts One, Two, and Three. ] The retaliatory expedition headed by Thomas A. Edison tours the red planet at a high alititude, then the a black smoke screen forms enveloping the entire globe. The Earthlings realize that they do not have time to outwait the Martians because their provisions, packed for three years, have mysteriously spoiled. They have only ten days left, not even enough time for them to abandon their campaign and return to Earth. It's imperative that they win a quick victory and, moreover, find some way to reprovision. Edison intrepidly determines a way through the cloud layer to attack the main population center. A great aerial battle ensues, and the Earthlings inflict great damage on the Martians – but they are outnumbered and lose about a third of their forces before they retreat back to above the cloud layer. A new strategy is deployed – attempt to land a task force on the other side of the planet and attack the Martians from the rear. The narrator joins this force, so we follow them to man's first actual landing on Mars. Exploring the area on foot, he and his companions hear the unexpected sound of Earthly music – from a human girl!

A second “Shock Short” featurette is entitled “Little Johnny,” written by Oscar G. Estes, Jr. (originally published in Fantasy Book, February 1948). Maybe I'm obtuse or something, but again I'm not sure what the point or even the plot of this story is. On the surface, it's the tale of the narrator being beguiled by some spider-like creature into believing it is his distant son, then another individual is affected the same way.

Finally, an expanded “Scientifilm World” column bumps the“Perryscope” letters column this month, announcing the First Annual Science Fiction and Film Convention in typically Forry overblown bombast. Assuming it took place as announced (I can find no Internet record of it under that name), it was 72 straight hours of “imagi-movies” over Thanksgiving weekend 1972 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Next issue, it's Clark Darlton again for The Thrall of Hypno ….

Thanks for reading! Cheers!, and Ad Astra!
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The Art of Gray Morrow

January 1, 2013, 7:10 pm
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Gray Morrow's iconic painting for
Perry Rhodan #50
Happy New Year!

I spent a couple of hours today exploring various of my favorite bloggers' blogrolls, just to see what new and interesting blogs I might come across, and I found one which, I'm sure, will be of interest to all fans of the American ACE editions of Perry Rhodan.  One of the most attractive features I remember drawing my eye to those paperbacks nigh on forty years ago was the striking art of Gray Morrow.  While, regrettably, very seldom having any specific relevance to the story contained within the pages of the Perry Rhodan volume which cover it graced, a Gray Morrow painting was guaranteed to grab the casual browser's attention and thus fulfill its primary purpose of selling the book.  His renditions of the main characters, Perry Rhodan (at left), Thora (from #70), and Khrest (from #91), to this day dominate my own mental images as I read through the early volumes of the saga.

Although I have not fully explored it, Shades of Gray:  An Internet Celebration of the Illustrative Art of Gray Morrow is, according to the opening post, "The Importance of Being Gray," devoted to maintaining a web presence for one of the truly great illustrators of both book covers and comic books during the the mid to later decades of the 20th century.  This it does by posting a variety of examples at the rate of one every few days over the past three years.

I do not have a wide enough historical and artistic perspective to properly assess the statement in that opening post that Morrow "toiled virtually unheralded in the industry for more than fifty years."  I do have a memory that Gray Morrow's distinctive, realistic style made him one of the earliest comic book artists whom I recognized, probably from work on various of the DC "mystery" titles that still thrived in the late 1960s to early 1970s.  The character -- besides Perry -- with whom I most identified Morrow was the western hero Vigilante based on a couple of short-lived back-up features in Adventure Comics #417 and #422 from 1972 and World's Finest Comics #245-248 from 1977, as celebrated here and here.

I have added Shades of Gray to my list of "Sources of Images and Other Information" at right.  I hope you find as much enjoyment browsing it as I have.

Cheers, and Ad Astra!
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A good, albeit outdated, article on the history of Perry Rhodan in English

March 10, 2014, 8:54 am
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Wendayne and Forrest J. Ackerman (sitting,
with Ray Bradbury at the podium), 1967 [source]
It's hard to believe it's been well over a year since I updated this blog.  I keep thinking about thinking about trying to get back into it.  Maybe this year I will.

In the meantime, however, this article, "Peacelord of the Universe: Perry Rhodan in English" [link], being as far as I can tell via an Internet search originally from ca. 2011, gives a very thorough overview of the history of the German-born Perry Rhodan pulp science-fiction series in English.

An excerpt:

"That Rhodan came to be published in English at all is due to [German co-creator Walter] Ernsting’s recognition of its potential in that market and his friendship with the man who was to become the series’ ‘English language representative’ and managing editor during its 1969-1978 English run. Forrest J Ackerman was still an active contributor to SF fandom rather than prodom back in the 1950s when he helped found the Science Fiction Club Deutschland alongside Ernsting, then still trying to break into the German market as an author. Because the only SF being published in Germany in the fifties came from American and British writers, Ernsting wrote his first novel under the American-sounding pseudonym ‘Clark Darlton’ and pretended he had merely translated it from English; consequently he was saddled with the pen name throughout the rest of his career.

"In 1965 Ackerman and his German-born wife Wendayne met Ernsting in person for the first time at a book fair in Europe and spent a few days as his houseguests. During their visit Ernsting made Forry a present of a complete set of the Perry Rhodan series he had created in 1961 with noted German author KH Scheer (Ernsting was responsible for the name, supposedly from a combination of Perry Mason and Japanese movie monster Rodan, ‘Americanized’ with the addition of the H). He also suggested that Ackerman could introduce Rhodan to the US market and, in a famously oft-to-be-repeated quote, that 'Wendy could translate it in her spare time'. By 1975, when the series was appearing in English three times a month, Wendy was perhaps wondering what she had let herself in for...."

Read more here [link].

Cheers!, and Ad Astra!
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Perry Rhodan #8, The Galactic Riddle (1971)

April 23, 2011, 9:19 pm
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By Clark Darlton (= German issue #14, 8 December 1961)

Chap. 1, “The Mysterious Planet”

The Ferron scientist Lossoshér accompanies Perry Rhodan and the Terrans aboard the Stardust as they sweep through the Vega system on a charting mission. They search for the “Tenth Planet” which according to ancient Ferron records is the home of the Beings Who Live Longer Than the Sun. But the current tenth planet is a lifeless world which shows no evidence of ever having supported life. There is a discrepancy, however, between ancient Arkonide survey records of a total of 43 planets in the system and the current reality of only 42, which leads them to theorize that the former tenth planet had been moved out of the Vega system altogether. This conjecture seems in line with a gap between the ninth and tenth planets. Rhodan plans to return to the Time Vault for further clues. The positronic robot brain at the heart of the space sphere has formulated a method of negating the time lock and opening it at will.

On Earth, Col. Freyt receives a message from Rhodan reporting the successful conclusion of a trade agreement with the Ferrons and orders beginning production of export goods. But the Stardust will remain in Vega for the time being. The hyperwave blackout is to be maintained to keep secret the location of Earth.

Chap. 2, “Who Goes There?”

Rhodan meets with Thora and Khrest, agreeing to “search for the planet of eternal life first; then to [transport them] to Arkon; and finally to [return to] Terra” (Thora, p. 23) – with Rhodan's own condition that only with his express permission will the Arkonides be given the spatial coordinates of Earth. Next, he meets with Lossoshér, who proposes another theory as to the location of the “Tenth Planet” - that it was not moved completely from the system but was rather “hidden” as a moon of one of the larger planets. Although he is skeptical, Rhodan turns over a fighter pilot to take the scientist on a closer survey of the system's moons. That pilot, Sgt. Groll, is resentful of this assignment.

When the time-lock field of the Time Vault beneath the Red Palace on Ferrol is negated, objects fade into view from their hiding places scattered through time. In their midst is a matter transmitter. Unfortunately, it is found to be non-functioning. But inside is an inscription – a riddle – in the language of the immortals: “You will find the light, if your mind corresponds to that of the highest order” (p. 43).

After exploring several moons, Lossoshér and Groll approach the second moon of the thirteenth planet (“13B”). This satellite is of larger than normal size, virtually a planet in itself, with an atmosphere. Landing, they separate to explore. Then, Groll realizes that they are not alone....

Chap. 3, “The Lurking Danger”

In short order, the positronic brain works out how to repain the matter transmitter, which it turns out had been deliberately left in a non-working state. An Arkonide worker robot is programmed to carry out the repairs, accomplishing the task in a mere hour. Rhodan plans to activate it the next day.

As night falls on moon 13B, Lossoshér is unaware that he is being observed as he uncovers a pyramidal structure near a rock pillar containing a round doorway into a tunnel down into the ground. In the gloom, Groll observes the humanoid creature stalking the Ferron scientist and shouts a warning, whereupon it dashes into the tunnel.

Chap. 4, “Stranger in a Strange Tunnel”

Rhodan, Reg Bell, Khrest, Dr. Frank Haggard, Anne Sloane, and John Marshall enter the matter transmitter cage along with the Arkonide robot. They leave Ras Tschubai to stand guard over the Time Vault. When Rhodan activates the transmitter, it is apparent that they are being sent across a much further distance that just between the Rofus and Ferrol, the eighth and ninth planets of Vega respectively – they experience pain like that of a hyperspace transition across light years. They materialize inside a giant hall “cluttered with machines and all kinds of strangely formed objects” (p. 64). Another inscription appears on the high ceiling – for an instant only, too quickly for them to focus on it. Luckily, Khrest's eidetic memory allows his own brief glimpse to be enough. Rhodan dispatches the robot back to the Time Vault and the Stardust to have the positronic brain decipher the message. The group who remains then feel their minds being probed. Only the telepath Marshall can perceive a message, reporting that they have passed a second test. Next, they are subjected to feelings of panic as two giant rolling robots advance on them and the matter transmitter from opposite directions. The narrow passages between the various machines and objects allow them no escape from their paths. Sloane uses her telekinesis to pick one of the robots up and slam it to the floor, destroying it, but the effort is too much for her and she collapses. Rhodan is certain that the purpose of the remaining robot is to destroy the matter transmitter – their only way home – if they cannot stop it. Only Sloane's telekinesis could avail against it, and she is not up to another such effort. Rhodan laments that he had not brought Betty Toufry on the expedition, and almost immediately the Arkonide robot reappears in the matter transmitter along with the nine-year-old prodigy. The positronic brain had advised the robot to bring her along with the decoded message: “Welcome to the center of a thousand tasks – but only a single one of these will bring you closer to your goal” (p. 76). Rhodan focusses Betty, a much stronger telekineticist despite her youth, on destroying the second robot. But even as that is done, “[t]he matter transmitter that had brought them to this place, and which represent[s] their only link with the outside world, [vanishes]” (p. 79).

Back on moon 13B, Lossoshér is certain that they have found the world of the immortals. As soon as it is light once more, he and Groll set off down the tunnel – where they come upon a reptilian humanoid pointing a weapon directly at them.

Chap. 5, “Countdown to Eternity”

Rhodan and his group find the chamber in which they are now trapped growing warmer and warmer. In the coolest area, they find a strange machine which Khrest identifies as a “fictive-transmitter” - “a theoretical possibility … never practically explored” by the Arkonides. “It functions according to the principles of fifth-dimensional geometry. Mechanical teleportation with ray impulses capable of seizing objects. This way it is possible to teleport things from any place in the universe to somewhere else” (p. 87). When Rhodan activates it, the back wall of the chamber vanishes, revealing a much larger version of the same apparatus. The group approaches it, whereupon the telepaths receive a message: “You have exactly 15 minutes … in which to leave this place. However, you will find the light only if you are able to return” (p. 90). An oppressive droning noise now accompanies the even more rapidly escalating temperature of the larger chamber – a further testing of their nerves and stamina. Rhodan perceives that their only escape is in activating the fictive-transmitter – but then finds its controls blocked by an invisible barrier. He is stymied at first, then a general telepathic broadcast they can all perceive gives him the clue he needs. “You have just a few minutes left! Apply the ultimate wisdom and knowledge – otherwise you will be lost forever...” (p. 94). With seconds to spare, Rhodan has Betty activate the fictive-transmitter by telekinesis. “They dematerialized and were hurtled through the fifth dimension. They were unaware that the giant machine hall with the fictive-transmitter inside became vaporized in the sudden hell of an atomic chain reaction” (p. 95).

Chap. 6, “Mystery of the Glowing Sphere”

Groll and Lossoshér recognize the creature threatening them as a Topide! Groll and the Topide fire on each other simultaneously. Only Groll's instinctive dive for the floor saves him – the Topide is vaporized. Shaken, he and the Ferron scientist continue to the end of the tunnel, finding themselves in a large, multipaneled control room with various mystifying instruments. They depart without disturbing anything, to take news of their discovery back to Rhodan, seeing as they leave the wreck of a Topide life pod.

When Rhodan and his group reappear in the underground hall of the Time Vault, they find that while they have experienced over four hours only five minutes have passed for Ras Tschubai. A glowing sphere of energy appears, in which can be seen a dark shape. Rhodan plucks from the ball a small metal capsule which he finds to contain another message.

Chap. 7, “Mental Giants”

Back aboard the Stardust, the positronic brain confirms that the new message is encoded and will take time to decipher. Groll and Lossoshér report to Rhodan, who also feeds the inscription from the pyramid on moon 13B into the brain. He is momentarily angered that Groll killed what must have been a lone Topide refugee from the repulsed invasion force, until Lossoshér assures him it was self-defense. The brain almost immediately spits out a cryptic translation of the pyramid inscription: “Many ways are leading to the right. Some are only detours. The trail points toward the right direction” (p. 114).


* * *

The extras in this third “magabook” are: “Forry Rhodan's” foreword, “The Rhodan Magnetic Digest”; a 25-question “Scientifilm World” true-false quiz in which all the answers are “false” (I can hear the howls from my students were I to try such a stunt!); and the “Perryscope” letters' column, which also contains a very poor quality photo of Swedish acress Essy Persson as Thora in the 1960s European film based on the first Perry Rhodan story. Ironically, after all his twisted little alterations to titles and such in the aforementioned quiz, Forry then flubs the US title of this movie, calling it “Operation Stardust” when in reality it was Mission Stardust. I'm not even going to try scanning the picture of Thora; here's one in color from http://www.scifibabes.co.uk/1960s.html:


I've never seen that movie, but reportedly it's pretty bad.

* * *

Here's the real riddle: What do Brainiac 5 ...
















                   ..., Man-Thing ...
                                                                          ... and a platinum-blonde Orion slave girl ...










... have in common?  Answer: They're all on Gray Morrow's cover for this Perry Rhodan adventure!

 ... By the way, I've always found “Giant-Size Man-Thing” the funniest title for a comic book ever! And then there's the modern reprint volume, The Essential Man-Thing! Anyway, is the visual similarity a coincidence? The Marvel character first appeared with a May 1971 publication date, the same year this book was published in English, but note that the first Ace printing actually had a cropped version of the German issue's cover and that Gray Morrow's cover didn't appear until the second printing in 1972. Could be.  ... Sadly, I couldn't find a blonde Orion slave girl except various cosplayers ...


..., but I've always found the raven-haired original, Vina, to be so hot-- er, iconic. ... Seriously, I think the man and woman on the cover of PR #8 are supposed to be Perry and Thora, with the green tint just for effect – but I have no idea what that creature is or what the stylized atomic structure is meant to represent (or why Thora would be wearing a swimsuit).

Incidentally, notice how the German cover painting seems to at least attempt to represent an image in the story – the group in the matter transmitter – although there are not enough characters present and they are not terribly recognizable. Is that Moses on the right?


Not for nothing does Sgt. Groll's name translate to “resentment”! Throughout this story he is (annoyingly) disgruntled at the assignment that he has been given. Playing chauffeur to the Ferron scientist Lossoshér is not his idea of an exciting “special mission.”

Another translation note/question: “fictive transmitter” appears to “translate” the German term fiktivtransmitter. I thought maybe fiktiv might mean something different from the connotation of English cognate words, but as far as I can tell it does mean “fictitious, fictional,” and so forth. I'm not sure what we're supposed to take from this.

There's a great deal of discussion along the way through this book, between what almost seems to be an overly enthusiastic Perry Rhodan following the trail left by the immortals and Khrest, who sure seems to have developed cold feet and doubts as to their very existence given that the search was what brought the Arkonides to this sector of space in the first place as well as what all they've seen to this point.

Interesting again, in light of the oft-commented humano-centric character of the series, is mention of “Rhodan's principles,” against which it is “to judge any alien by his outer appearance” (p. 68). In practice, as I've noticed previously, it doesn't really work out that way. The more closely in human appearance the aliens we've seen are, the more sympathetic has been their portrayal.


Notice that the former Stardust II is in this book simply called the Stardust.  It's also interesting (and I've noticed but not noted in previous stories) how the events of the first stories are summarized very sparsely as "Rhodan finds a crashed Arkonide space ship on the moon and rescues two survivors." Not exactly how it happened. 

As usual, here are a couple of stylistic comments:

The French danse macabre does directly translate to “dance macabre” (p. 98), but it's usually rendered “dance of death” in English. Properly it refers to a medieval artistic trope inspired by the horrific crises that struck Europe in the fourteenth century – famine, plague, war – usually visualized as a bunch of skeletons of individuals from all walks of life, peasant to king, Pope, and emperor line-dancing their way to the grave. Metaphorically the term seems, as here, to convey the idea of mad, frenzied, jerky thrashings.

I've noticed but not noted in previous adventures the misuse of the term “constellation” to describe the Vega star system. The error seems to pervade this volume. A constellation is in reality only an apparent grouping of stars as seen from Earth – it is not the same thing as a star system or any other natural grouping of stars. The star Vega is also known as Alpha Lyrae, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, The Lyre – as seen from Earth. Here's the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega . But the stars which make up the constellation Lyra are in reality separated from one another by tens, hundreds, even thousands of light years and have no relation to each other except from the Earth's specific location and perspective. From a point a hundred light years distant from Earth, most if not all of the constellations with which we are familiar simply would not exist – the stars would be visible, but the apparent “pictures” they form would be totally different.

And I find that I've gone on way too much about a minor error in terminology.... When I start rambling so, it's time to sign off.

Cheers, and Ad Astra!
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Perry Rhodan #5(a), Space Battle in the Vega Sector (1970)

February 27, 2011, 10:34 am
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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!

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Perry Rhodan #5(b), Mutants in Action (1970)

March 4, 2011, 4:33 pm
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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!

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More to come....

March 16, 2011, 8:14 pm
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I just want to post a "placeholder" here to let anyone who comes across this blog know that despite the sudden lapse in postings a couple of weeks ago, there is more to come. I've not quit already! Life gets in the way.

I'm not going to bore you with the details, but a couple of weeks ago my brother and I discovered that our mother and grandmother have been victimized by a pretty significant embezzlement/identity theft, and have been dealing with the financial (and emotional, since it was perpetrated by another, very trusted and beloved family member) fallout. I ask for your patience and prayers, and promise to get back to the Project as soon as I can.

- Kent
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Perry Rhodan #6, The Secret of the Time Vault (1971)

March 24, 2011, 8:06 pm
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By Clark Darlton (= German issue #12, 24 November 1961)

Chap. 1, “Rhodan 'Conquers' Galacto-City”

We take up at the instant that the undermanned Stardust II makes transition from the Vega System to Sol, with a perhaps more detailed description of the pains attendant on hyperspatial jumps than we've been given before. The spacesphere travels inward from Pluto's orbit to Earth with quite a bit of internal ruminations on the part of Perry Rhodan and company (Reginald Bell, Khrest, and Thora) with regards to the series thus far. The massive 3000-foot diameter ship makes quite a stir as it lands at Galacto-City, the center of the Third Power in the Gobi Desert, which has grown into a good-sized robotized industrial complex. Within hours of their landing, Rhodan opens a meeting in which Col. Freyt reports that Rhodan's orders transmitted by hyperwave from Vega have been carried out. A new crew has been hypnotrained to man the Stardust II, and the Mutant Corps is back from training on Venus and ready for action. Construction on Earth's own spaceships continues but is still a year away from launching the first cruiser. Politically, despite cooperation between Earth's powers, no united world government has been achieved, although Allan Mercant has unified all defense and secret services into one TDU, the Terran Defense Union. Rhodan declares his plans to return to Vega and deal with the Topides before they can make a serious search for the Earth. He also orders documentary films of their battles against the reptilian aliens distributed around the world – which has the desired effect of rallying the peoples of Earth behind him, calling for the union of all governments under the leadership of the one-time “enemy of mankind.” After eleven days, the newly-christened (by Thora, in what had to be one of the hardest actions of her life!) Stardust II launches for a test flight and wargames carrying two squadrons of 54 fighters each.

Chap. 2, “The Key to Eternal Life”

John Marshall and Dr. Haggard, along with a complement of Ferrons, are manning a secret Earth-base on the ice-moon Iridul of the 28th planet of Vega. Marshall launches on one of their almost-daily reconnaissance flights in-system, discovering that the Topides have recovered enough from their drubbing to start scouting missions in the outer system. Marshall reports this to Haggard and continues to Rofus to meet with the Ferron Thort-in-exile, who is greatly agitated. Agents on Ferrol report that the Topides are acting much more aggressively, preparing for a major offensive. He begs for Rhodan and “the Arkonides” to return. Marshall agrees to send a message to Rhodan at once, but he continues to wonder about the enigma of the Ferron matter transmitters as he makes his way back out to Iridul. Rhodan gets the hyperwave message just as the Stardust II is taking off for Vega.

After picking up Marshall and Haggard from Iridul, the Stardust II proceeds toward Rofus. Marshall reports to Rhodan that his meetings with the Thort have shed no real light on the mystery of the matter transmitters – but he has gleaned hints from the Thort's mind. The Ferrons indeed did not develop them on their own, and cannot presently build them, but plans are held in a sealed vault on Ferrol, secreted somewhere in the Red Palace and guarded by fifth-dimensional locks that only the Thort knows the secret to opening. The matter transmitters were the gift on an alien race to whom the Ferrons had rendered some great service, “beings that live longer than the sun,” native to “somewhere in the Vega system” (p. 44). Conrad Derringhouse's space fighters distract and harry the Topides, who are disconcerted that they cannot find their lost Arkonide battle cruiser. The Stardust II remains undetected as it sets down on Rofus and Rhodan lays out his plan to unleash the mutants on the Topides via the Thort's transmitter, to dishearten and drive away the reptiles with a minimum of bloodshed. He puts a delighted Bell in charge of the harassment. Then Rhodan coerces the Thort into setting about to gather what information still exists from the distant Ferron past about the beings who live longer than the sun.

Chap. 3, “To Live Longer Than the Sun”

Bell and the mutants, skillfully working together, lurk within various secret chambers and passageways within the Red Palace, and from there wreak havoc on the hapless Topide command structure and morale. For instance, the “hypno” André Noir imposes his will on Trker-Hon and others, forcing them to make insubordinate, treasonous proclamations to the consternation of Admiral Chrekt-Orn – who then finds himself spouting such words as he flies to and fro before the horrified eyes of his assembled officers, courtesy of Anne Sloan. The Topide commander is driven to seek permission via hyperwave across 800 light years from the Topide Despot to abandon and destroy Ferrol – whereupon Noir discovers that Chrekt-Orn believes that he now knows where the “right” planet is - “whose inhabitants live longer than the sun” (p. 60). The Despot orders the Topides to hold Ferrol and puts in charge a new commander, Rok-Gor, with orders to wipe out Ferron troops on Roful. That mission goes similarly awry thanks to the mutants. Ras Tschubai jumps from Topide ship to Topide ship, engaging in various acts of quick but devastating sabotage before jumping onward – until the ships turn back. As the Topides wait in fear for the arrival of the Despot's investigators, Ralph Marten “listens in” through their own eyes and ears. More psychic and telekinetic mayhem ensues. Meanwhile, Ferron guerrillas have some success.

Rhodan meets with the Ferron chief scientist Lossoshér, who confirms that “[t]he Ferrons have never been able to build the transmitters by themselves. … It was an alien race, to whom we once were able to render a great service. They made a present to us of a large number of mysterious instruments and included the instructions for building them. But we're supposed to be able to build them only when we've reached the necessary technical and ethical maturity. Therefore the plans themselves are in a vault in the Red Palace on Ferrol, protected by five-dimensional locks and a five-dimensional force screen. It's entirely impossible to penetrate this vault unless one is capable of thinking five-dimensionally and can thus find the keys to it. These are the precautions taken by the race that made this precious gift to the Ferrons. Thus the might of the transmitters can never be misused, for only those can construct them who have the required maturity” (p. 78). He goes on to reveal that the matter transmitters were actually bestowed by the second extraplanetary people to come to Ferrol. Earlier a people piloting a gigantic sphere had landed, but now a gigantic cylinder had crashed. Its people were aided (over the course of many years) and were ultimately able to depart once again, leaving their gifts. They purported to come from the tenth planet of Vega (Ferrol and Rofus are the eighth and ninth), but the Ferrons never found any trace of them there once they had developed their own space flight. In all the years they were on Ferrol, however, the aliens did not age, and answered inquiries only that they “lived longer than the sun” … with the further cryptic remark, “but the sun itself wants to prevent us from doing so” (p. 81).

Chap. 4, “The Greatest Secret of the Universe”

As the Topides made preparations for the Despot's inquisitors, Rhodan secretly transmits to the Red Palace and with the aid of the mutants finds the vault – or rather where the vault should be according to the “seer” Wuriu Sengu. No one else can see it – it is hidden by a five-dimensional cloak that even Tako Kakuta cannot penetrate through teleportation. Rhodan determines to consult the electronic brain of the Stardust II.

When the Topide investigators arrive, Bell and the mutants treat them – and the Despot observing via hyperwave – to the same treatment given Chrekt-Orn and company, only more so. After Rok-Gor is killed, the Despot places Chrekt-Orn back in charge, with the ultimatum that he finish out the Vega campaign with success or return to Topid for execution. Nevertheless, Chrekt-Orn orders a mass evacuation of Ferrol.

Chap. 5, “The Infinity Box”

The Topides do not leave Vega, however. Rather they retreat to the 40th planet and dig in on its six moons.

Rhodan finally confronts the Thort and demands the secret of opening the vault, bluntly threatening to abandon the Vega system altogether, leaving the Ferrons to the tender mercies of the Topides if he does not cooperate. The Thort gives in. The key is a formula: “Dimension X=pentagon of space-time simultan” (p. 103). Rhodan also “negotiates” the establishment of an Earth base on Ferrol, then goes off to consult the positronic super-brain as to what the key means.

After the return to Ferrol and the establishment of “Rhodan's first galactic base” (p. 105), Rhodan reveals to Khrest and Thora that the positronic brain has cracked the formula. “The five-dimensionally secured vault is in reality a quite normal four-dimensional affair. The documents do exist, but not in the present time – that is the fourth-dimensional factor of the mystery. The protective shield consists of transformed radiowaves of far distant radio stars – well, simply cosmic rays. Add to that some technical tricks, effects created by bending light rays, and naturally existing energy walls. All these obstacles can be rendered ineffective when certain events occur at the 'simultan' instant.” To bring about these “certain events,” Rhodan proposes to “use my mutants. Tanako Seiko is a natural-born detection finder. He can receive normal radiowaves sent by intelligent living beings and understand them. But in addition to that, he can also receive the waves emanating from the radio stars – the same waves that form the energy screen around the secret vault. If he succeeds in deflecting them, we'll gain unhindered access to the documents, which will simultaneously be brought to the present time. … Tanaka won't be able to manage by himself, but together with several other mutants it will be possible, thanksto the fact that their individual gifts can be combined in their effect when the mutants touch each other or hold hands. I'll need a telekinetic and a teleporter and, of course, also Sengu, who will announce when the barrier collapses” (pp.106-7) Rhodan does gain access to the Time Vault – a task which almost ends in disaster for Ras Tschubai who is briefly lost in time when Anne Sloane collapses under the strain of diverting the cosmic rays. Inside the cube found therein, Rhodan finds the plans for the matter transmitters, but decides that the time is not yet right to actually build them. He also finds documents written in an encoded form of the ancient Arkonide language. Khrest undertakes the translation of these while Rhodan dispatches a message to Earth that he will remain in the Vega System for an indefinite period.


* * *
This volume marks an important event. Approximately a year passed between the publication of #5 and #6 due to “international contractual transactions” (p. 7). But Forrest J. Ackerman now announces a new monthly publication schedule in a new format, which he calls alternatively a “magabook” or a “bookazine” complete with the editorial from which I drew this information (signed “Forry Rhodan”), illustrations by “exciting new 'find,' Bill Nelson” (p. 8), letters pages entitled “The Perryscope” (which this issue contains a letter [p. 125] by Dwight R. Decker, most recently the translator of Perry Rhodan: Lemuria vol. 1, Star Ark by Frank Borsch [FanPro, November 2006] [this most recent effort to reignite Perry Rhodan publication in the United States fizzled out with that one book]), and Ackerman's own science fiction film review feature, “Scientifilm World.”  Unremarked in the editorial there was also the introduction of chapter titles – as I comment in a previous post, these were created for the English translation by Ackerman himself; a list of major characters on the first page; a “series colophon” (above left); and a teaser for the next issue, “The Ship of Things to Come.” (I can see why some science fiction fans, unenchanted with “4SJ's” bad puns and neologisms, would find the worth of the entire series diminished.  Add the pompous "Peacelord of the Universe" title ...  I can only take so much myself.)  And there were chapter end blurbs such as “50 adventures from now you will meet The Blue Dwarf!” Of course, the promise that “400 adventures from now you will experience Danger from the Sun!” went unfulfilled.

Acknowledging that it had been an extended period since the publication of #5, this issue has a bit more fully written expository material near the beginning, which I suspect was introduced by the translator. However, my own suspicion that it was at this point that what had been the “Third Power” became the “New Power” as in The Wasp Men Attackproves unfounded. I read somewhere that “New Power” is one of Ackerman's changes – is that indeed the case or is there such a shift at some point in the German original as well, explained within the stories themselves?

Perhaps related to the new contract governing English translation and publication, starting with this issue Waltern Ernsting's pen-name “Clark Darlton” will be used, even though Ernsting continues to be identified under his real name as one of the co-creators of Perry Rhodan. Whichever name is used, I still find Ernsting/Darlton the most engaging of the writers, even in translation. One point I previously made is that his characters seem more fully developed, with a more humorous air – this we see full tilt as Bell's mischievous nature is unleashed without restraint upon the hapless Topides. It's very much in keeping with what we witnessed in #1(b), The Third Power, albeit with less tragic results – at least for humans.

The humano- or anthropocentric bias of the series overall is still very much in evidence. Rhodan does everything for the good of humans – even the humanoid but blue-skinned Ferrons seem a lesser breed in his eyes. Both the Terrans and the Ferrons routinely refer to the Topides as “lizards.” But at two points in this book we see an interesting contrast to this attitude. First, from (the humanoid alien Arkonide) Khrest in response to Bell's disbelief that a peace treaty would even be possible:

“The intelligent races of the universe come in many different shapes; that doesn't mean they're better or worse than we are. The Arkonides have concluded friendly deals with spider-type creatures. Our best friends belong to an aquatic race living in the oceans of a watery world. No, my friend, the outer appearance is not what matters. Only character should count.”

“Do the Topides have any character?”

“Everyone has a character …. Sometimes the character is good, sometimes it's bad. That's the only difference.” (pp. 27-8)

Perhaps Rhodan contemplates these words through the course of the adventure (although we see no evidence of it along the way). At the very end, he suggests that some “amicable arrangement” might be reached with Chrekt-Orn, who “seems to be a sensible man.”

Bell takes exception to this: “Man! … How can you call that lizard a man?”

“You must learn to think in galactic terms, Reg …. What does it matter what an intelligent life form looks like if we want to remove the barriers between us. I don't doubt but what you're not exactly a beauty in the eyes of the topides, Reg ….” Which gives birth to some good-natured teasing of Bell by his friends, closing out the story.

There was one question that bugged me throughout the reading of this story, that went unanswered (technically) until p. 101. Only there does Rhodan reveal that the plans for the matter transmitters that he had extorted from the Thort in the previous story, which had been so much a plot point there, were nothing more than skillful forgeries – something obvious to the reader long before that point but that I thought the heroes (and writer) did not remember or realize. Given Rhodan's promise to use the automated manufacturing capability of the Third Power to produce a number of transmitters that he would bring back, and the idea that his plans for opposing the Topides dependded on such a multiplicity of transmitters, it was odd that this was never mentioned at all most of the way through the story, especially when the Stardust II arrived on Earth. There are times when logical story-telling seems to break down, which I believe is due to the plotting-by-committee then writing-by-individuals nature of the series. It had (has?) to be hard to keep the continuity and consistency straight. But to draw my oft-used comparison, it makes me think of the creative process by which comic books are written, especially “families” of titles like the Batman“universe.” Similar lapses of consistency and continuity are inevitable.

“Weak sister” Anne Sloane once again swoons into Perry Rhodan's arms during the climactic opening of the Time Vault – nearly leading to the loss of Ras Tschubai. Rhodan promptly deposits her into Reg Bell's care.

Another point of (mis-)translation that I discovered in trying to figure out a question I had regarding Cedric Beust's English summary of Perry Rhodan nr. 12, Das Geheimnis der Zeitgruft– the other summary linked to as usual at the end of my own – is that the “Topides” in the English Perry Rhodan series were originally the “Topsiders” in German. Beust preserves this in his summary.  I can definitely see why this minor change was introduced - "Topsiders?  On the top side of what?"

Besides the couple of recurring art pieces shown above, here are a couple of representative examples of the art pages that were introduced into the series with this volume:

 Perhaps I'm overly harsh, but I'm not impressed so far and hope the quality improves in future installments. 

But reference to the interior art brings to mind that I've never yet commented on the cover art. First, I find some of the cover art of the English translations downright gorgeous – but then I've always been a bit of a fan of the work of Gray Morrow. You can read more about this three-time Hugo Award winning illustrator here on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Morrow and see some examples of his comic book art here http://lambiek.net/artists/m/morrow_g.htm . Unfortunately many or most of his Perry Rhodan covers have little or nothing to do with the stories themselves. Nevertheless, the image of the hero himself that graces #50 and which I used to create the banner for this blog is for me iconic. It will forever be how I envision Perry Rhodan. And the cover to #70, Thora's Sacrifice will forever shape my image of the haughty Arkonide princess.  Although the attire is not all that flattering, it reminds me of Princess Projectra from the Legion of Super-Heroes.  And some other of Morrow's women … wow! (On the cover of #59 may well be Thora as well, not looking quite so haughty.)

But Gray Morrow did not provide cover art for all of the English translations. I'm not sure of the reason, but several early volumes that I haven't gotten to yet instead duplicated the original German art (sometimes not of the corresponding German issue, however). That art was, as I understand it, during this early period of the series the work of Johnny Bruck. You can of course see examples at the top of each of my postings. A German-language page about Bruck may be found here http://www.perrypedia.proc.org/wiki/Johnny_Bruck . There seems to have been something of an effort to make the cover art match some element of the story, at least in concept, but not always. I find his style overall very reminiscent of the art of such American pulp magazine cover artists as Walter Baumhofer, the usual artist for Doc Savage Magazine. Here's an example pulled at random.

Which do I prefer? Well, as my old drunken mentor would often say, (mumble). Seriously, I like them both. Were I forced to choose, however, I would (barely) go with Bruck, simply because it's the original and because, well, after all, the original German Perry Rhodan is indeed a pulp magazine series.

* * *

I would like to return a plug given me by a Brazilian Perry Rhodan fan, César Maciel. I was playing around with Blogger the other day, checking out something called “Stats,” and discovered that among all kinds of other information it gives data on how people have come across my blog. You can trace back to the referring page. Which brought me to the Blog de César Maciel: Um pouco sobre mim e muito sobre “Perry Rhodan”, a maior série de ficção cientifica do mundo. It is in Portuguese, but I find that Google Chrome's internal translator renders Portuguese into much more readable English than it does German. It probably has something to do with word order and syntax. Anyway, even without a translator you can see that Perry Rhodan is something central to Maciel's blog. And it is indeed a treasure trove of information and ruminations on the series and what it means to a Brazilian fan. About a month ago he took notice of my own blog, and since I've discovered his I've been having a lot of fun. Thanks, César!

Wow. This was a long post!

Ad Astra!

* * *

Note:  Sorry for the really weird, whompy-joed formatting in places.  I've been playing with images in this post.  The results are definitely not to my satisfaction and I doubt I'll ever get this ambitious again.  Live and learn!
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Perry Rhodan #7, Fortress of the Six Moons (August 1971)

March 31, 2011, 7:22 pm
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By K. H. Scheer (= German issue #13, 1 December 1961)

Chap. 1, “Someone Always Gets It on the Dawn Patrol”

While on a reconnaissance flight launched by the Stardust II's auxiliary space-sphere S-7, near the fortieth planet of Vega on whose six moons the alien Topides are digging in, Major Derringhouse and Sergeants Rous and Calverman unexpectedly find their space fighters at the exact point of emergence of an armada of Topides from hyperspace. They come under attack and are heavily damaged almost immediately. Calverman's ship is hit worst, and he goes down in flames into the atmosphere of the fortieth planet despite Derringhouse's attempt to save him. Derringhouse's own fighter is damaged in the attempt but he is himself rescued by Rous.

Chap. 2, “Galactic Goal”

Perry Rhodan, Reginald Bell, and John Marshall are having little luck hashing out a trade agreement between Earth and Ferrol. The Thort of Ferrol and his Counsel [sic] of Ministers are sticking mainly on Rhodan's insistence on a Terran trading station enjoying full extraterritorial status on their homeworld. Rhodan breaks off negotiations for the day with a subtle reminder that the Topides have not been driven entirely from the system and that the Ferrons would benefit from further military exchange with Rhodan's people. As he and Bell are returning to the Stardust II, the S-7 screams into a meteoric emergency landing, bringing the severely injured Derringhouse to the mother ship's medical facilities. Major Nyssen, commander of the S-7, reports to Rhodan that the Topide base on the six moons is being heavily reinforced.

Chap. 3, “Rhodan's Ruse”

After checking on Derringhouse, who is resting still and unconscious in a bath of “biosynthetic cell-activating serum” (p. 39), Rhodan and Bell take a rather acrimonious meeting with Khrest and Thora. Thora is characteristically focussed on the barbarity of the humans and her desire to return to Arkon; Khrest uncharacteristically believes his search for the beings with the secret of eternal life has failed and adds his entreaty to that of Thora. Rhodan absolutely refuses to do anything that might lead to the detection of Earth by the galaxy at large. Even Bell thinks Rhodan treats the Arkonides with needless harshness. Then Rhodan unexpectedly asks for a wigmaker – to Bell's further mystification.

Retreating to the privacy of his own cabin, Rhodan secretly contacts Chaktor, the Ferron they first encountered, who is now a liaison between Terrans and Ferrons. He requests a secret meeting, which occurs shortly in a run-down part of the capital city. It transpires that Chaktor is a double-agent working for Rhodan. He has infiltrated the Ferron anti-Terran resistance. Rhodan sets in motion a complicated plan to discredit the resistance and remove the threat of the Topides in one fell swoop. The complexity of the plan unfolds gradually over the rest of the story.

Chap. 4, “Time is Running Out”

Chaktor leads his men in the resistance in their part of the ruse, which has Ishi Matsu shot down "fleeing" from John Marshall and André Noir – who are in turn shot down by Chaktor's men even as the "mortally wounded" Ishi throws a package to Chaktor in plain view of a crowd of onlookers. Chaktor and his men make their getaway.

Shortly after Chaktor reports success to Rhodan, the latter oversees the departure of Nyssen and the S-7, which is to jump through hyperspace to a set of prepared coordinates from which it is to send out a coded hyperwave message back to Vega.

Chap. 5, “Tricking a Topide”

Using his influence with the Thort, Rhodan has a high-ranking Topide prisoner, Chren-Tork, brought from a prison moon for questioning. Bell, in disguise and escorting the prisoner, lets slip something that confirms the Topides' suspicion that they were in error believing that the Arkonide distress signal they were following had originated in Vega. During the subsequent interrogation Rhodan and his men, including the “mesmeric mutant” Kitai Ishibashi, are disguised as Arkonides. Between the mutant and an Arkonide psycho-ray emitter, “certain ideas [are] firmly planted in [the Topide's] brain,” setting up the next phase of Rhodan's plan.

Chap. 6, “Beyond Imagination”

Chaktor begins the operation by freeing the Topide from a Ferron prison before he can be transported back to the moon. They flee Ferrol in a stolen Ferron destroyer. Rhodan meanwhile has taken the Stardust II on a reconnaissance cruise out of position to intercept them. Nyssen's broadcast is heard from light-years away in the Capella solar system, as is Rhodan's response ordering a massive fleet movement from Capella to attack the Topides in Vega – leaving “Rhodan's homeworld” denuded of its defenses! Thora, who has already scoffed that the intelligent Topides will never fall for such a ruse, is further offended by the very audacity of Rhodan's plan.

Chap. 7, “As If the Universe Had Come to an End”

To convince the Topides that they cannot stand against a massed attack by his people, Rhodan uses the Stardust II to carry out a demonstration strike that obliterates the smallest moon of the fortieth planet with a gravitation bomb even as Chaktor and Chren-Tork arrive at the main Topide base. Then Rhodan settles in as if to wait for reinforcements before the main attack.

Chap. 8, “Target of Doom”

The package received by Chaktor from the “Arkonide defector” Ishi Matsu contained charts and documents prepared by Khrest which located Rhodan's native world as the fifth planet in the solar system of Capella, 45 light-years from Vega. These documents, plus Chren-Tork's conviction that the Topide's attack on Vega in the first place had been based on a mathematical error, plus the prospect of a mass attack on the six moons that will leave Rhodan's homeworld defenseless – all this together convinces the Topide commander Chrekt-Orn to throw everything he has into a mass attack on “Rhodan's homeworld.” Derringhouse and Nyssen, carrying Tako and Ras Tschubai respectively, launch their fighters on a mission to extract their ally Chaktor. The mutants teleport in on a close flyby, find the Ferron, and manage to bail out a hatch just before the Topide ships make transition. Only after the Topides have departed Vega does Khrest harshly reveal his own modification to Rhodan's scheme – he subtly altered the hyperspace transition coordinates given to the Topides so that they are jumping not to the vicinity of the fifth planet of Capella but rather “into the very core of the sun Capella. … They'll never come back!” Rhodan is stunned at the Arkonide scientist's ruthlessness – but Thora philosophically points out that the Arkonides of old did not win their empire “with well-meaning words alone” (p. 113).


* * *

Notice that the cover of the US edition above has the banner "Third Printing." For some reason, and I've seen various information on this, the US editions from #6 to #13 were initially printed with art taken from the German covers by Johnny Bruck.  Here's the first edition cover:

In second and third printings, however, Gray Morrow art and what would become the standard design of the US editions were introduced.  My copies from this span of issues vary from one to the other.  It is my understanding that US editions #1-5, however, had Gray Morrow art from the beginning.  I may be mistaken, and have no idea what story may lie behind these variants.

Perhaps the most memorable “milestone” in this story is the unremarked (within the story) introduction of the term “New Power” to describe Perry Rhodan's new polity in the Gobi Desert. It appears on the back cover as well as on the first page of the second chapter. I call your attention to Al's comment to #6, The Secret of the Time Vault, that this is indeed one of Forrest J Ackerman's editorial changes to the series, perhaps because some critics identify the idea of a “Third Power” with the “Third Reich.” I've been unable to find the article he mentions in the comment, however. I thought perhaps it might be B. Kling, "Perry Rhodan,” Science Fiction Studies 4.2 (July 1977): 159-61 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4239110>, that I had found some time ago, but when I found it again it is clearly not the same. Kling does beat the fascist drum pretty hard, however.

Regarding Forry's changes to the series for an American readership, Martin Hansen's letter in The Perryscope, p. 123, bears quotation: “I've seen a few of the original PR magazines and I notice some of the names of the characters are changed, for instance Reginald Bull, Crest, etc. Why is this?”

FORRY RHODAN replies: “We thought the reasoning behind the change of Crest to Khrest would be self-evident to Americans (are you perhaps an alien in disguise?): Crest would inevitably make one think of a certain well-advertised toothpastewhich shall remain nameless,hence the respelling of the Arkonide's name. Bull we changed to Bell because in the German series he is nicknamed 'Bully' (we call him Reg) and while Bully may seem perfectly sensible to German ears you must admit that it sounds a little humorous to American and could easily misconvey his character. We left Thora alone (altho [sic] that is more than we can say for Perry, who seems to have more than a passing interest in her) because our readers will automatically pronounce the 'th' sound, very few realizing that in Germany she is thought of as Tora! Tora! Tora!”

I'm not sure exactly what Rhodan hoped to accomplish with regard to the Topides by his ruse. He even alludes to it once they have jumped out of Vega: “The only question that remains is what they'll do in that deserted system, devoid of any life. Of course, they'll find out right away that they've fallen into a trap and that they've become the victims of a deceptive maneuver.” What was to keep them from jumping right back to Vega? … Well, what except Khrest's modification?! I think this twist at the end in to Khrest's character will be the most memorable aspect of this story for me.

Derringhouse's healing tank (p. 39) reminds me very much of Luke's in The Empire Strikes Back.

A couple of stylistic comments:

Perhaps in 1971 the use of the term “retarded” as on p. 27 - “The Ferrons, whom Reginald Bell now regarded as somewhat 'retarded' ...” - was considered acceptable, but it definitely is not today. Times change.

On p. 21, the Thort of Ferrol's “Counsel of Ministers” should be a “Council of Ministers.” The words are often confused but are not interchangeable.

A few more questions:

Why, after the events of the previous story, is Khrest so convinced that his quest for the planet of eternal life has failed?

Why are the Ferrons so exercised by the prospect of a sovereign Terran trading post on their world when in the just previous story they accepted the establishment of a military base? Or at least the Thort did, albeit under pressure from Rhodan. I would imagine there was more to the opposition than we saw. (But is it just me, or is this issue pretty much forgotten by the end of the book?)

Wasn't it established several stories back that the teleporters Tako and Ras have the ability to carry someone along with themselves? Why then don't they just grab Chaktor from the Topides and jump back out into space rather than have to find a hatch to physically bail out?

I hope the synopsis above makes sense.  This was, I think, the most difficult story thus far for me to summarize.

Cheers, and Ad Astra!
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