"Attack From the Unseen (Perry Rhodan #50)" by Clark Darlton, translated by Wendayne Ackerman

[Lynn McGuire]

"Attack From the Unseen (Perry Rhodan #50)" by Clark Darlton, translated
by Wendayne Ackerman
https://www.amazon.com/Attack-Unseen-Perry-Rhodan-50/dp/2441660330/

Book number fifty of a series of one hundred and thirty-six space opera
books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number
in the thousands. The English books started with two translated German
stories per book translated by Wendayne Ackerman and transitioned to one
story per book with the sixth book. And then they transition back to
two stories in book #109/110. The Ace publisher dropped out at #118, so
Forest and Wendayne Ackerman published books #119 to #136 in pamphlets
before stopping in 1978. The German books were written from 1961 to
present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been
rebooted again. I read the well printed and well bound book published
by Ace in 1974 that I had to be very careful with due to age. I bought
an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that
I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The
Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #105, plus the
Atlan books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan

BTW, this is actually book number 58 of the German pamphlets written in
1962. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on this
website of all of the PR books. There is automatic Google translation
available for English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Attacke_aus_dem_Unsichtbaren

In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow
astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in 1971. The
first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were
nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio
interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an
aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of
500. It has been over sixty-nine years since then and the Solar Empire
has flourished with tens of millions of people and many spaceships
headquartered in the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania. Perry Rhodan
has been elected by the people of Earth to be the World Administrator.

Perry Rhodan is meeting Talamon the Mounder at the third planet of the
Mirsal system. Talamon is the emissary of the Robot Regent of the
Arkonide Empire who recently figured out that Perry Rhodan and Terra are
still alive. The Robot Regent put out a repeating general hypercom
message to Perry Rhodan that it needed Rhodan's help until Rhodan
responded. At the meeting, the Robot Regent disclosed that entire
planets have had their populations disappear for the last ten years and
it has no idea what is going on. While they are meeting, the human and
animal population of Mirsal III start to disappear.

Two observations:
1. Forrest Ackerman should have put two or three of the translated
stories in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked
out well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would
never allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should
read the totally awesome "Mutineer's Moon" Dahak series of three books
by David Weber.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856/

My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 0 out of 5 stars (0 reviews)

Lynn

[Don]

Lynn McGuire wrote:

<snip>

> Perry Rhodan is meeting Talamon the Mounder at the third planet of the
> Mirsal system. Talamon is the emissary of the Robot Regent of the
> Arkonide Empire who recently figured out that Perry Rhodan and Terra are
> still alive. The Robot Regent put out a repeating general hypercom
> message to Perry Rhodan that it needed Rhodan's help until Rhodan
> responded. At the meeting, the Robot Regent disclosed that entire
> planets have had their populations disappear for the last ten years and
> it has no idea what is going on. While they are meeting, the human and
> animal population of Mirsal III start to disappear.

Rhodan's clemency often pays dividends. Take Talamon the Mounder, for
instance. He knows he owes his life, and his fleet's continued
existence, to Rhodan alone.
In return, Talamon mostly follows the letter of the Robot Regent's
commands, but never the spirit of the soulless machine's stipulations.
Talamon's oppositional defiance creates tactical vulnerabilities for the
galaxy's greatest gambler, Rhodan, to exploit.

The events on Mirsal 3 kick-off a story arc, a Zylkus, put into place by
my favorite PR author, Clark Darlton (Walter Ernsting's pseudonym). But,
no worries, another favorite author, Scheer, soon shines too.
This Zylkus is long and revisits events from sometimes far earlier
stories. It tests your Third Power knowledge of what came before.

Forry's puns and wit embarrass some readers, who feel it injects
unwanted juvenility. Nonetheless, a sketch of the Regent's brain-child,
as Forry says, appears in both the German and English editions:

<https://www.perrypedia.de/mediawiki/images/c/c2/PR0058Illu_2.jpg>

Besides Bruck's line art, Pucky's portrait, drawn by Juanillo, also
appears in the Ace.

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.