K. H. Scheer (1928–1991)

The first part of this book was translated and published in English as 'Perry Rhodan 21: The Cosmic Decoy' by Ace books in 1977 with a bunch of short stories and bits and bobs tacked on the back with the British version published without any of that added material. (If you type "Perry Rhodan 21" into search engines you get a variety of different titles thrown at you. Later reprints of this title in French label it volume 11. I am easily confused and leave it to brighter minds than mine to show more untangle this kind of stuff.)

I have no idea what the original German was like but this translated French version reads better than the English one. It reads like a juvenile version of one of EE 'Doc' Smith's Lensman books - all very straightforward 'and then... and then... and with a single bound' stuff. My French is not good enough to tell you if it is actually well written and not chock full of clangers but the histrionic tone of the English version just isn't there. (There is some gloriously atrocious writing in the English versions). Comparing pages, as I did a couple of times, it was plain that one or other (or both) of the translations must vary radically from the original text.

This version also had the decency to start with a 'The story so far' introduction which the English language version didn't. Again, whether that was in the original or not I have no idea. I read the English versions because they are so gloriously badly written. I can't say I will be rushing back to read the more readable, but just that so much duller for it, French translations. show less

John Carter lives!

Well, not John Carter, but....

This is my first foray into the dizzying world of Perry Rhodan, the incredible long-running German Space epic. It was... interesting. Reminiscent in many ways of the sword and planet tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs: light on science, long on valiant battle.

My interest in this was piqued by my recent purchase of "Fire with Fire" a Star Trek novel by German authors. This alone is a first - the English publication of a non-English Star Trek novel. show more Reading about the authors I found at least one had background with the Perry Rhodan franchise, which lead me to start digging into this gigantic SF edifice. As Mr Spock would say, "fascinating!" show less

This was a lot better written than I expected, sure it's cliche rich, but quite good otherwise.

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